Ronald C. Simons, MD, MA is a psychiatrist

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...

 and anthropologist best known for his work on latah

Latah

Latah is a condition where, triggered by the startle reflex, victims fall into a trance in which they engage in repetitive speech or movements. Often these take the form of echopraxic and/or echolaliac automatisms...

, a culture-bound syndrome

Culture-bound syndrome

In medicine and medical anthropology, a culture-bound syndrome, culture-specific syndrome or folk illness is a combination of psychiatric and somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognizable disease only within a specific society or culture...

 found predominantly in Malaysia and Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. He has written on culture-bound syndromes more generally. He is professor of psychiatry and adjunct professor of anthropology at Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

in East Lansing, Michigan. His short documentary film (produced with Gunter Pfaff), "Latah: A Culture-Specific Elaboration of the Startle Reflex" (1983) is a classic within medical anthropology.

Selected publications

• Simons, Ronald C. (1980) "The resolution of the Latah paradox." J Nerv Ment Dis 168(4):195-206.
• Simons, Ronald C. (1983) "Latah II--problems with a purely symbolic interpretation. A reply to Michael Kenny." J Nerv Ment Dis 171(3):168-75.
• Simons, Ronald C. (1983) "Latah III--how compelling is the evidence for a psychoanalytic interpretation? A reply to H.B.M. Murphy." J Nerv Ment Dis 171(3):178-81. Paperback ISBN 90-277-1859-8
• Simons, Ronald C. (1993) "A simple defense of Western biomedical explanatory schemata." Medical Anthropology 15(2):201-8.
• Simons, Ronald C. (1996) Boo! culture, experience, and the startle reflex. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

External links

• Introduction to Culture-Bound Syndromes in the Psychiatric Times, by Ronald C. Simons