Latah is a culture-specific medical condition found in Southeast Asian countries, where sufferers enter a trance-like state with repetitive movements and sounds when their startle reflex is triggered. It is often accepted in the community, and sufferers are not held accountable for their actions. Other culture-specific syndromes in the region include amok and koro.
Latah is a medical condition in which sufferers have an unusual response when their startle reflex is triggered. Many of them seem to enter a type of trance characterized by repetitive movements and sounds. Latah is known as culture-specific or culture-related syndrome. This means that it is only recognizable in certain cultures or areas. In this case, latah is usually found only in Southeast Asian countries.
To understand latah, it helps to understand a little about the human start reflex. Everyone has a startle reflex that makes us react to certain unexpected stimuli. When the start reflex is triggered, the body reacts in a certain way. Many people will jump and perhaps scream, and their blood pressure and heart rate will rise for at least a few seconds.
Latah sufferers, most of whom are women, react very differently when frightened. When the startle reflexes of latah patients are triggered, many observers say they appear to enter a trance. Most will start repeating certain words, gestures or phrases.
A latah is usually echophraxic and echolalic. Echophraxia is when a person copies the movements of those around them, while echolalia occurs when a person copies the speech of those around them. Both of these conditions are considered to be completely involuntary which means that the sufferer cannot help themselves from doing so. Those who study latah believe that sufferers of this condition really do not realize what they are doing. Most of them have no recollection of what he did during these episodes, so they are usually not held accountable for what they did.
In many areas where this condition is present, a latah sufferer is often accepted or even embraced in the community. It is not uncommon for Malay village members to purposely provoke someone with latah. Reaction seems to provide entertainment and rib shots and other shenanigans at the expense of latah patients.
Culture-specific syndromes are highly controversial and rare diseases. Sufferers of these types of ailments usually have nothing physically wrong with them, but still exhibit both mental and physical symptoms. Many scientists now believe that these ailments are not caused by anything physical, but arise based on what is acceptable and unacceptable in a certain culture.
Other culture-specific syndromes found in Southeast Asian societies include amok and koro. Individuals afflicted with rage have been known to go on violent and unexpected rampages, sometimes seriously injuring or even killing others in their path. Koro is characterized by the belief that one’s sexual organ is shrinking and will eventually disappear. Severe self-mutilation to prevent this from happening is not uncommon.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
