Running Amok

Abstract

This study examines twenty-four cases of amok, believed the largest number of cases ever collected. They were observed in Sarawak, East Malaysia. They occurred in all indigenous groups in Sarawak, excluding the Chinese, such as Malay, Sea Dayak, Land Dayak, Kayan, Punan and Melanau at frequencies more or less following the proportion of these groups in the total population. No differences were found according to religion, the Malay being Muslim and the other groups either predominantly Christian like the Iban or animistic. Only slight diminution in the frequency was observed from 1954 to 1968. The education level of the amok runners was much lower than that of the average population. The weapons used were those immediately at hand be it parang (short sword), ax, sticks, knives, guns, bare hands or a lorry. The classical four stages were largely present: (a) brooding and withdrawal, (b) homicidal paroxysm, (c) continuation of homicidal behaviour until killed, restrained or falling into stupor of exhaustion, (d) complete or partial amnesia. While in 14 no motive could be ascertained, insult, jealousy and paranoid ideation was present in the others. Both family history of mental illness and personal psychiatric history were predominant. All cases fell into accepted diagnostic categories from organic and endogenous psychosis to neurosis and behaviour disorder.

Extraordinary Disorders of Human Behavior

“…Psychological reconstruction of the prodromal period among one series of Malay pengamok did support the notion of "classical" amok psychological concomitants (Schmidt et al, 1977). Social withdrawal and emotional disturbance were present in 17 out of 20 subjects.…”

“…Her case is not a typical one since there were no deaths and the assault was not indiscriminate. Schmidt et al (1977) report the case as follows: 1. A. N. is the only female in our series who has exhibited a behavior pattern which was called by those around her running amok, and which certainly bears most of its characterisation. She is 31 years old and lives alone, although she said she had been married several times for a short while, fifteen years prior to the event.…”

Murder-suicide: bridging the gap between mass murder, amok, and suicide

“…Amok, similar to mass murder and SbC, is perpetrated, often by a man, after a period of social withdrawal, brooding, and agitation; it results in the murder or attempted murder of multiple people (Schmidt et al, 1977;Kudva, 2011). One of the first written accounts of amok in the west came from Captain Cook in 1770, and it was first described in academic literature near the turn of the twentieth century (Ellis, 1893;Gimlette, 1901), although the behavior of "running amok" was well known in Malaysia for several centuries (Teoh, 1972).…”

Culture-Specific Mental Disorders

“…Tan 1965, quoted in Teoh 1972. In Sarawak, East Malaysia, Schmidt et al (1977) studied 24 amok-runners, including, besides Malays, also Dayaks and other aborigines, who apart from amok were all psychiatrically diagnosable as having organic psychosyndromes, endogenaus psychoses, or neurotic disorders. Murphy (1973) documented the change of significance and function of amok behavior in the Malay-Indonesia area, from a glorified warrior ethos to a sanctioned means of social control and social protest which, after the establishment of the European colonial system and a modern justice system, became criminalized and unsuited to its purpose.…”