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Iich'aa[edit]

Iich'aa is similar in characteristic to the Malaysian mental disorder amok. This cultural-bound syndrome is specific to the Navajo tribes of Native Americans. "A dissociative episode characterized by a period of brooding followed by an outburst of violent, aggressive, or homicidal behavior directed at people and objects. The episode tends to be precipitated by a perceived slight or insult and seems to be prevalent only among males. The episode is often accompanied by persecutory ideas, automatism, amnesia, exhaustion, and a return to premorbid state following the episode. Some instances of amok may occur during a brief psychotic episode or constitute the onset or an exacerbation of a chronic psychotic process. The original reports that used this term were from Malaysia. Amok has become an increasingly rare disorder occurring outside of "modern" society's reach. Similar disorders have cropped up in many smaller less developed places. A similar behavior pattern is found in Laos, Philippines, Polynesia (cafard or cathard), Papua New Guinea, and Puerto Rico (mal de pelea), and among the Navajo (iich’aa)." [1]

Navajo Origin[edit]

File:NavajoSeal.jpg

"The conception of disease by the American Indian corresponds to that which prevailed in the Old World two thousand years ago. With other primitive races he regards disease as a visitation of some ill-defined spirit or more material object that gained access to the body, and naturally the process of getting rid of, or eliminating, this malevolent influence or substance constitutes the art of medicine. One of the main functions of the medicine-man is to drive out of the body these deadly substances or spirits of evil-as in the parable of the facetious man who said his name Legion, "because many devils were entered into him.. then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine; and the herd ran violently down to a steep place into the sea and were drowned." And such in principle to the present day is the Indian's conception of disease and its cure." [2]

File:Navajo sand painting.jpg

Example[edit]

One novel, by Rounsevelle Wildman (Tales of the Malayan Coast), describes a story that gives a personal twist to going amok. The author makes a point to stress the lines: "If you run amok in Malaya, you may kill your enemy or your dearest friend, but you will be krissed in the end like a pariah dog. Every man, woman, and child will turn his hand against you, from the mother who bore you to the outcast you have befriended. The laws are as immutable as fate." by repeating them at both the beginning and end of his story.

See also[edit]

Sources[edit]

Frisbie, Charlotte. Navajo Medicine Bundles or Jish: Aquisition, Transmission, and Disposition in the Past and Present. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1987. Print.

Kluckhorn, Clyde. Navaho Witchcraft. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1944. Print.

Kunitz, Stephen. Disease Change and the Role of Medicine: The Navajo Experience. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983. Print.

Reichard, Gladys. Navajo Medicine Man: SandPaintings. New York, NY: Dover Publishers Inc., 1977. Print.

Wildman, Rounsevelle. Tales of the Malayan Coast: From Panang to the Philippines. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1899. Print.

Norton, Ilena M. "Research in American Indian and Alaska Native communities: Navigating the cultural universe of values and process." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1996. 23 July 2011. Web.

References[edit]

  1. ^ American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
  2. ^ Corlett, William Thomas. The Medicine-Man of the American Indian and His Cultural Background. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1935. Print.