BA NGA —SCHA MA NISM US 



1987 



Prognosis. — Latah is said never to end in insanity. 



Medico-Legal. — With regard to the medico-legal aspect of litah, 

 Fletcher has performed an experiment with a severely affected 

 subject, proving that suggestion can compel a latah subject to 

 commit a crime even against his will. He concludes that in latah 

 crime is a possibility either as — 



1. An act resulting from an imperfectly controlled inco-ordinate 

 reaction to a sudden impulse; or as — 



2. An act resulting from the suppression of volition in the severe 

 forms, the determining cause of which is a criminal suggestion by a 

 second person. 



In evidence of the first, he cites two Malays going through a forest 

 carrying their knives for cutting wood. A twig suddenly snaps, 

 and the first man falls to the ground, which so upsets the second 

 one that he also falls to the ground, and in so doing accidentally 

 wounds the first man with the knife he is carrying. In evidence of 

 the second, he places a dummy in a bed previously occupied by a 

 friend of a latah person who had been removed without the latter's 

 knowledge. Suddenly the latah person was ordered to take a 

 knife which was placed in a handy position, and stab the dummy in 

 the bed. The latah person tried not to do this, but was compelled 

 to obey the suggestion. Thus, it would appear that there may be 

 a near connection between latah and crime. 



Treatment. — The treatment is most unsatisfactory, but auto- 

 suggestion might be tried. Abraham states that some patients 

 have cured themselves by determination not to succumb. 



BANGA. 



Definition.^ — ^A hysterical condition, chiefly influencing women 

 above the age of puberty, but also occurring in men in the Welle 

 District of the Belgian Congo. 



Symptomatology. — Fright or anger may induce an attack, in 

 which the body is shaken by convulsions, followed by wild cries and 

 rushes out into the open country or forest away from frequented 

 paths. Sometimes it is accompanied by aphasia. 



Diagnosis. — It is said to be separable from hysteria by the absence 

 of the stigmata of that disease. 



Treatment. — Suggestion appears to cure these cases. 



SCHAMANISMUS. 



Schamanismus is the condition of excitement into which certain 

 of the Dayaks and other peoples are able to throw themselves for 

 religious purposes. This state of excitement seems to be attained 

 by leading an extremely erotic life, and appears, by its singing, 

 shrieking, and dancing to utter weariness, to resemble the dancing 

 mania of the Middle Ages, and, therefore, to be related to latah. 



