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Tabanka (Tabanca)
Tabanka, also known as "Tabanca," is a Trinidadian, culture-bound syndrome, that is a form of depression and results from the loss of a sexual partner to another. Many cases occur when a married man is abondoned by the wife for another man. The majority of victims are working class Afro-Trinidadian males but some of the worst cases are prevalent when the couple is involved in a formal (church based) marriage. The term Tabanka is used in looser context in many cases because of the lack of heterosexual relationships they get to experience. It is more recently used to describe the general state of rejected love. According to Maharajh and Ali, "The term is also used to describe the feeling of being in love where one is constantly thinking, daydreaming and totally “head over heels” with someone, the mental anguish of getting “horn” and having girlfriend/boyfriend worries or “a case of Love Jones”." Jonathan Friedman explains, "This is a kind of moping sickness, leading to solitary contemplation and even suicide, but as Littlewood notes it is also something of a standard joke. The reason for this is that tabanca represents a failing in the maintenance of those values which espouse transience. A man in his relationship with women is expected to retain his phlegmatic cool, relationships are something he can take or leave. If, however, he starts to become more deeply involved, if he allows this relationship to become internalized as something in which he has invested himself, then he stands in danger of considerable loss if the relationship should fail. When this woman leaves him or when she commits adultery his failure to keep the relationship on the surface becomes evident, and tabanca follows."

Symptoms
Tabanka is constituded by:
 * Depression
 * Weariness
 * Sleeplessness
 * Starvation
 * Feelings of worthlessness
 * Anger
 * Inactivity in work and leisure
 * Liming

Following the symptoms may involve heavy drinking and sometimes dementia and high rates suicide. Tabanka leads men to actions of amusement that causes an egalitarian and individualistic working-class view towards marriage and social flexibility.

Treatment
Maharajh and Ali discuss treatment inside the culture: "Local researchers have argued that this love-struck behaviour is the feeling one gets when rejected by a partner or love object and is circumscribed in the pathos of culturally-determined confrontational humor known as ‘picong'. This process allows the individual to work through his feelings of loss and rejection in a cognitive behavioural context of minimization, levity and social support. Although contemporarily considered to be a ‘culture bound syndrome' this behaviour has been locally described as an adjustment disorder. It is culturally recognizable particularly when the loss is known to one's peers. The individual may experience a temporary decrease in worth, humour and esteem by way of the satirical and jocular treatment from his or her peers. This in itself is cathartic and leads to resolution."

Cultural and Social Affects
Men diagnosed with this tend to struggle with social issues such as belittlement and sexual and moral embarrassment. Sufferers, usually socially aspiring males such as teachers or policemen, are objects of pity and ribald, satirical mirth. A typical sufferer would abandon his job, neglect his appearance and hygiene, and be seen sitting in the dust in torn clothing, withdrawn and dejected. This would follow his partner abandoning him by having a baby with another man. Observers find this condition hilarious, perhaps as the spectacle of collapsed social ambition and middle class values. Their disturbed behaviour does not seem to call for medical attention and may be an acceptable form of outlet, sanctioned by local culture, and may provide a model for other types of personal distress. This may be seen as a Tobagonian parallel to overdose in the United Kingdom but does not explain the low female parasuicide rate. In the studies of Stephen M. Whitehead, he pointed out that in "a rural Hindu East Indian village in Trinidad" for every guy who knew what to do when it came to flirting with gals, there was a man who had no hope in ever finding a woman because he would try not to sweet-talk a woman into going out with him. The syndrome of 'tabanka' is geared more towards young village men, and this word describes a man who believes that he is less important than he truly is, someone who is ashamed of his sexuality and morality. It also means that these African-Trinidadians man have lost the affection of the woman that he is courting to another young man. The example given by Whitehead about the 24-year-old man gives several characteristics of men that are going through the tabanka syndrome: a man who leaves his friends so he can, more than likely, stalk the woman that he feels something towards but in the end does not take action into showing his feelings towards the female. Many times the cases are seen by their peers so severe that they change the name from Tabanca to "Tabantruck", which means they cannot figuratively, fit in a car but need a truck ("taban-truck" as opposed to "taban-car"). Nine behaviors, including tabanca, were identified to 536 participants as existent cultural behaviours. The sample population was equivalent in age, sex, and ethnicity to the population that live in Trinidad and Tobago. After the sample was given the nine behaviours, they were to complete a questionaire that asked questions on the meaning of all 9 behaviours. Table 4 shows the percentages of people that chose the different meanings of the behaviour Tabanca. Measurements of respondents' perception of behaviors seen as part of the culture of Trinidad and Tobago were taken further on in the study. For tabanca, 82% of the respondents believed that Tabanca was part of the culture.

Cases Studies & Articles

 * Recognition of Cultural Behaviours In Trinidad and Tobago