Regional disturbances and internet

In a 2001 article Regional Disturbances, Richard asks:
"Americans get anorexia. Nigerians get 'brain fag.' Malaysians suffer from 'hyperstartle syndrome.' How culturally specific is mental illness?"
He goes on to discuss a Malay malady latah among other maladies and says:
"There is one thing that remains constant for all latah sufferers. Upon becoming afflicted, latahs become permanently sensitive to startling. It is a lifetime condition. Scholars have only encountered a few latahs who have overcome their symptoms. Even if latah is spread primarily by culture, then, it is a potent virus.

Indeed, the power of culture to propagate mental illness has become a subject of increasing fascination in the West. In recent years, scholars have seen mysterious maladies proliferate in a way that echoes the spread of latah. Multiple-personality disorder, for example, flourished among white, middle-class American women in the 1980's. And more recently, American and European psychologists have begun tracking apotemnophilia -- a new, disturbing condition in which sufferers desire to amputate one of their own limbs. The Internet, medical anthropologists say, is helping spread the condition globally. As with latah, there is no cure. "

I came across latah in an post by Justin Smith who has been promisiing to write about Indian Philosophy(?). There are beginnings in one post What Is 'Non-Western' Philosophy?