Journal de la grossesse et de la santé infantile

Abstrait

Susto: Etiology of Mental Disorders in Mothers and Children in Mexico

Miriam Castaldo

This article presents the results of an investigation into the construction and representation of mental disorders that was carried out in the Nahua community of Santa María de la Encarnación Xoyatla and in the Mestizo community of San Cristóbal Tepeojuma, both located in the southwest of the State of Puebla, in Mexico. In such areas, mental disorders are embodied as enfermedades de la cabeza (mental illnesses) and their psychophysical manifestations are locura (madness) and ataques (attacks). Both illnesses are produced by having suffered a susto or an espanto (fright), which in the contexts we consider are synonymous, and can become incurable and even fatal if they develop in children who have been breastfed by women who have suffered a susto.