Amok

[James E. Clapp]

Mike Salovesh wrote:
>
> I believe that "amok" came out of the Philippines, too.

I'm sure you're thinking of Malay.  See OED2.

There's an interesting (if brief) discussion of the phenomenon--and of many
other emotional disturbances identified with specific cultures or subcultures in
America and elsewhere--in the "Glossary of Culture-Bound Syndromes" in Appendix
I (eye) of DSM-IV (the fourth version of the American Psychiatric Association's
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 1994).