A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF “‘LATAH.”’ 141 
The student of ethnology will meet with some difficulty in 
assessing the racial limits of “latah.” Unfortunately, some 
writers on the subject have invested it with a semi-religious signi- 
ficance which has led to its being confused with conditions of 
religious ecstasy or others with the hysteria which seems to be in- 
separable from religious revivals in civilised countries. The only 
approach to anything of a “religious” nature is the Indian “fakir” 
in whom the state of abstraction, which plays so large a part in the 
production of “ latah ” has passed beyond physiological limits and 
become an auto-hypnosis. 
If he excludes all such manifestations, he will still find that. 
* latah ” is to be found in quite a number of races and that these 
are all situated within the tropical or sub-tropical belt, and are all 
more or less in the infancy of civilisation. Reduced to first causes, 
there would be nothing ridiculous in a theory that “latah” was 
the product of an environment in which constant warmth, absence 
of hurry, abundant leisure and an unoccupied mind were the com- 
ponents. 
Sex has also a bearing on the subject, in that two of the types 
of “latah” are more common in women than in men. It is also 
curious that “‘ latah”’ in men seems to be of greater intensity, and 
has a greater tendency to pass into action, than in women. 
Age also plays its part, as “ latah,” being of gradual growth, 
is rarely seen before middle age excepting in one type, that which 
I describe as the “obsession of fear,” which has its origin in 
childhood. 
It is undoubted that “latah”’ in some mysterious way clings 
around some families, and this is what has afforded some ground 
for the statement found in nearly every definition of the term, 
that “latah” is hereditary. One does not realise the difficulty 
there is in obtaining a clear family history among Malays until it 
has been tried. It would have been in the highest degree profitable 
to follow history into the next generation and its collaterals, but 
this I found impossible because of the rapidity and completeness. 
with which the average Malay family of the common class breaks 
up, each going his own way. 
I append the histories of four families which may throw some 
light on this aspect of the question. 
Famity I Mauay:— 
Father, a shiftless individual, genial and effusive but totally 
unable to follow any continuous occupation—a typical degenerate. 
Mother, healthy 
Son, intensely “ latah ” 
Daughter, jumpy and hysterical. 
R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
