The Hmong Sudden Death Syndrome

Vang was a former Hmong (Laotian) soldier who settled in Chicago in 1980, as an escapee of the war in Laos. Lang suffered from traumatic memories of wartime destruction, including severe guilt of leaving his brothers and sisters behind when he fled with his wife and child. According to a mental health team, the culture shock created due to moving from a rural Laos to urban Chicago increased Vang's stress even further. He experienced problems almost immediately.

Vang suffered from sleep issues; he was unable to sleep from the first night in his apartment in Chicago. This continued for the next two days, causing him to visit his resettlement worker, Moua Lee, and confess his problems. He confessed that on the first night, he had woken up suddenly, feeling short of breath from a dream in which a cat was sitting on his chest; and that on the second night, a figure which resembled a black dog came to his bed and sat on his chest, causing him to go out of breath quickly and dangerously. On the third night, a tall, white-skinned female appeared in his bedroom and lay on top of him. Her weight caused difficulty in his breathing, and after 15 minutes, the spirit left and he woke up screaming.

Trauma & Culture

Vang's report attracted scientific interest due to around 25 Laotian refugees in the United States dying of what was termed as the Hmong Sudden Death Syndrome. The victims in those cases also experienced symptoms similar to those Vang did: an exhibition of laboured breathing, screaming, and frantic movements. The US Center for Disease Control investigated these deaths and was unable to find a physical cause. They concluded that the deaths were triggered by a combination of the stress of resentment, guilt over having to abandon families in Laos, and Hmong's cultural beliefs of angry spirits.

The authors of Vang's case study concluded that he might have been a survivor of Sudden Death Syndrome. The role of cultural beliefs is suggested by what happened next. Vang went for treatment to a Hmong woman regarded as a shaman. She told him his problems were caused by unhappy spirits and performed ceremonies to release them. Vang's nightmares and breathing problems during sleep ceased afterwards.

Like the cases of voodoo deaths, Vang's case study suggests that cultural stress and beliefs may have a profound influence on physical well-being. This work was followed by other studies on Hmong immigrants and stimulated interest in the relationship between cultural beliefs and health.

Case Studies

The major limitation of a case study is that it is a poor method for determining cause-effect relations. in most case studies, explanations of behaviour occur after the fact, and there is little opportunity to rule out alternative explanations. The fact that Vang's symptoms ended after seeing a shaman might not have anything to do with his cultural beliefs; it could have been pure coincidence, or other changes in his life could have been responsible.

A second potential drawback concerns on the generalisation of findings: will the principles uncovered in a case study hold true for other people or other situations? The question of generalisability pertains to all research methods, but drawing broad conclusions from a case study can be particularly risky. The key issue is the degree to which the case under study is representative of other people or situations.

A third drawback is the possible lack of objectivity in the way data is gathered and interpreted. Such bias can occur in any type of research, but case studies can be particularly worrisome due to them often being based largely on the researcher's subjective impressions. In science, a skeptical attitude is required for claims based on case studies to be followed up by more comprehensive research methods before being accepted. We should adopt similar skeptical views in our daily lives, too.

Announcement: New Short Story Blog

Hey, everyone!

I just finished making my blog and posting the first chapter of my first story there. Here's the link:https://the-omniscrolls.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-unseen-part-i-paralysed.html

Announcement

Hey, everyone.

I'm going to be running a new blog soon on my own short stories. I haven't created it yet, but I will let you know when it's done.

Hypnosis and Memory

In TV shows or movies, there are scenes in which people are given a suggestion that they would not remember a certain thing (such as a person's name or an incident, either during the session itself (hypnotic amnesia) or at the end of hypnosis (posthypnotic amnesia). A reversal cue could also be given, a phrase such as "You will now remember everything"; once the person hears this, their state of amnesia ends.

According to research, around 25% of hypnotised college students could be led to experience amnesia. Although researchers agree that hypnotic and posthypnotic amnesia occur, they do still debate the causes. Some feel that it's a result of voluntary attempts in avoidance of thought on certain information, while others believe it to be caused by an altered state of conscientiousness which weakens normal memory systems.

Memory Enhancement

In contrast to producing the effect of forgetting, can hypnosis enhance memory?

Law enforcement agencies sometimes use hypnosis in aid of eyewitnesses to a crime. In a famous case in California which occurred in 1977, a bus carrying 26 children and its driver disappeared without a trace. The victims, buried underground in an abandoned trailer truck by three kidnappers, were later found alive. After the rescue, an expert hypnotised the bus driver and asked him to recall the ordeal. The driver formed a vivid image of the kidnappers' white van and could "read" all but one digit of the vans licence plate. The information helped track down the kidnappers.

Despite occasional success stories such as this, controlled experiments find that hypnosis is unable to improve memory. In some experiments, participants watch videotapes of simulated bank robberies or other crimes. Next, while hypnotised or not, they are questioned by police investigators or criminal lawyers. Hypnotised individuals tend to remember better than non-hypnotised individuals in some studies, but not all. There have been experiments where hypnotised participants had performed much poorly than non-hypnotised people; they had recalled more information, but much of it was inaccurate.

Another concern regarding this is that some memories recalled under hypnosis maybe pseudomemories—false memories created during hypnosis by statements or leading suggestions made by the examiner. In some experiments, hypnotised and non-hypnotised participants are intentionally exposed to false information about an event (e.g.: about a bank robbery). Later, once the hypnotised subjects are brought out of their hypnosis, they are questioned. Highly suggestible individuals that have been hypnotised are the ones most likely to report the false information as being a true memory and often tend to be confident of the accuracy of their memories.

Although some psychologists are exploring ways to minimise hypnosis-induced memory errors, at present, many courts have banned or limited testimonies obtained under the influence of hypnosis. The increased suggestibility of hypnotised individuals makes them particularly susceptible to memory distortion caused by leading questions, and they may come to believe things that never occurred in the first place. Similarly, if a therapist uses hypnosis to help patients recall long-forgotten memories of sexual abuse, what shall we conclude? Are the memories real, or are they pseudomemories created during therapy sessions?

Disassociation

What is hypnosis ad how does it produce its effects?

Several researchers propose theories that view hypnosis as an altered state involving a disassociation of consciousness. Ernest Hilgard proposed that hypnosis creates a division of awareness in which the person simultaneously experiences two streams of consciousness that are cut off from each another. One stream responds to hypnotic suggestions, while the other—the part of consciousness which monitors behaviour—remains in the background, but is aware of everything that goes on. Hilgard reefers to this second part of consciousness as the Hidden Observer.

Suppose a hypnotised subject is given a suggestion that she wouldn't feel pain. Her arm is lowered into a tub of ice-cold water for 45 seconds and every few minutes, she reports the amount of pain. In contrast to unhypnotised subjects, who find this experience moderately painful, she would probably report feeling less pain. But suppose the procedure is done differently. Before lowering the subject's arm, the hypnotist says, "Perhaps there is another part of you that is more aware than your hypnotised part. If so, would that part of you report the amount of pain."

In this case, the subject's other stream of consciousness, the Hidden Observer, would report a higher level of pain.

For Hilgard, this disassociation explained the reason behind the involuntary automatic behaviour that occurs under hypnosis. Given the suggestion "Your arm will start to feel lighter and will begin to rise," the subject intentionally raises his or her arm, but only the Hidden Observer is aware of this. The mainstream of consciousness that responds to the command is blocked from this awareness and perceives that the arm is rising all by itself.