Post 10: The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine

  In all my research about culture-bound syndrome and diseases in general, I've come across a lot of weird symptoms and cases like the Foreign Accent Syndrome. And while it's not exactly the most odd disease out there, the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is seriously the strangest name I have ever heard for a disease. I expected something long and complicated (like Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis) as typical for a scientific name, or at least something that sounds complicated.

  Anyway, the Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is a culture-bound syndrome found, if you still haven't noticed, in Maine after a particular incident where French-Canadian lumberjacks who have entailed an exaggerated "startle" reflex, an uncontrollable "jump" to those who have seen it . This is not the only symptom that they have displayed as they are also said to be prone to yelling, hitting, obeying any random orders, copy other people's movements or back phrases (this is something called echophraxia and echolalia, respectively). The lumberjacks are also said to be rather shy.

   So what exactly is the source of this disorder? According to an article by Alasdair Winkins, entitled "The Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is history's most startling mental disorder",

"This particular instance may have had some genetic component, considering most of the sufferers were closely related and came from one of four families, but that may just speak to the insular nature of the French-Canadian lumberjack community in 19th century Maine."

 But this is still not an exact source of the phenomenon, and researchers are still exploring the possibilities as to how it occurred. One part of the article shows an anecdote from a neurologist named George Miller Beard, who had set out to explore the disease, putting well-researched and fascinating anecdotes about his research, and is said to be similar to an even stranger disease in Siberia called miryachit. To quote:

"Thus, when the captain slapped the paddle-box suddenly, he seemed compelled against his will to imitate it instantly, and with remarkable accuracy. To annoy him, some of the passengers imitated pigs grunting, or called out absurd names ; others clapped their hands and shouted, jumped, or threw their hats on the deck suddenly, and the poor steward, suddenly startled, would echo them all precisely, and sometimes several consecutively."

In that quote, the sad truth about the disease shows, despite the weird name it has. It would be all too common for people, especially those who are of ignorant nature, to mock or to taunt people with this types of disease without knowing that those inflicted are forced to imitate everyone around them no matter how much they don't want to.