You awake one morning not feeling like yourself. Your head is pounding. Your clothes stick to you with sweat. You feel nauseous and as if you might vomit. You tremble at the thought of the disturbing nightmare you just had. You find yourself at lying in the grass. It is dark and eerily quiet. All you can think of is your intense craving for human flesh. You contemplate the idea of acting on this strong desire. You have experienced this night after night. As the days pass, the symptoms do not disappear but worsen. You begin to express symptoms of insomnia, melancholia and hallucinations. This is a reality for many. It is a disorder known as Windigo Psychosis. This illness is commonly recognized for its aberrant behaviours of those diagnosed admitting to being fearful of developing cannibalistic impulses.
This illness is classified as a culture specific illness which is defined as “a health problem with a set of symptoms associated with a particular culture” (Bonvillain 2015, 168). This type of illness is not believed to be the result of biological processes but rather the cultural practices associated with the diagnosed. Factors such as stress, fear and shock are often the cause of culture …show more content…
Among the Iroquois people, for example, “dreams were regarded as wishes of the soul which must be satisfied or the dreamer would become ill or die” (Hay 8). The Iroquois strongly believed that it was important to follow the promptings of the unconscious mind (Hay 11). Those part of this tribe believed that dreams were not to be analyzed or considered. They were to follow exactly what the dream had illustrated without hesitation. So, when someone would experience these cannibalistic impulses in a dream, they felt they had no choice but to act on it. Others in the tribe would view this individual as deviant if they would not satisfy these wishes of the
This illness is classified as a culture specific illness which is defined as “a health problem with a set of symptoms associated with a particular culture” (Bonvillain 2015, 168). This type of illness is not believed to be the result of biological processes but rather the cultural practices associated with the diagnosed. Factors such as stress, fear and shock are often the cause of culture …show more content…
Among the Iroquois people, for example, “dreams were regarded as wishes of the soul which must be satisfied or the dreamer would become ill or die” (Hay 8). The Iroquois strongly believed that it was important to follow the promptings of the unconscious mind (Hay 11). Those part of this tribe believed that dreams were not to be analyzed or considered. They were to follow exactly what the dream had illustrated without hesitation. So, when someone would experience these cannibalistic impulses in a dream, they felt they had no choice but to act on it. Others in the tribe would view this individual as deviant if they would not satisfy these wishes of the