Story of Bali, Indonesia

A prominent psychiatry textbook of the 1920s. (Brill and Bleuler, 192.4) described schizoid characters as 'people who are shut-in, suspicious, incapable of discussion, people who are comfortably dull and at the same time sensitive, people who in a narrow manner pursue vague purposes, improvers of the universe'. At that time there was a related concept of latent schizophrenia which was considered 'a morbid psychopathic state' in which 'schizoid peculiarities are not yet of psychotic proportions The question is: did Bateson and Mead find, and did the authors find, that the Balinese, people in general fit these descriptions of behaviour and this type of maladjustment? And, if not, why were these terins used to characterize Balinese personality?

The authors' examination of Bateson and Mead's general conclusions about Balinese character indicate that they believed that the Balinese fit the term 'schizoid'. Mea d stated in her conclusions: 'It is a character curiously cut off from -interpersonal relationships, existing in a state of dreamy relaxed dissociation, with intervals of non-personal concentration in trance, in gambling and in the practice of the arts' he is driven to fill the hours, so empty of interpersonal relations, with a rhythmic unattended industriousness.

. She also noted: 'Between the death which is symbolized by the Witch's claws and the graveyard orgies, and the death which is sleep into which he retires when frightened life is a rhythmic patterned unreality of Pleasant significant movement centered in one's own body to which emotion long, ago withdrew. Children steer clear of teasing, adults and draw, back, (from adults) into themselves and then turn back on their own bodies -for gratification. The withdrawal, however, which marks the end of early childhood for a Balinese, and which comes anywhere between ages three and six, is a withdrawal of all responsiveness.

From the authors' knowledge and observations of the Balinese, both in the plains villages and at Bayung Gede, and in medical and psychiatric clinics in Bali, they can say with assurance that very few individuals have schizoid characteristics or schizoid personality disorder. On the contrary, they have been impressed with a readiness of expression of emotions in most aspects of everyday social interaction this is discussed

Trance states are very common in Balinese culture, but are generally culture syntonic and occur in expected and socially accepted situations such as in theatre drama and ceremonies. In one village in Bali, with which the authors are familiar, about 25 per cent of the community inhabitants go into trance states at a twice-yearly ceremony. Ritual dance, trance disorders, and therapeutic trance all have in common the process of emotional catharsis; relief of distress by expression of emotions not otherwise acceptable.

In theory, trance disorders and other dissociative disorders (DSM III-R, 1987) are characterized by the use of the psychological defence mechanisms of dissociation and denial. These defences effect a replacement of unpleasant feelings with more pleasant ones, and allow the expression of feelings unacceptable to the individual or not permitted in everyday iii-e in the culture e.g., bebainan and multiple personality disorder), thereby preventing emotional distress. In the disorder of kasurupan, anxiety appears to have been the primary emotion causing the disorder.

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