Customer Reviews

Boo! Culture, Experience, and the Startle Reflex (Series in Affective Science)

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This review will summarize each part of this book as well as include my opinions as a reader. "Boo! Culture, Experience, and the Startle Reflex" is the perfect selection as an introduction to the topic of the startle reflex. The author, Ronald C. Simons thoroughly yet briefly describes this phenomenon. I found it to be scholarly and very informative but still easy to read.
This book is separated into two major parts. One explains startle and hyperstartle. This is further divided into six sections: Introduction, Startle as a Personal Experience and as a Social Resource, Making People Jumpy - Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn Create a Hyperstartler, Variations on a Theme - Being Startled Makes One Ill, The Startle Museum I - Exhibits of Startle Sorted by their Expository Uses, and The Startle Museum II - Exhibits of Startle Sorted by Properties of Startle Events. These parts work to describe all aspects complete with examples. The second major section, Latah and Other Startle-Matching Syndromes introduces the syndromes from all over the world that exhibit these symptoms. These separate sections make this book very structured and organized. They are very clear parts with each essential to comprehensively describe the startle reflex. They are also ordered well by starting out with general information then funneling down to more specific details and examples.

Startle and Hyperstartle - Introduction
This section begins with the origins for the study of the startle reflex by going into the neurophysiology of it. It answers the "what" and "where" for this topic providing a very good detailed background. The author goes into detail with the anatomy for the startle reflex. He even includes the neurotransmitters that are involved such as the enhancing dopamine and the inhibiting serotonin. There are various states of the startle reflex such as "sensitization" or "habituation," as well as the various strengths of the startle response.

Startle as a Personal Experience and as a Social Resource
This chapter provides many personal accounts of the startle reflexes experienced in all types of situations and at all intensities of the reaction. These are great examples that will help you get a better understanding of what the author is talking about. He even goes further and analyzes each anecdote. All the different types of startles support that all are "a unique combination of physiological, social, cultural circumstances."

Making People Jumpy
This part of the book introduces the idea of the startle reflex as a habit. It starts off with a familiar example of the case of poor old Aunt Sally Phelps in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The troublesome duo, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn gave Aunt Sally a horrible fright when they accidentally brought home a whole sack full of snakes and left the bag untied. She was startled by every snake that were finally chased out of the house and even when the snakes were gone. The author suggests that the startle became a hyperstartle due to the repetition and frequency of the frights.

Variations on a Theme: Being Startle Makes One Ill
Here the various types of illnesses that were accounted for after a startle are listed. The author writes of six that were found around the globe. They include fright illness from Iran, Susto from Latin America, Espanto from Chiapas, Mexico, Lanti from Philippines, Mogo Laya from New Guinea, and Kesambet from Bali. Each is complete with descriptions, symptoms that pertain to it, and personal experiences of the event describing the setting, circumstances, and analyses of the events. I like the how the author included this chapter to go beyond just describing the startle reflex with what could happen to patients with the symptoms.

Startle Museum I and II
The author compiles the numerous varieties of startle and its many different causes for it. In the first "museum," he organizes them by their "expository uses." Some of these categories include startles used for social and cultural functions, that reveal the moral status, used to explain illness, and crafted for interest or pleasure. Each includes an excerpt from a novel, play, poem, newspaper, or film that exemplifies such description as well as an analysis. The second "museum" are divided by their properties of events. These groups include stimuli, responses, states of the person, and settings where startling is frequent. They are also written with explanations, examples, and analyses for each group. The author thoroughly describes each of his sets by further dividing up each category to more specific topics and examples. You can easily navigate through these two chapters with the outlines that list all his heading and subheadings.

Latah and Other Startle-Matching Syndromes
After reading about all aspects of the concept of startle and hyperstartle, the book concludes with the next major section that lists syndromes that have been found to display the startle trait. They are the startle-matching syndrome, Latah from Malaysia and Indonesia, Jumping Frenchmen of Maine, Miryachit from Siberia, Lapp Panic from Sweden, Bah-tsche from Thailand, Nekzah from Yemen, Imu from Hokkaido, Japan, and the Mali-mali, Silok, or Balatong from Philippines. Each may have some slight differences but the author suggests that these are very similar syndromes found in all parts of the globe. They are described by the reports collected of the victims from each region.

"Culture explains distribution; Biology explains form"
I find this to be a very profound statement. I believe it practically sums up his entire 247-page book.

Overall, I was impressed with this book. I was expecting it to be an encyclopedia-style that pounded me with too much information. However, it was short and sweet but at the same time I feel it was thorough in its descriptions. I would highly recommend this book. It is a great start as an introduction to the topic of startle reflex. It is even exhaustive enough to take as a source for research. The sections are well divided and help to provide for easy skimming if you are not in the mood to read the entire book.