ABSTRACT
Culture-bound syndromes (CBS), or culture-related psychiatric disorders, have been discussed in the literature for decades (e.g., Lewis, 1975; Lin, 1983). These “syndromes” or “disorders” have been referred to in a variety of ways. Devereux (1956) described “ethnic psychoses” and “ethnic neurosis,” Arieti and Meth (1959) discussed “rare, unclassifiable, collective, and exotic syndromes,” which included but were not limited to “culture-bound syndromes,” and Yap (as cited in Hughes, 1985) described “atypical culture bound reactive syndromes.” CBS has been more recently and typically defined as the development of a unique psychopathology, or a collection of signs and symptoms, observed only in a certain cultural environment (Prince & Tcheng-LaRoche, 1987; Tseng, 1997). Commonly written about culture-bound syndromes include latah, amok, and koro.
