The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fourth Edition, Revised Text, DSM-IV TR, is published by the American Psychiatric Association. It’s the manual mental health professionals use when making diagnoses.
The category, V62.89, was added as religious or spiritual and phase of life problems and borderline intellectual functioning. This appears to be a catch-all category for what the authors of the DSM consider to be psychiatric disorders but don’t know where to put them. There are no logical correlations for the “disorders.” Only religious and spiritual “problems” are extraordinary human experiences, EHEs. Borderline intellectual functioning is when a person’s intelligence is below the average IQ of 100. There is no rational relationship between this and the others.
Is Old Hag Syndrome (OHS) a Psychiatric Disorder?
Mental health professionals call this syndrome Sleep Paralysis. This happens when a person is falling asleep or wakes up and can’t move or speak and as a result, the person experiences intense fear. Sensing a malevolent presence often accompanies this; some people feel a heavy pressure on the chest. It usually lasts a few seconds or several minutes.
David Hufford is the pioneer in OHS. He wrote about a case involving a woman was hagged. A man wanted to kiss her. She refused, so he said he would hag her. After she left, the hagger removed his clothing, knelt and repeated the Lord’s Prayer backwards, saying, “Hag, good Hag,” periodically. That night, the woman experienced terror when she saw the man standing by her bed.
Spiritual Emergence Experience (SEE) and Psychiatry
Dr. Stanislav and Christina Grof are the pioneers in SEEs. These are incidents involving changes in consciousness, perception and emotions, exclude people with diagnosed psychiatric disorders. There are major transpersonal influences involving death archetypal phenomena, reincarnation memories, out-of-body experiences, synchronicity, extra-sensory perception and/or identification with cosmic consciousness.
The experiences can last seconds or minutes and can happen spontaneously or intentionally in altered states of consciousness. While the majority of SEEs are exhilarating and pleasant, there are cases where negative ones.
Psychiatry - Windigo Sickness and Psychosis
Many psychological anthropologists believe the most significant factor for defining mental illness is the level of people’s social conformity. Those who behave in ways that deviate from their society’s norms have psychiatric problems.
According to Northern AmerIndian tribes, a Windigo, also called a Wendigo, is said to be a gigantic cannibalistic monster that feeds on humans. It's believed that this disorder is caused by egotistical abuse of psychic powers and/or abilities.
The Windigo psychosis has affected some northern Algonquian AmerIndians. It usually happens in winter when people are isolated by snow and food is scarce. Initial symptoms generally are a poor appetite, nausea, and vomiting. When these conditions are present, some people develop a delusion of being transformed into a Windigo or fear becoming one. Victims of this psychosis experience extreme anxiety and might attempt suicide to prevent becoming a Wendigo.
Should EHEs be Classified as Psychiatric Disorders?
Mental disorders are psychological or behavioral patterns occurring in people that are believed to cause distress, impaired functioning and/or upset others. Old Hag Syndrome, the Windigo Sickness and Psychosis and negative SEEs may cause others distress. Positive SEEs don’t, unless people believe the experient is having delusions and/or hallucinations. More research is needed and, hopefully, will include input by parapsychologists, Shamans and psychics for these and other EHEs.
Articles Related to Psychic Disorders Considered Psychiatric
People who found this article interesting might want to read:
Is_Old_Hag_Syndrome_Sleep_Paralysis is a comparison of the two syndromes and offers medical theories about causation.
Spiritual_Emergence_Experience_SEE discusses pioneer Stanislav Grof’s criteria for and transpersonal psychology’s and contradictory theories about the subject.
Windigo_Sickness_Psychic_Disorder compares Windigo psychosis, recognized by psychological anthropologists, with the sickness and offers a case history of the sickness.
Sources:
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
- Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, (HarperSanFransico, 1991).
- The Terror that Comes in the Night, David Hufford, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989).
Jill Stefko - I'd rather deal with the paranormal than human abnormal - having dealt extensively with both.
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