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In his surrealistic novel Naked Lunch (1959) U.S. novelist W. S. Burroughs frequently evokes the idea of a completely hopeless situation causing spontaneous death, citing the example of what he calls "the jungle rat." Here's a characteristic example: Quote:
During my rather brief experience as a psychoanalyst—spot of bother with the Society—one patient ran amok in Grand Central with a flame thrower, two committed suicide and one died on the couch like a jungle rat (jungle rats are subject to die if confronted suddenly with a hopeless situation. [p. 23]
Is this pseudo-zoology or does it have some basis in reality? If yes, what animal is the jungle rat; and is there a term to describe the phenomenon?
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I might add that although Naked Lunch is a surrealistic novel, there is ample reason to make a presumption of veracity with respect to the anecdote about the jungle rat because a number of other lusus naturae referenced in the novel—(such as the candiru: a tiny eel-shaped fish found in the Amazon basin that swims up-river on the scent of urine and lodges itself by means of its barbed head into the uretha of its unfortunate host)—a bit of looking round has proven to be based almost entirely on fact. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candiru
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Pooh-Bah
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dalehileman
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Hydra,
I honestly do not know what the term is nor have I ever heard of an animal known as a "jungle rat" other then Homo sapiens in a city environment. But I do know that this describes exactly what my great grandmother did. She had always been a very independent woman but when she reached the age of 83 she slipped and fell breaking her hip. This caused it so that she had to have a live in nurse at home. Well things were going rather well until she found out that she would no longer be allowed to drive and that the state DMV had canceled her driver’s license. When she heard this she turned her face to the wall, said F* it, and died just like that; btw she never swore a day in her life and had never been sick.
I would be curious to know if there is an actual term for this.
Rev. Alimae
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Hmm just spoke with my mother, she says that she has heard it known as the "broken heart syndrome" or "willing to death".
Rev. Alimae
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Viktor Frankl—a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the Nazi death camps—writes about something similar in his book Man's Search for Meaning in the chapter Experiences in a Concentration Camp: Quote:
The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed. With his lost of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly, in the form of a crisis, the symptoms of which were familiar to the experienced camp inmate. We all feared this moment—not for ourselves, but for our friends. Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and wash or to go out on the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just lay there, hardly moving. If this crisis was brought about by an illness, he refused to be taken to the sick-bay or to do anything to help himself. He simply gave up. There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him any more. [...]
Frankl goes on to explain that the death-rate at the camp sky-rocketed the week after Christmas one year because the prisoners had heard a rumour that they were going to be rescued and believed—hoped—that they would be home for Christmas. According to Frankl, they died of disappointment.
Some of what he's describing sounds similar to Diogenes syndrome —which is basically extreme self-neglect. The difference is, Diogenes syndrome can occur as a result of senility or brain damage, but I'm looking for the term for "psychogenic death", or spontaneous death caused by an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness.
Last edited by Hydra; 11/27/06 06:03 AM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Is this pseudo-zoology or does it have some basis in reality? If yes, what animal is the jungle rat; and is there a term to describe the phenomenon?
Dunno bout no jungle rats but for a term to describe the phenomenon how about psychogenic death? Go to the first medscape reference. I can't link directly to the article. If you go that way you have to log in. But you can get there through the Google™ link.
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Wow. I pulled that one out of the hat to get the discussion rolling. If it turns out to be the term I was looking for all along it'd be kinda weird.
Edit: Maybe I should pull a term out of the hat for "jungle rat". Hm. Let's see...
Last edited by Hydra; 11/27/06 12:22 PM.
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Quote:
Psychogenic Death
In psychogenic death, the persons finds himself in a seriously distressing situation of which he believes that he has been thrown into this helpless position and that there is no way out. Humans behave passively and die quietly. In suicide, on the other hand, a person ends his life actively. The problem of why, on the one hand, people bring about death actively while in psychogenic death they "let themselves die" is enquired into. In psychogenic death, the difficulties of the emergencies produced by external factors can no longer be coped with mentally: the person wants to live but he cannot go on. In suicide, it seems to the person that the projection of the future, produced by inner factors, is no longer worth living: the person does not want to live, although he could.
Numerous cases of psychogenic death have been cited throughout the world, as well by native peoples, inhabitants of concentration camps and prisoner of war camps. Psychogenic death is a generalized human extreme psychosomatic reaction. It is not specific to any culture or mentality. Psychogenic death refers to death triggered by psychic stimuli. The individual finds himself in a situation where external forces have lead to a restriction of his world and, in addition, is subjectively sensing of the inalterability of his situation. Decisive to the perception of the environment is the subjective emotional view of things which can greatly diverge reality. The physical state of these individuals is marked by total passivity. The psychic condition is characterized by regression, resignation, and apathy. The article described the psychic background and the physical process of a death by psychic phenomena. The case of a 37 year old patient with detailed anamnestic and clinical data is given. His hobby was taking photographs of natural scenery and animals. This had become vital for him, because he did not like his job. The patient suffered from a painful herniation of intervetebral disk. After the operation of the disk he still had backache. He thought that the operation had been unsuccessful. The following day the patient showed the symptoms of the psychogenic death and died within one day. The autopsy, histopathologic, and toxicologic examinations showed no indications to the cause of death.
—Psychosom Med Psychoanal. 1979 Jul-Sep.
Last edited by Hydra; 11/27/06 12:38 PM.
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Pooh-Bah
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I am reminded of Kurtz' last words as quoted by Marlowe in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad:
The horror! The horror!
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O it's definitely called "psychogenic death." The evidence is overwhelming. Quote:
Voodoo Death—that is the title of a paper published in 1942 by Walter Cannon. It contains many instances of mysterious, sudden, apparently psychogenic death, from all parts of the world. A Brazilian Indian condemned and sentenced by a so-called medicine man, is helpless against his own emotional response to this pronouncement—and dies within hours. In Africa a young Negro unknowingly eats the inviolably banned wild hen. On discovery of his "crime" he trembles, is overcome by fear, and dies in 24 hours. In New Zealand a Maori woman eats fruit that she only later learns has come from a tabooed place. Her chief has been profaned. By noon of the next day she is dead. In Australia a witch doctor points a bone at a man. Believing that nothing can save him, the man rapidly sinks in spirits and prepares to die. He is saved only at the last moment when the witch doctor is forced to remove the charm. R. Herbert Basedow in his book The Australian Aboriginal wrote in 1925:
"The man who discovers that he is being boned by an enemy is, indeed, a pitiable sight. He stands aghast with his eyes staring at the treach- erous pointer, and with his hands lifted to ward off the lethal medium, which he imagines is pouring into his body. His cheeks blanch, and his eyes become glassy, and the expression of his face becomes horribly distorted. He attempts to shriek but usually the sound chokes in his throat, and all that one might see is froth at his mouth. His body begins to tremble and his muscles twitch involuntarily. He sways backward and falls to the ground, and after a short time appears to be in a swoon. He finally composes himself, goes to his hut and there frets to death."
—Curt P. Richter, Ph.D, On the Phenomenon of Sudden Death in Animals and Man (1958)
Quote:
Can social causes directly effect physiological processes? In many parts of the world, there are reports that those who have broken a ritual prohibition or hold that they are victims of sorcery give up and die, a phenomenon labelled by anthropologists as voodoo death. The mechanisms for this remain controversial. The features include: lethargy, lack of motivation, extreme guilt, social withdrawal, reduced appetite and thirst, and ultimately death.
—S. Dein, Psychogenic Death: Individual Effects of Sorcery and Taboo Violation published in Mental Health, Religion & Culture (Volume 6, Number 3, November 2003, pp. 195-202).
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