The religious copycat amok – could religious doctrines cover up psychological disorders or nourish t

If we accept the most solid theories we’ve got, the word Amok originated from the Malay/Indonesian word mengamuk, which when approximately defined means "to make a furious and desperate charge".

According to Malay/Indonesian culture, which is a treasury of intercultural belief of ghost and ghost stories, amok was rooted in a deep spiritual belief.

They believed that amok was caused by the "hantu belian", which was an evil tiger spirit that entered one’s body and caused the heinous act. As a result of the belief, those in Indonesian culture tolerated amok and dealt with the after-effects with no ill will towards the assailant. This kind of apologetic attitude towards many terrorists is emerging again; I’ll explain later.

However, researchers have traced the first use of the word "amok" and its first appearance in English was around the 16th century, associated with the people of Malaysia and Java, first described in the 1516 text The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and Their Inhabitants. There are some of them [the Javanese] who go out into the streets, and kill as many persons as they meet. These are called Amuco.

I actually used Google’s Ngram to scrutinize the results. The first peak appears at the middle of the 17th century.

The phrase “run amok” was partially popularized by Captain James Cook, a British explorer and captain in the Royal Navy in 1772. From Cook’s book:

"To run amok is to get drunk with opium… to sally forth from the house, kill the person or persons supposed to have injured the Amock, and any other person that attempts to impede his passage… indiscriminately killing and maiming villagers and animals in a frenzied attack."

An interesting fact is, that the term amok (amuk) in contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia doesn’t refer to individual violence, but to frenzied violence by mobs. Indonesians now commonly use the term "gelap mata" (literally darkened eyes) to refer to individual amok. This is quite conspicuous if you look deep inside the psychology of human beings.

Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, a 20th-century famous author and political adviser to British heads of government, experienced the phenomenon in the East Indies and wrote in 1955:

"Gelap mata, the Dark Eye, is an expression used in Sumatra and Java to describe a curious and disturbing social phenomenon. Socially speaking, the Malays, Sumatrans and Javanese are the best behaved people I have ever encountered. On the surface they are an extremely gentle, refined, submissive people. In fact the word 'Malay' comes from 'malu', 'gentle', and gentleness is a quality prized above all others among the Malays and their neighbours. In their family life, in their submission to traditional and parental authority, in their communal duties, they are among the most obedient people on earth. But every now and then something very disturbing happens. A man who has behaved in this obliging manner all his life and who has always done his duty by the outside world to perfection, suddenly finds it impossible to keep doing so. Overnight he revolts against goodness and dutifulness"

This interplay between the psychological upheaval and extremely gentle submissive dutifulness, leaves some hints about the psychology of an amok runner. Which cultural, social and political circumstances ferment the state of mind to that level? Could religious doctrines cover up psychological disorders or nourish them?

The last terror and amok attacks, especially in Europe, made me contemplate the accumulating psychological epidemic, some refer to it as the "Copycat suicide".

It has long been believed that when suicidal contagion occurs, a suicide cluster can develop. A cluster, in this case, is defined as multiple suicidal behaviors or suicides that fall within an accelerated time frame, and sometimes within a defined geographical area. Maybe if you've been in Europe the last 10 days [July 2016] you've probably perceived it intensely. Though many hold the migration crisis responsible to the recent violence; the case is more complicated than one might think. IS can not be that genius and that strong to gain such an influence without religious well respected scriptures that corroborate their actions. Keep that in mind for a while and let's go back to history: the earliest known associations between the media and suicide arose from Goethe's novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther). According to historical resources, soon after the publication of the novel in 1774, young men in Germany began to mimic the main character by dressing in yellow pants and blue jackets. In the novel, Werther shoots himself with a pistol after he is rejected by the woman he loves, and shortly after its publication there were many reports of young men using the same method to kill themselves in an act of hopelessness. This behavioral emulation, especially in the most connected world humanity has ever witnessed, is served by religious doctrines that glorify historic "heroic" religious brutality in order to spread the divine "one true" faith.

Now, modern studies have shown that adolescents are the ones most affected (Zenere, 2009). According to the study, youth suicide is one of the most serious preventable health problems in the United States. It is claimed to be the third leading cause of death among adolescents. According to a recent national survey of students in grades 9–12, nearly 15 % of respondents had seriously considered suicide and 7% actually had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months (Eaton et al., 2008).

Taking the recent accidents in Germany, Japan and France into consideration, many attackers’s were young. This doesn’t necessarily prove anything, but it correlates perfectly and is observed by many psychologists. The fact that many candidates are in their early decades makes them more vulnerable to aggressive religious doctrines. The recent terroristic attacks on civilians were clearly religiously motivated, but simultaneously we witness a new kind of a copycat religious amok, the emergence of amok candidates who find the justification and perhaps "redemption" in religion.

This is absolutely crucial if we are serious about combating terrorism. But the reality is not that promising yet, and I expect the worse to come, if we don’t stop ignoring the most generating evil nest in the century. It is misleading and disappointing to witness this apologetic attitude in the leftist media and governments towards recent terrorist attacks, where the blame has been pined on "psychological conditions" rather than religious belief itself. From the perspective of psychopathology, recent evidence suggests that for many patients, religion instills hope and meaning in their lives, it also induces spiritual despair. This sidedness is notably disregard among the majority, even non-religious people. Patients with schizophrenia also exhibit religious delusions and hallucinations. Further, there is some evidence to suggest that religion influences the level of psychopathology, and that religious practices also influence social integration, risk of suicide attempts, and substance use. The amount of influence differs from one religion to another. Some religions inherit scriptures that embolden the use of violence towards others for a divine purpose, and some are content with self-maleficence. The question is, when will our species overcome this immaturity?

#amok #psychology #psychopathology #religion