Marlene Steinberg, an Associate Research Scientist at Yale University stated that because it is similar to Dissociative Identity Disorder, some Hispanics may be misdiagnosed with an ataque de nervios syndrome instead.
[1][4][9] In Steinberg's case study of a 40-year old divorced Hispanic woman, she hypothesizes that the subject's varied presentations of dissociative symptoms throughout her ongoing treatment amounted to a way for her to manage past sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse at the hands of family members.
[10] Reported aspects of the syndrome include uncontrollable screaming or shouting, crying, trembling, sensations of heat rising in the chest and head, dissociative experiences, and verbal or physical aggression.
Psychiatrists and medical professionals describe spirit possession as pathological because of its dissociative indicators, which involve an involuntarily deviant disruption of consciousness and altered behaviors that are destabilizing.
Studies involving practitioners of vodou in the Dominican Republic have shown that past trauma and socio-cultural circumstances both prominently forecasts spirit possession and Ataque as well as dissociation and other related psychiatric conditions.
[16][17] Ataque de nervios was first mentioned after studies were conducted by US medical officers who focused on healthcare for Hispanic populations, particularly soldiers who were Puerto Rican and involved in the Korean War.
This problematic classification sheds light on the ethnocentric and stigmatizing nature of medical and health practices of the military complex, showing how US colonial powers exact control over marginalized populations.
The military community has had an overwhelming influence on how mental disorders are named and classified in APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals (DSM), which demonstrates how its psychiatric practices have impacted the public sector.
Broken up into 6 parts, the narrative is interspersed with various multimedia elements, including historical photographs, documents, illustrations, as well as redacted excerpts from the 1941 medical book Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns with varying degrees of connection to the story.
Torres' character shares more specific details that address the social stressors that led to his eldest sister's violent tremors, expressing his wish that their parents show him the same quality of attention in caring for their daughter.