Foulks
Article
Foulks is a recurring person in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between April 06, 2023 and May 30, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “the namesake of Foulks’ book”; “And Foulks was able to test calcium levels in ten piblokto patients”; “Foulks comes to admitting an exception… Foulks, writing in 1970”. It most often appears alongside Jaynes, advanced meditators, Alaska.
Metadata
- Category: People
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: April 06, 2023
- Last seen: May 30, 2023
Appears In
Related Pages
-
- Jaynes (2 shared issues)
-
- advanced meditators (1 shared issues)
-
- Alaska (1 shared issues)
-
- Alaskan government (1 shared issues)
-
- Alexander Technique (1 shared issues)
-
- Andamanese (1 shared issues)
-
- Arctic hysteria (1 shared issues)
-
- Bessel van der Kolk (1 shared issues)
-
- bodywork (1 shared issues)
-
- Buddhism (1 shared issues)
-
- Bureau of Indian Affairs (1 shared issues)
-
- Cape D’Urville (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Strange things are done in the midnight sun, say the poets who wrote of old. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see are chronicled in The Arctic Hysterias, psychiatrist Edward Foulks’ description of the culture-bound disorders of the Eskimos1.
Inline links: The Arctic Hysterias, 1
But the granddaddy of them all - and the namesake of Foulks’ book - is Arctic hysteria, aka piblokto. A sufferer suddenly snaps, engaging in unusual, dangerous, and violent acts. She may tear off her clothing, run out naked into the tundra, and jump into the icy water. Or she may try to kill herself or others, sometimes even her own children. Other behavior is simply bizarre: trying to walk on igloo ceilings, or gathering random rocks as if they are great treasures. When the hysteric’s friends and family notice the attack, they restrain the victim - usually it takes more than one person; an Arctic hysteric has the strength of several men. After a few minutes, the victim returns to her normal self. She remembers nothing.
Foulks’ book starts as a survey of Eskimo mental illness, but soon focuses into his investigation into the causes of Arctic hysteria. As a psychiatrist in northern Alaska, he was well-qualified to study this topic. But progress was slow.
The cross-cultural psychologists sometimes claim that other cultures verbalize their emotions less than Westerners (and correspondingly have more psychosomatic complaints), whereas Westerners verbalize them more and have depression. Cf. Jaynes, Watters, Foulks.