148 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ‘‘LATAH.’?’ 
report of the firing of the rocket (a loud noise or a bright beam of 
light being a usual way of inducing a hypnosis) and the hypnosis 
was complete. If any doubt were possible, the whistling episode 
dispels it, the history of hypnotism being full of such examples 
(echolalia). There is one omission in O’Brien’s narrative, he did 
not ascertain if the lad remembered anything of what had passed. 
I imagine he did not remember anything. 
The intense nervousness which preceded the experiment in 
the case of the woman is present in all and has a threefold causa- 
tion. First, dread of the coming hypnosis, especially if, in previous 
hypnoses, suggestions of an exciting nature have been made, 
secondly, from the hypnosis being made against their will, and 
thirdly, from the suggestion never having been done away with or 
determined before waking the patient. Thus the lability to sug- 
gesuion gains force and eventually this class of “ latah ’” becomes 
“as clay in the hands of the potter.” | 
I pass now to the third type of “ latah ” to which I have given 
the name of the “obsession of fear.” In describing Type I, I men- 
tioned the case of a big game tracker and I used him then to illus- 
trate the marked inhibitory influence which a mental attitude of 
preparedness had on “latah” impulsion. But he was also the 
subject of the obsession now being described and, if the word for 
tiger was mentioned, would quietly slip away and lock himself in 
his room. While out in the jungle, at work, he would spend days 
and nights in close proximity to the wild beasts mentioned and 
know no fear. 
Again let me quote O’Brien’s description (op. cit. p. 147)— 
“T have more than once met with river boatmen who, when 
the word buaya (alligator) was mentioned, eyen in the course of 
casual conversation after camping for the night, would drop what- 
ever they might have in their hands and retire cowering to the 
cover of the nearest kajang. I have enquired into every case of 
this description which came under my notice, and in no case could 
I learn that the man had any special reason for his terror in the 
way of a personal experience. His friends explained that he was 
latah and that to them explained everything. On one occasion, 
after a curious exhibition of this description, I shot an alligator 
on the bank next morning. The latah was, to my surprise, the 
first to approach the saurian. Against my earnes’ entreaties he 
proceeded to pull the creature about, and finally forced its mouth 
open with a piece of firewood. His persecutors, his fellow-boatmen, 
stood at a respectful distance. An hour afterwards, as he was 
poling up the river, one of the crew called out to this man buaya! 
He at once dropped his pole, gave vent to a most disgusting ex- 
clamation, and jumped into the river—an act which shewed that 
his morbid terror was quite unconnected with what might be sup- 
posed to be its exciting cause.” 
Jour. Straits Branch 
