Collective hysteria
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
In psychology collective hysteria (also referred to as mass hysteria) is the name given to a phenomenon of the manifestation of the same hysterical symptoms by more than one person. It normally begins when an individual shows a hysteric manifestation in front of others who "contagiously" acquire the same symptoms.
Examples include cases of accidents in which people act "irrationally", screaming, running in the wrong direction, etc; cases in which a person who is suspected of a crime is caught by a group and one of the members throws a stone or gives the first kick, and the rest join the action; etc. Another symptom includes group nausea, often caused by a publicly witnessed traumatic event. Seeing one person become violently ill can psychologically trigger a similar reaction in other bystanders.
Writer Jerome Clark--while recognizing that mass panic can undoubtedly be genuine and widespread--argues that mass hysteria can be “a classic blame-the-victim strategy” in cases where authorities or experts can find no explanation for puzzling or frightening events.
See also
- craze
- folie à deux
- Hysteria
- New Delhi monkeyman
- panic
- Salem witch trials
- Satanic ritual abuse
- Spring Heeled Jack
- Stock market bubble, Stock market crash
- The Mad Gasser of Mattoon
- War of the Worlds
- fan death
Sources
- Jerome Clark, ‘’Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena’’, Visible Ink Press, 1993.
External links
- Mass Hysteria (http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/depress/antidprs.html)
