Pibloktoq
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| F44.7 | Dissociative disorders ( conversion disorders ), mixed |
| F44.88 | Other dissociative disorders |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
Pibloktoq , Piblokto or arctic hysteria is a behavioral disorder that occurs among Eskimos in eastern Canada and Greenland, around the Arctic Circle or north of it.
Mostly Pibloktoq is interpreted as a culture-related psychological disorder , even though vitamin A hypervitaminosis has already been discussed as a possible cause, especially since similar behavior is said to occur in dogs.
Symptoms
The prodromal stage is characterized by withdrawal for hours or days, followed by extraordinary confusion and excitement for up to 30 minutes, the actual attack in which clothes are taken off or torn off, the person rolls in the snow, objects are destroyed and other irrational and self-endangering behavior is possible, although actual injuries rarely occur. Glossolalia , echolalia, and echopraxia , and in some cases eating of feces ( coprophagia ) is observed. The seizure is followed by a loss of consciousness of up to 12 hours, and amnesia (memory gap) exists for the event itself .
Some Inuit are said to have had such seizures more often, while others have only one such event.
reception
Several authors have critically examined the existence of Pibloktoq. Lyle Dick described the syndrome as a "phantom phenomenon", even the term could not be proven in the language. Simons and Hughes consider it a collective term under which researchers summarized all possible behaviors. The behavioral disorder Ufufuyane , a disorder that occurs specifically among the Zulus , shows a clinical picture related to arctic hysteria.
Individual evidence
- ^ Lyle Dick: "Pibloktoq" (Arctic Hysteria): A construction of European-Inuit relations? In: Arctic Anthropology 32 (2), 1995, pp. 1-42 (English)
- ↑ Ronald C. Simons, CC Hughes: The Culture-Bound Syndromes. Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological Interest (Culture, Illness and Healing) , Springer, 1985, ISBN 90-277-1858-X , pp. 275 and 289 (English)
- ^ The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders. (pdf) WHO, accessed on August 14, 2014 .
literature
- S. Parker: Eskimo psychopathology in the context of Eskimo personality and culture . In: American Anthropologist 64, 1962, pp. 76-96 (English)
- Frank G. Valley: Eskimo Theories of Mental Illness in the Hudson Bay Region . In: Anthropologica 8, 1966, pp. 53–83 ( short version ( Memento of May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), English)
