On the Epidemicity of Amok Violence

Post-Disaster Mental Health Among Parent–Child Dyads After a Major Earthquake in Indonesia

“…Parents reported how often they experienced each item during the past month on a 0 ( none of the time ) to 4 ( most of the time ) scale. The brief ethnography methodology identified three additional symptoms that were not captured in the existing assessment tool: (1) unable to control anger (a less severe form of the culture-bound disorder amok associated with Malaysia; Westermeyer 1973), (2) thinking excessively or having too many thoughts in general (not related to the earthquake or another specific event), and (3) “ndomblong” (see description above). An average score of responses to the 20 items was calculated to represent PTS severity (Cronbach’s α without added items=0.94, Cronbach’s α with added items=0.95).…”

Psychiatry in Indochina: Cultural Issues during the Period 1965-1975

“…Sudden outbursts of homicidal violence -similar to &dquo;amok&dquo; described in Nlalavsia -were fairly frequent in Laos during a time of civil unrest and foreign invasion. This violence involved primarily young, relativery uneducated, but upwardly mobile men who had migrated from rural to urban areas (14)(15)(16). In areas with access to courts or prisons, assassination was a means of resolving problems that could not be solved bv other means (17)(18)(19).…”

Extraordinary Disorders of Human Behavior

“…By contrast, amok violence in Laos, the Philippines, and Thailand has followed an epidemic pattern during the same period (Westermeyer, 1973b). Several social factors may be correlated in time with increased amok; these include rapid culture change, political unrest, increased geographic mobility, and increased social mobility.…”

“…Rather than kill them directly or eventually return them to full status in their communities, the English and Dutch kept them alive but committed them for decades or a lifetime to prison or to mental institutions. Another possible explanation for this decrease is that the colonizers brought a period of relative socioeconomic, cultural, and political stability and peace-conditions perhaps inveighing against amok (Westermeyer, 1973b). Connor (1970) has hypothesized that the change from a simple "role-self" in traditional society to multiple roles in modern societies might reduce the risk of amok when a loss is experienced.…”