I like this book/article/interview for its willingness to explore (at times controversially) what Western cultural syndromes might be. So much of the coverage of 'cultural syndromes' seems to be in the Entertaining Stories of Benighted Cultures genre - snickering about penis thieves and latah.
That's addressed several times in the article, and the answer is yes, we're not immune to this. Calling things a fad disorder is a bit dismissive, though. They're consistently at pains to point out that whatever the person is feeling is real, even if their suffering is perhaps built upon further by their beliefs.
This was an interesting read, thanks. My assumption, as someone who worked with cervicospinal injuries professionally, some whiplash doesn't go away quickly because it damages areas that are largely avascular, like cartilage and bone and connective tissue which take much much more time to heal than soft tissue like the rotatores and multifidi of the neck
Okay, one thing the article didn't make clear to me that maybe somebody else knows: what is penis theft? The Internet seems to think it's when people believe their penises have been shrunken or have entirely disappeared. Do sufferers believe that they don't have genitalia anymore? If you point to it, would they not see anything?
Basically, if you have a small penis and gain weight (especially for already heavyset guys) everything around it grows while it doesn't get any bigger. This is otherwise known in the west via the not-unheard-of insult to overweight men: "You can't even see your own penis " In other words, they might imagine it shrinking into their body when their body is really just growing around it.
So... I live in America and I had this (or something like it) growing up. I'll never forget the first time it happened. I was 11 and we were preparing for church and I was peeing upstairs when something happened and it felt like my penis was... pulling inside me. I freaked out but was somehow able to stop the sensation. I didn't tell a soul out of embarrassment.
It continued for years and was fairly debilitating. I would get the sensation when running or when I was scared. It was a bit of a catch-22 because I would get scared of it happening, so the sensation would get stronger, and I would get more scared ...
If I was in a tight space, it would be worse. This was the sole reason I didn't go on roller-coasters or the like. Finally, when I was 19 or so, I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article detailing the "condition" and it's prevalence in other areas of the world. It was such a relief to know I wasn't the only person in the world to have experienced it; I honestly couldn't imagine anyone else experiencing it. I showed two of my brothers and we laughed about it. It felt good to tell someone else.
If I were to point fingers at ADHD at all, I'd be more likely to mark it as an example of overzealous diagnosis of normal human variance than as a culturally-created disorder. At least in the relatively high-functioning cases.
(Are those stories of people with ADHD who are completely distracted by any arbitrary stimulus true? I've never heard of them closer than two or three degrees of separation from where I heard the story, and never a trustworthy source. Regardless, I don't mean those, hence "high-functioning")
Think about how well you'd behave if you lived your life trying to sort out the information you needed with three radio stations and five televisions all playing different things blaring at you all at once 24/7. That's kinda what it's like.
If you struggle, see about medication. I resisted for years. I was afraid it would take away the sparkle. Now, medication probably isn't for everyone, and some medications will not be for certain people, but let me tell you something: life works now. My apartment is clean; I know where my stuff is; I do better with relationships; I show up to meetings early; life doesn't feel like I'm constantly on the edge of imploding. And the sparkle is far from gone. I'm still the same person. I just feel like I can actually be that person without a wall of fog and noise to constantly battle through.
That's an interesting point. But this overzealous diagnosis is made (from what I see) essentially in the United States, which is where the disease was theorized.
Yes, over-diagnosing a particular disease that has no equivalent (in the same proportions) accross the Atlantic is clearly a cultural marker.
Add to that the existence of a medication industry that needs this disease to exist and you'll see why the cultural belief gets self-reinforced.
Medical knowledge has a normative effect on reality (we build knowledge over the experienced reality but the knowledge has then an effect over reality in the way it is read and shared): that's why in the right conditions, new diseases can be created through a scientific process.
A hundred years ago we treated female hysteria as a normal deasease, in ways that are now considered catastrophic and extremely machist. At the time, all doctors were men. Now we know this diagnosis is bullshit.
Medicine happens in society: in a particular social context in time and space. And we should bring the same distant look over our occidental medecine as over any other remote ("traditional", as we say) culture, like the ones in the article.
Hey, that's great! We can just ship all the ADHD sufferers over to Europe for a vacation, and they'll be cured! Or do you think it would take an extended stay? And be careful if you visit America, you might come down with it yourself!
Your link is about early childhood development and doesn't support the idea that any amount of time in Europe will change anything. A structured environment helps ADHD sufferers cope with symptoms, and quieter children (as the article claims French children are) are more likely to go undiagnosed, so a large part of the difference could be under-diagnosis. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyp... The article also claims that stimulants are the "preferred" treatment in America but it gives no source for this claim. On the contrary, Wikipedia cites papers showing that behavioral treatments are preferred for young patients and for mild cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivit...
I think you should re-read the main article because you are completely missing the analogy here.
“Our ideas, our mindsets, and our beliefs feed back into the biology and change the biology in a way you can measure.”
+ are you missing the irony in my response to your ironic comment?
The point of the article I shared is that the classification of diseases in France does not include ADHD. Link that with the OP article and you'll see how the existence of a description of syndromes in the US can make these syndroms actually appear in patients.
> “hikikomori,” in Japan, when people socially withdraw to the point where they never leave home.
That's not a "made up disease you only get if you believe in it" it is a well established mental illness. Also known as agoraphobia commonly linked to severe depression.
I was hoping there wouldn't be mental illnesses listed here. I was disappointed. This is the worst kind of click bait. Quackery that encourages the harmful notion that people suffering from mental illness should "just get over it".
I did read it. Did you? It is full of this garbage:
> The more powerful those stories are, the more you believe in the root forces in them and the causal forces that are holding those stories together. In our culture it would be biochemistry, in traditional Chinese medicine it would be balancing between yin and yang, balancing the forces in the universe, in Nigerian traditional beliefs it would be the power of magic and the ability of people to manipulate that.
And another:
> You think when you take an aspirin that your pain relief is coming purely from the aspirin doing something biochemical in your body, but part of that's also coming from your belief in aspirin, and the knowledge that you took the aspirin.
The whole article is about "placebo" disease. This is a crappy way to think about mental illness.
As an illness to be studied scientifically with the best medical practices available.
As an illness to be closely monitored by healthcare professionals and treated with therapy and medicine if necessary. Implying that mental illness is a negative placebo does more harm than good.
That video does a good job of explaining the difference between negative placebo effects and illness. The article conflates actual mental illness with placebo effect. They are not the same, and telling someone who is suffering depression that it's all in their head is harmful, not helpful.
Whatever the personal aspect, Hikikomori-ism is a disease you only get if those you live with believe that it's a thing, and thus see some reason to support you in living that way. That support is a uniquely Japanese-cultural phenomenon.
Either way, the same number probably have severe depression and end up with an episode of agoraphobia; but in the rest of the world, the agoraphobia tends to go away with constant doses of the exposure therapy known as "your family and friends dragging you outside."
EDIT: to clarify, the depression doesn't go away (if only life was that easy.) But exposure therapy (i.e. "facing your fear"—usually in a safe, low-stakes context, in short bursts) is how you treat phobias. Going outside is the "actual treatment for" agoraphobia. And in the rest of the world, people just automatically try to apply that treatment to agoraphobic people: they take them out (whether they like it or not—not usually through coercion per se, but through anxiety to conform to social etiquette.)
From speaking to a psychiatry-student friend who did a rotation in a Japanese hospital (not the best primary source, but it's what I've got), my understanding is that in Japan, mental illness is something covered up by family: if you decide to shut yourself in your room, your family will both actively prevent anyone from knowing you're doing this, and actively prevent anyone from trying to see you. Because, in seeing you, they'd find out about the shameful situation your family is dealing with. Which prevents the whole intuitive-exposure-therapy bit from happening.
In Romania "the draft" (ie: air current when you have two open windows) is a powerful enemy which can cause many symptoms or diseases: back pain, neck paralysis, ...
The "draft" can only happen inside, outside wind can't cause such symptoms.
If you feel such an air current inside you must immediately close something to stop it. Damage is cumulative. A bit of draft today, a bit tomorrow, and 10 years later you are paralyzed.
I'm not sure of the cause, but it's a common observation in nursing homes that old people prefer stuffy air. (Not warm air; just, stuffy. High-CO2-sat air.)
Given that old people also have more random aches and pains, I wonder whether that's just an instance of confirmation bias (you're old, you ache, and you want to shut the windows, so you think it's the breeze making you ache) or whether it's actually something causal (e.g. decreasing oxygen quality has an analgesic effect on the sort of inflammatory joint pains you get as you age?)
On the other hand, one peculiar thing I noticed about all Germans that I've lived with is their obsession with opening all their windows to 'air out the apartment'. They do this regularly (almost daily it seems) and regardless of season (freezing icy winter-wind? No matter, we need fresh air!).
I've also lived with many other nationalities and none of them do this. Fascinating.
But this is a true threat when people inside the apartment are sweaty or have just had a bath, right?
If you're sweaty (all over) and cold wind hits you outside, you might catch something...
They're diseases of the superego, not social or cultural diseases.
It makes no sense to say that a culture or society can directly bring about mental illness, but it makes sense to say that a person's superego is influenced by society and culture, and it makes sense that the superego can make a person mentally ill.
Otherwise, people will (correctly) argue that society and culture doesn't have that much power over a person's psyche.
I was expecting a mention of Morgellons, a disease in the U.S. where the skin is invaded by fibers. It was discussed a couple years ago on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8769925
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[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 88.8 ms ] threadhttps://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/chronic-w...
Basically, if you have a small penis and gain weight (especially for already heavyset guys) everything around it grows while it doesn't get any bigger. This is otherwise known in the west via the not-unheard-of insult to overweight men: "You can't even see your own penis " In other words, they might imagine it shrinking into their body when their body is really just growing around it.
It continued for years and was fairly debilitating. I would get the sensation when running or when I was scared. It was a bit of a catch-22 because I would get scared of it happening, so the sensation would get stronger, and I would get more scared ...
If I was in a tight space, it would be worse. This was the sole reason I didn't go on roller-coasters or the like. Finally, when I was 19 or so, I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article detailing the "condition" and it's prevalence in other areas of the world. It was such a relief to know I wasn't the only person in the world to have experienced it; I honestly couldn't imagine anyone else experiencing it. I showed two of my brothers and we laughed about it. It felt good to tell someone else.
I don't experience it anymore.
(Are those stories of people with ADHD who are completely distracted by any arbitrary stimulus true? I've never heard of them closer than two or three degrees of separation from where I heard the story, and never a trustworthy source. Regardless, I don't mean those, hence "high-functioning")
Think about how well you'd behave if you lived your life trying to sort out the information you needed with three radio stations and five televisions all playing different things blaring at you all at once 24/7. That's kinda what it's like.
If you struggle, see about medication. I resisted for years. I was afraid it would take away the sparkle. Now, medication probably isn't for everyone, and some medications will not be for certain people, but let me tell you something: life works now. My apartment is clean; I know where my stuff is; I do better with relationships; I show up to meetings early; life doesn't feel like I'm constantly on the edge of imploding. And the sparkle is far from gone. I'm still the same person. I just feel like I can actually be that person without a wall of fog and noise to constantly battle through.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1015517761698970...
Yes, over-diagnosing a particular disease that has no equivalent (in the same proportions) accross the Atlantic is clearly a cultural marker.
Add to that the existence of a medication industry that needs this disease to exist and you'll see why the cultural belief gets self-reinforced.
Medical knowledge has a normative effect on reality (we build knowledge over the experienced reality but the knowledge has then an effect over reality in the way it is read and shared): that's why in the right conditions, new diseases can be created through a scientific process.
A hundred years ago we treated female hysteria as a normal deasease, in ways that are now considered catastrophic and extremely machist. At the time, all doctors were men. Now we know this diagnosis is bullshit.
Medicine happens in society: in a particular social context in time and space. And we should bring the same distant look over our occidental medecine as over any other remote ("traditional", as we say) culture, like the ones in the article.
Yes, I think ADHD patients could actually benefit from a stay in Europe: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201...
“Our ideas, our mindsets, and our beliefs feed back into the biology and change the biology in a way you can measure.”
+ are you missing the irony in my response to your ironic comment? The point of the article I shared is that the classification of diseases in France does not include ADHD. Link that with the OP article and you'll see how the existence of a description of syndromes in the US can make these syndroms actually appear in patients.
Seriously, it is a good read.
I believe this is pretty much agoraphobia
That's not a "made up disease you only get if you believe in it" it is a well established mental illness. Also known as agoraphobia commonly linked to severe depression.
I was hoping there wouldn't be mental illnesses listed here. I was disappointed. This is the worst kind of click bait. Quackery that encourages the harmful notion that people suffering from mental illness should "just get over it".
That is the exact opposite of the author's position. Perhaps you should actually read the article.
> The more powerful those stories are, the more you believe in the root forces in them and the causal forces that are holding those stories together. In our culture it would be biochemistry, in traditional Chinese medicine it would be balancing between yin and yang, balancing the forces in the universe, in Nigerian traditional beliefs it would be the power of magic and the ability of people to manipulate that.
And another:
> You think when you take an aspirin that your pain relief is coming purely from the aspirin doing something biochemical in your body, but part of that's also coming from your belief in aspirin, and the knowledge that you took the aspirin.
The whole article is about "placebo" disease. This is a crappy way to think about mental illness.
As an illness to be closely monitored by healthcare professionals and treated with therapy and medicine if necessary. Implying that mental illness is a negative placebo does more harm than good.
I'd be curious to know if you think the video is also bad.
Either way, the same number probably have severe depression and end up with an episode of agoraphobia; but in the rest of the world, the agoraphobia tends to go away with constant doses of the exposure therapy known as "your family and friends dragging you outside."
EDIT: to clarify, the depression doesn't go away (if only life was that easy.) But exposure therapy (i.e. "facing your fear"—usually in a safe, low-stakes context, in short bursts) is how you treat phobias. Going outside is the "actual treatment for" agoraphobia. And in the rest of the world, people just automatically try to apply that treatment to agoraphobic people: they take them out (whether they like it or not—not usually through coercion per se, but through anxiety to conform to social etiquette.)
From speaking to a psychiatry-student friend who did a rotation in a Japanese hospital (not the best primary source, but it's what I've got), my understanding is that in Japan, mental illness is something covered up by family: if you decide to shut yourself in your room, your family will both actively prevent anyone from knowing you're doing this, and actively prevent anyone from trying to see you. Because, in seeing you, they'd find out about the shameful situation your family is dealing with. Which prevents the whole intuitive-exposure-therapy bit from happening.
The "draft" can only happen inside, outside wind can't cause such symptoms.
If you feel such an air current inside you must immediately close something to stop it. Damage is cumulative. A bit of draft today, a bit tomorrow, and 10 years later you are paralyzed.
Given that old people also have more random aches and pains, I wonder whether that's just an instance of confirmation bias (you're old, you ache, and you want to shut the windows, so you think it's the breeze making you ache) or whether it's actually something causal (e.g. decreasing oxygen quality has an analgesic effect on the sort of inflammatory joint pains you get as you age?)
I've also lived with many other nationalities and none of them do this. Fascinating.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death
It makes no sense to say that a culture or society can directly bring about mental illness, but it makes sense to say that a person's superego is influenced by society and culture, and it makes sense that the superego can make a person mentally ill.
Otherwise, people will (correctly) argue that society and culture doesn't have that much power over a person's psyche.
Just use the correct term: superego.