Wild Man Syndrome

Wild man syndrome, also known as wild pig syndrome, is a culture-bound syndrome affecting the mental health of New Guinean males, known in various local languages as guria, longlong, or lulu, in which sufferers become hyperactive, clumsy, kleptomaniacal, and afterward conveniently amnesic. Among the Gururumba tribe, the illness is characterized by involuntary antisocial behavior followed by situational amnesia and a resumption of normal life, typically after a recently married man loots his neighbors' homes and then retreats into the forest for several days before returning without the stolen articles; wild-pig attacks seem to occur when a man is unable to meet his financial obligations, and those who have undergone an episode later receive special consideration from creditors, while the Gururumba people themselves attribute the illness to the ghosts of recently deceased tribe members. The syndrome is limited to men aged twenty-five to thirty-five and is treated as a disease, though its behavior is not acknowledged as voluntary by society or the individual experiencing it.