A pengamuk (lit.'one who runs amok') in Batavia, Java, c. 1858–1861. A group of people pursue to catch or kill him.
Amok syndrome is an aggressive dissociative behavioral pattern derived from Indonesia and Malaysia that led to the English phrase running amok.[1] The word derives from the Malay word amuk, traditionally meaning "rushing in a frenzy" or "attacking furiously".[2][3] Amok syndrome presents as an episode of sudden mass assault against people or objects following a period of brooding, which has traditionally been regarded as occurring especially in Malaysian culture but is now increasingly viewed as psychopathological behavior.[4] The syndrome of "Amok" is found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV TR).[5] In the DSM-V, Amok syndrome is no longer considered a culture-bound syndrome, since the category of culture-bound syndrome has been removed.[1]