According to Malinowski there are no peoples, however primitive, without religion and magic; nor are there any societies lacking either in the scientific attitude or in science (Blumberg 1963). Magic and taboo are resorted to when through the normal use of science, or rational techniques, man is unable to control unpredictable events important to him. Where there is difficulty in predicting the outcome of behaviour, where the results of action are not consonant with effort, where there are great limitions on man's knowledge of vital issues, magical techniques are employed--in short, where circumstances of life are uncertain, uncontrolled and unknown. Magic and animism are systems of thought which give not only the explanation of a single phenomenon, but make it possible to comprehend the totality of the world from one point, as a continuity. Of the three systems of thought--animistic, religious and scientific--animism is perhaps the most consistent and the most exhaustive, the one which explains the world in its entirety.
A twelve-month study of all university students with psychological problems and symptoms, referred by the Student Health Physicians of the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur was conducted. A total of 308 students were seen and treated. The following results were elicited:
1) The proportion of student breakdown among the different ethnic groups was in proportion with the total student population.
2) There was no significant difference in diagnosis among students of urban-rural origins or from the different faculties.
3) The majority of students were seen during the first term from the first and second year courses.
4) Fifty-six percent of students suffered from symptoms prior to their admission to the university.
5 ) Differences in language stream, especially from the Malay-medium schools, did not increase the rates of breakdown because of attenuating factors to reduce the stress among Malay students.
6) Chinese students had significantly more severe acculturation gap differences from their parents than Malay students. They also significantly came from more well-off homes, of a higher social class and from urban regions as compared to the Malay students.
7) Fifty-one percent were diagnosed as suffering from a neurosis and 13.3% from a schizophrenic psychosis. The neurotics had a much lower failure rate than the schizophrenic students.
8) Personality and family problems were significantly higher among Chinese than Malay students. On the whole, there were more personality and family problems among urban-based students of both ethnic groups.
The interest in epidemic hysteria has been due to an increased prevalence of the phenomena in Malaysia in recent years. This paper describes the prevalence and characteristics of epidemic hysteria in Malaysia. An outbreak in a rural Malay lower secondary girls' school was described and the factors precipitating the outbreak were studied in detailed. The social interactions, native interpretation and psychodynamic constellations in the microcosm of tensions and interpersonal conflicts leading to the outbreak of hysteria were analysed and discussed. The paper also deals with the problem of social change within a closed-in rural community and how the various key personalities involved grappled with a problem thereby instituting social change.
Six cases of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome were described. The technique of mass negative practice causing reactive inhbibition was used to treat two cases. Contrary to previous studies, mass negative practice reduced the quality of tics but did not affect the frequency of tics in the syndrome. Subsequently all the cases were treated with haloperidol with a dramatic remission of symptoms, The video-tape method of measuring percentage improvement of symptoms were described,
This paper deals with the aetiological factors of psychogenic impotence, more emphasis however, being placed on the psychological theories. The characteristics of forty cases of impotence were analysed and discussed. Two cases, one of erectile impotence (failure of erection) and another of premature ejaculation were treated by the authors with systematic desensitization successfully. The "squeeze" technique was utilized for the case of premature ejaculation
This paper discusses the prevalence and characteristics of epidemic hysteria among predominantly rural Malay schools in Malaysia. An illustrative episode in a Malay residential girls' school is described, and contributory factors to this outbreak are elaborated. An attempt is made to analyze the complex interweaving of psychological, religious, cultural, and sociological factors in the precipitation of the outbreak.
This paper deals with the evaluation of the effectiveness of individual psychotherapy by students on patients' subjective symptomatic improvement and the therapeutic benefits to medical students. The results of the study indicated that student psychotherapy was of significant benefit to psychoneurotic patients, but was of dubious value in the clinical teaching of psychotherapy in the psychiatric curriculum of the medical course at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.