火病国家救済委員会　本部

世界の火病！！


ひびょう【火病】 　 現象
　 韓国・朝鮮人にだけ現れる特異な現象として、アメリカの精神科協会にも公認されている精神疾患。Hwapyung/Hwa-byung。ファビョン。文化欠陥症候群/Culture-bound Syndromes、怒り病/anger syndromesとも。
　 韓国・朝鮮においての正式名称は「鬱火病/Wool-hwa-byung」。


Examining Anger in 'Culture-Bound' Syndromes
by Sandra L. Somers
Psychiatric Times January 1998 Vol. XV Issue 1


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"Hwa-byung" and "ataque de nervios," listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) as culture-bound syndromes, can serve as gateways to understanding anger's role in psychiatric morbidity, according to a panel of experts.
Christopher K. Chung, M.D., assistant professor and director of psychiatric emergency services at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., who chaired a symposium on hwa-byung and anger syndromes at the American Psychiatric Association last year, described the Korean phenomenon of hwa-byung (literally, fire disease) as "more specifically, suppressed anger syndrome." He said there was not a consensus as to whether the syndrome should be classified as culture-bound.

"Hwa-byung could be universal," he said, adding that if a term exists in a certain culture, the possibility exists that it can be better understood from a culture-general perspective.

The Korean Perspective

Sung Kil Min, M.D., Ph.D., of the department of psychiatry at Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, said that according to theories of traditional Oriental medicine, fire is one of five universal elements. If found to be excessive in the body, this fire element is believed to disturb the balance of bodily elements, resulting in disease.

"Koreans commonly describe anger as fire," he said, "and think that if anger is suppressed for a long time, a group of symptoms develops that is identified as hwa-byung. Sometimes the term wool-hwa-byung is used, in which wool means 'dense, thick or pent-up.'" Because many hwa-byung patients relate their condition to the psychology of "haan," a traditional culturally determined emotional state, Min considers hwa-byung a culture-related syndrome of Korea.

According to patients' explanations, Min said, those with hwa-byung have experiences which "cause hurt, damaging, boiling, exploding [sensations] inside the chest or body." Korean patients' cultural inclinations to keep the family in harmony and peacefulness, and not jeopardize social relationships dictate that anger must be suppressed, pent up and accumulated. Then, he said, the anger becomes like a dense mass "pushing up" in the chest, resulting in a distinct syndrome whereby most hwa-byung patients are diagnosed, according to DSM-III-R criteria, as having major depression or dysthymic disorder combined with somatization disorder.

Hwa-byung is more frequently found in females in their 40s or 50s, less-educated people, those of lower socioeconomic status and those from rural areas. On mental examination, hwa-byung patients characteristically reveal a polite attitude, numerous somatic complaints and tears.


http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p980145.html