[The blés, a caribbean creole disease]

The blès is a disease most often affecting children; its main causes being traumatism: fall, shock, exertion. But this disease, that is feared by some, is looked upon as odd by others. It indeed shows true pain in the sufferers, but anyhow bio-medicine doesn't consider it as a proper disease. A doctor does not "detect" it, only a medicine man is able to name it and hence cure it. So, the blès doesn't seem to belong to the system of official medicine and it comes under so called cultural disease. Known under different names, with variations concerning the set of symptoms, this disease is found in Creole-speaking islands of the Caribbean. Several interpretations can be given of this culture bound syndrome. One of them has to do with the collective unconscious of a deported, ill-used population.