Story of Bali, Indonesia

BATESON and Mead made a broad generalization about the emotions and personality of the Balinese: 'It is a culture in which the ordinary adjustment of the individual approximates in form the sort of maladjustment which, in our cultural setting, we call schizoid. They believed that this was relevant to the psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, and implied a cause and effect relationship. Mead wrote, 'In the most exciting scenes, rioting over a corpse, or at the climax of a cockfight, there are always some who stand aside, curved in upon themselves in the postures typical of schizophrenic dreaming They subscribed to the idea that the bases of childhood experience predispose to schizophrenia (dementia praecox)

This likening of personality of all Balinese to a schizoid type and the association made schizophrenia the potential of grossly leading the laity and perhaps some of the medical profession as well. It has puzzled and antagonized the Balinese. The term schizophrenia carries with it severe stigma in Bali. It is regarded as a chronic form of insanity (buduh), believed to be due to inherited factors and incurable. Most other psychotic disorders in the Balinese are not stigmatized because they are believed to be caused by supernatural forces outside the control of the individual and because recovery is complete.

In view of these considerations, it is important to clarify the term and concept of 'schizoid'. In so doing, related conclusions by Bateson and Mead about the emotions of the Balinese were found to be insupportable, erroneous, and, misleading. Bateson and Mead did, not define the term, schizoid, nor did they specifically elaborate, on the characteristics of schizoid mA4ustmenL In those days, psychiatric terms were not defined as specifically as they are today, but the general meaning of the term 'schizoid', as applied to personality, has not changed over the years . Firstly, it is regarded as abnormal. Secondly, the essential feature of schizoid, personality is a pervasive pattern of indifference to social relationships and a restricted range of emotional expression beginning in early childhood. Schizoid personality is further described by American psychiatry: people with this type of personality prefer to be loners; do not have close friends or only one other than the immediate family; choose solitary activities; appear cold and aloof, rarely express strong emotions such as anger or joy; may seem self-absorbed; and are often unable to express aggressiveness or hostility.

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