Editing Usog (section)

{{Short description|Topic in Filipino psycho-medicine}}
{{Use Philippine English|date=April 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}
'''Usog''' or '''balis'''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jocano |first1=F. Landa |title=Filipino Social Organization: Traditional Kinship and Family Organization |date=1998 |publisher=Punlad Research House |isbn=978-971-622-003-2 |page=78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TbJwAAAAMAAJ |access-date=June 12, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> is a [[Superstition in the Philippines|Filipino superstition]] whereby an affliction or psychological disorder is attributed to a stranger's greeting or [[evil eye]] [[Curse|hex]]. It is usually attributed to afflictions of infants and toddlers.<ref>[http://www.stuartxchange.com/PweUsog.html PWE-USOG / PWE-BUYAG: Miscellaneous Therapies in Philippine Alternative Medicine<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

In some limited areas, it is said that the condition is also caused by the stranger having an evil eye or ''masamang mata'' in [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], lurking around. This may have been influenced by the advent of the Spaniards who long believed in the ''[[mal de ojo]]'' superstition.

Once affected, the child begins to develop [[fever]], and sometimes [[convulsion]]s. Supposedly, the child can be cured by placing its clothing in hot water and boiling it.  In most other places, to counter the effects of the "usog" the stranger or newcomer is asked to put some of their [[saliva]] on the baby's abdomen, shoulder or forehead before leaving the house. The newcomer then leaves while saying: "''Pwera usog... pwera usog...''" ("Out, usog")<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stoodley |first1=Bartlett H. |title=Society and Self: A Reader in Social Psychology |date=1965 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-02-931640-5 |page=239 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LtUMAQAAIAAJ |access-date=June 12, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> The saliva is placed on the finger first, before the finger is rubbed on the baby's abdomen or forehead. The stranger is never to lick the child.<ref>{{cite web |title=Postpartum and Philippine Culture - Secondthoughts - Viloria.com |url=http://www.viloria.com/secondthoughts/archives/00000176.html |website=www.viloria.com |access-date=June 11, 2021}}</ref> The practice is that the stranger or visitor is asked to touch their finger with saliva to the child's body, arm or foot (''"lawayan"'') to prevent the child from getting overpowered (''"upang hindi mausog"''). Protective charms may also be added to an infant's clothing to ward off usog.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jocano |first1=F. Landa |title=Filipino Social Organization: Traditional Kinship and Family Organization |date=1998 |publisher=Punlad Research House |isbn=978-971-622-003-2 |pages=109, 112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TbJwAAAAMAAJ |access-date=June 12, 2021 |language=en}}</ref>