Story of Bali, Indonesia

Me two men, arms extended with hands positioned near their knees, were motionless and silent, with eyes staring; they appeared to be in deep concentration, in meditation, or in a shallow trance state during the 4-5 seconds of hand contact. 'Men the leader slowly dropped his arms and the two men arose quickly for the next pair to advance into position for the same procedure.

In attempts to explain why so many Balinese appear to possess the capacity to go into trance (hypnotizability) and in efforts to gain a better understanding of hypnosis, Western scholars have uncritically accepted some of Mead's unsubstantiated statements and erroneous conclusions. For example, Gill and Brenman (1961: 7) believed that the personality characteristics of dissociated states in the daily lives of the Balinese could be traced to Mead' interpretation that the core of the Balinese personality derived from the mother's undercutting of the child's climax of emotional expression causing withdrawal and lifetime unresponsiveness. They regarded these kinds of withdrawal behaviour as 'aborted forms of trance, and since they are universally present among Balinese, they form an important line of evidence for our inference that almost all Balinese have the capacity to go into trance'.

These theorists further interpreted Mead's descriptions of child- feeding practices and aspects of digging up the corpse for the funeral ceremonies as, respectively, 'unconscious fantasies of oral incorporation' and 'the Balinese struggle against unconscious cannibalism', both, of which they related to trance. Lewin interpreted the little girl trance dance -as 'an equivalent of infantile masturbation, and repetitive of the erotic sleep during the primal generalization may be valid, it should be considered within-,'the broader aspects of the culture.

The presentation of character traits as well as the literature to date is notable for its relative lack of consideration of sexuality-, a large part of life and significant behaviour. In Hobart's words, 'it is an area over which the Balinese have lrawn a polite well. At present there do not seem to be any appropriate and acceptable ways to survey the sexual responses and behaviour of the Balinese. Ibis may seem nave, timid, or wrong to Westerners who area costumed to reading about sex and to Western physicians who are taught to inquire about the sex life of their patients in order to diagnose and treat sexual and other relationship problems

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