Susto and Soul Loss in Mexicans and Mexican Americans

Abstract

Susto is a Latin American folk illness attributed to having a fright-ening experience, often including “soul loss” as part of the etiology. This article focuses on contemporary descriptions of susto among mestizos in Mexico and Mexican Americans in south Texas and explores the link between susto and soul loss in detail. Interviews conducted in Guadalajara, Mexico (n = 50), and in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (n = 951) indicate that only a minority of informants aware of susto have also heard of soul loss and that even among those who have had susto, soul loss is not necessarily a part of susto. Soul loss, in fact, is more often equated with death. Our data, as well as a careful review of earlier reports of susto and soul loss, suggest that what was thought to have left the body may not be the “soul” but rather a “vital force.”

For the Sake of our Children: Hispanic Immigrant and Migrant Families’ Use of Folk Healing and Biomedicine

“…The varied nationalities and cultural belief systems included in broad categories such as “Hispanic” ethnomedicine render generalizations about the beliefs of individuals questionable (Glazer et al ; and see Garro ; Weller and Baer ; Weller et al ). There is an ongoing need for ethnomedical research to both update information to assure its relevance for contemporary settings and to clarify distinctions between symptoms and Hispanic folk illnesses linked to different beliefs about causation and transmission (Weller et al ).…”

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“…Tampoco pudimos detectar entre ellas el concepto de pérdi-da o abandono del alma o del espíritu, que a veces se ha descrito como causa del susto, aunque algunos estudios sobre este tema se decantan más bien por que es el susto, o el espanto, el que provoca que el espíritu o el alma de una persona abandone su cuerpo (Rubel 1960, Rubel 1964, Glazer et al 2004. En cuanto a los «nervios», los definieron como una depresión causada por alguna desgracia, como la muerte de un hijo, para cuyo tratamiento conviene acudir al psiquiatra.…”

Culture-bound syndromes in Spanish speaking Latin America: the case of Nervios, Susto and Ataques de Nervios

“…Eight were qualitative studies [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]24 focused on the characterization of the causes, symptoms, and treatments as described by those affected by the conditions. Among the selected references, seven were about Susto (Table 3), four of them were qualitative studies [25][26][27][28] , three focused on the causes, symptoms and treatment of Susto 24,26,28 and one focused only on the causes of Susto 25 .…”

“…With respect to the causes of these syndromes, eight of the analyzed articles described causes identifiable by the respondents, and these were psychosocial stressors, generally described as threats and/or losses in the stability and maintenance of family relationships or physical threats made to or witnessed by the respondents [17][18][19]21,23,25,27,29,36 . Nervios was described as linked to stressful events experienced over a continuum of time and Susto and Ataques de Nervios linked to specific, acute and usually identifiable stressors 17,19 .…”

“…Interviews with the affected individuals found that Ataques de Nervios, Nervios e Susto were related to different types of stress through interviews with the affected individuals [17][18][19]21,[23][24][25]27,29 . Nervios was related to exposure to stressful events over a period of years, while Ataques de Nervios and Susto were related to exposure to specific events triggering the symptoms 17,19 .…”