Piblokto, Pibloktoq or Arctic hysteria is a condition exclusively appearing in Inughuit societies living within the Arctic Circle. Appearing most prevalently in winter, it is considered to be a form of a culture-bound syndrome, although more recent studies (see Skepticism section) question whether it exists at all.
Symptoms can include intense hysteria (screaming, uncontrolled wild behavior), depression, coprophagia, insensitivity to extreme cold (such as running around in the snow naked), echolalia (senseless repetition of overheard words) and more. This condition is most often seen in Inughuit women. This culture-bound syndrome is possibly linked to vitamin A toxicity (hypervitaminosis A). The native Inughuit diet provides rich sources of vitamin A and is possibly the cause or a causative factor. The ingestion of organ meats, liver of arctic fish, mammals, where the vitamin is stored in toxic quantities can be fatal.
In 1988, Parks Canada historian Lyle Dick began a substantial challenge to the concept that piblokto exists at all. Dick examined the original records of the Arctic explorers, and ethnographic and linguistic reports on Inughuit societies, and discovered that not only is the majority of academic speculation into piblokto based on reports of only eight cases, but the word "piblokto" / "pibloktoq" does not exist within the Inughuit language; possibly, Dick concluded, this may have been the result of errors in phonetic transcription.
In a 1995 paper published in the journal Arctic Anthropology,[1] and in his 2001 book Muskox land: Ellesmere Island in the age of contact, Dick suggests that piblokto is a "phantom phenomenon", arising more from the Inuhuit reaction to European explorers in their midst.[2]
Similarly, Hughes and Simons have described piblokto as a "catch-all rubric under which explorers lumped various Inuhuit anxiety reactions, expressions of resistance to patriarchy or sexual coercion, and shamanistic practice."[3]
Parker, S (1962). "Eskimo psychopathology in the context of Eskimo personality and culture". American Anthropologist 64: 76–96. doi:10.1525/aa.1962.64.1.02a00080.