Observed primarily among Eskimo communities, piblokto is an abrupt dissociative episode accompanied by extreme excitement of up to 30 minutes’ duration and frequently followed by convulsive seizures and coma lasting up to 12 hours. Also referred to as arctic hysteria.
A syndrome, apparently culturally specific for Eskimo women, in which the person screams, removes or tears off her clothes, and runs naked in the snow. The woman then has no recollection of these events.