Cultural syndromes: what are they, what symptoms do they present, and 7 examples?

There are mental or psychosomatic disorders that occur only in members of a particular culture.

Despite the fact that most mental or psychopathological disorders occur with almost the same intensity in any part of the world, there are certain mental disorders that only occur in a specific society or culture. These are called cultural syndromes..

Also known as cultural mental disorders, they are characterized by being psychopathological pictures that occur specifically in members of a particular society or culture. specifically occur in members of a particular culture, but which can be as severe as those of a particular society or culture.but that can become so habitual in certain places that there where they appear they come to be considered alterations of the most common thing.

• Article related: "The 18 types of mental illnesses".

What are cultural syndromes?

Cultural syndromes are mental or psychosomatic disorders that affect only a particular community, society or culture. These syndromes are recorded as diseases although, on occasion, there is no organic pathology in the patients..

Although there may be similarities with other pathologies or experiences, cultural syndromes or disorders are not observed in other societies or cultural nuclei outside where it was discovered and located.

Likewise, the very term "cultural syndrome" has been much debated among the scientific community, and much of it censures it and resists using it, since they are categorized by the culture itself.

Cultural syndromes focus attention on the differences between cultures. Differences that are specified above all in the different aspects of perceptions and experiences. aspects of spiritual, mental or physical perceptions and experiences.. For example, a behavior or behavior that in another culture is experienced as abnormal or pathological in Western culture may be perfectly integrated into what is considered "normal".

Currently, the most important diagnostic manual, the DSM-5, refers to cultural syndromes under the general category of "cultural concepts of stress".

• You may be interested in "What is Cultural Psychology?"

How to identify a cultural syndrome?

There are certain distinctive features of cultural syndromes that make it possible to differentiate them. These characteristics are:

• The syndrome is defined and determined as a condition by the culture itself.
• That same culture is aware of the symptoms and knows the treatment.
• It is a syndrome unknown in other cultures.
• No organic origin has been found for this syndrome.

Within the symptomatology associated with these syndromes can be found both somatic symptoms, such as pain, or symptoms related to behavioral disturbances. Likewise, although some of these syndromes share a basic symptomatology, it is always possible to find different elements related to culture that can distinguish them.

Finally, it should be borne in mind that the boundaries of what is considered a culture are often blurred, although it is usually possible to territorially delimit its scope among human populations.

Examples of cultural syndromes

Although there is a long register of cultural syndromes, all of them categorized according to the region of the world to which they belong, this article describes a series of cultural syndromes that stand out for their peculiarity or striking nature.

1. Hwa-byung syndrome (Korea)

Hwa-byung syndrome, also known as Hwa-byeongis a somatization disorder peculiar to Korea. This mental disorder appears in people who are unable to cope with or control their anger in situations they perceive as unfair.

The term está can be translated as a compound word formed by "fire" or "anger" and "disease". Likewise, if the geographic area is further restricted, in South Korea it is better known as "depression or anger disease"..

The epidemiology of this disorder is 35% incidence in the working population.

2. Sleeping Blood (Cape Verde, Africa)

This disorder is culturally related to the islanders inhabiting Cape Verde, Africa. This disorder includes the suffering of a wide range of neurological ailments, including blindness, convulsionsThe disorder includes suffering from a wide range of neurological ailments, including blindness, seizures, numbness, pain, paralysis, stroke and tremors. It can also be responsible for acute myocardial infarction, miscarriage and infection.

The original term belongs to the Portuguese language and literally translates as "sleeping blood".

3. Spirits disease (Indoamerica)

This disorder, typical of Native American tribes, is characterized by a wide variety of somatic and psychological symptoms associated with an excessive and sometimes obsessive preoccupation with death-related issues, obsessive preoccupation with death-related issues..

In this phenomenon we can sense the importance of suggestion and psychological rumination, phenomena that feed back on each other and have to do with an alteration in the management of the attentional focus and the management of anxiety that, in addition, is influenced by what is observed in the behavior of others.

4. Koro (China and Malaysia)

Koro disease is a disorder that affects mostly men, who experience a state of panic, with anxious tendencies, during which they perceive that their penis is decreasing in size. perceives that his penis decreases in size or is regressing, as if it could disappear.

Although it is a male syndrome, there have been cases reported in women, who perceived this shrinkage in their breasts and genitals.

Since states of anxiety can affect the volume and circumference of the penis, this panic is fed back, leading to behaviors such as holding or fixing the penis with some type of instrument.

Most cases of Koro occur in men, during adolescence and young adulthood, who suffer from some sexual disorder, paranoia, or other sexual disorder.who suffer from some sexual, paranoid or depressive disorder.

5. Síndrome del susto o espanto (Latin America)

A rather unusual or singular syndrome typical of Latin American culture is that of susto or espanto. In this syndrome the person victim of a fright or startle experiences a series of associated symptoms that make the mere fact of a fright or startle associated symptoms that turn the mere fact of scaring someone into the cause of an illness.

A wide variety of symptoms associated with panic syndrome have been described, some of them are:

• Loss of appetite
• Muscle weakness
• Lack of energy
• Pallor
• Vomiting and diarrhea
• Fever
• Restlessness
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Fever

There have been cases of people who have been affected by this disease to the point of death.

6. Arctic hysteria or Piblokto (Populations of the North Pole)

This type of hysteria was recorded in populations originating from the North Pole, such as, for example the Eskimos of Siberia, Canada, Greenland or Alaska..

This type of disorder can be divided into two different syndromes:

In either of the two varieties, the person returns to his or her normal state once the crisis has passed.

7. Morgellons Syndrome (Western Society)

In the syndrome of Morgellons the person is invaded by a delirium according to which he believes to be infected by infectious elements or capable of transmitting a disease, such as insects and parasites.such as insects and parasites.

People suffering from this disorder manifest a series of skin lesions due to an obsession with scratching and biting the skin, since according to the patient feels a constant tingling in it.

• A state in which the person suffers from frantic dissociation..
Bibliographic references:
• • American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. American Psychiatric Association.
  • Bures, F. (2016). The Geography of Madness: Penis Thieves, Voodoo Death, and the Search for the Meaning of the World's Strangest Syndromes Hardcover. New York: Melville House.
  • Guarnaccia, P.J. & Rogler, L.H. (1999) Research on Culture-Bound Syndromes: New Directions. American Journal of Psychiatry 156: pp. 1322 - 1327.
  • Jilek W.G. (2001) Psychiatric Disorders: Culture-specific. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier Science Ltd.