A CONTRIBUTION TO THE. PSYCHOLOGY OF ‘“‘LATAH,’’ 14% 
This type is peculiar in that it is found in early youth and is 
almost exclusively confined to males. It can, in fact, be traced 
back to school days. It is a curious fact that the names given by 
boys to boys hit off with absolute accuracy and brutal frankness 
some physical quality or mental trait which departs, it may be 
ever so little, from the norm. The point which I wish to em- 
phasise is that there seems to be almost uncanny intuition in boys 
which enables them to put their finger on the “ weak spot.” They 
are thus not long in finding some one of their number who labours 
under a neuropathic defect, some particularly ticklish or sensi- 
tive boy, and on him is expended their experimentation. As I 
have repeatedly seen, a favourite method is for the experimenter 
to begin fondling some object, usually a school bag or piece of 
rattan or indeed anything, while pointedly bringing it to the notice 
of his victim, calling it by the name of some loathsome or dreaded 
animal, gradually working up to a climax, and inducing a condi 
tion of extreme terror. 
In two of the instances which came under my notice I was. 
able to ascertain that the boys had an actual percept of the animal 
named. But this is unusual, and when this illusion does occur, it 
is only temporary, as, following the rule that repeated stimulation 
of a particular nervous tract enhances its permeability, causing it 
to react to weakened stimuli, eventually the mere mention of the 
name is sufficient to call up this condition of terror. ‘There is no: 
concept of the animal formed but merely the image in the memory 
of a previous condition of intense fear. As on each occasion of 
the calling up of this mental] state a strenuous effort was made to 
escape from the imaginary danger, the tendency in this type of 
“latah ” is to pass at once into action. 
I do not think there can be much doubt that “ latah ” is dying 
out and in contributing to this, education plays an altogether sub- 
ordinate part. There is the obvious fact that little or nothing is be- 
ing done in the way of educating Malay girls, who would form the 
mass of the sufferers in later hfe. Not much can be expected from 
that side of education which provides for the acquisition of know- 
ledge, much more might be got from the disciplinary side of edu- 
cation in that it develops the powers of restraint, teaches the 
control of reflex or automatic acts, in short, develops the power 
of inhibition and creates a constant condition of preparedness. 
The chief influence in the extinction of “ latah” is the gradual 
hardening of the conditions of life, the increasing struggle for 
existence from steadily advancing social states, which leaves no 
leisure for abstraction or introspection and which affects male and 
female alike. “ Latah” in town dwellers is unknown and a com- 
parison of the country-bred Malay women and her self-possessed 
sister of the town shews the extent of the change which may be 
wrought by a change of environment in an individual or a genera- 
tion. ° 
R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
