Fortitude

Mass hysteria (MH) is a term used to describe unexplained outbreaks or epidemics of physical symptoms that occur among people in a shared environment. These symptoms do not have a physical, biological, or identifiable cause. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, MH is characterized by a group of symptoms that usually mimic organic disease. However, the symptoms are psychogenic in nature, meaning that they originate from the mind, rather than from a physical condition. MH typically occurs in individuals who share a common belief that their symptoms are indicative of a definite illness (Zhao et al., 2021)

The Dancing Mania

You wake up to the sound of chaos outside. You step out to find a large crowd of people, seemingly dancing without any music. More and more people are joining in, as if under some strange spell. The Horror. The Dancing Mania, also known as St. Vitus Dance, first occurred in the 7th century and was more common during the 14th to 17th centuries in mainland Europe.

It was characterized by groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes with thousands of participants. This mania affected both adults and children, who danced until they collapsed due to exhaustion and injuries, and sometimes even resulted in death. One of the notable researchers into the phenomenon, Bartholomew, a medical sociologist, notes that those affected by dancing mania suffered from various ailments. These included chest pains, convulsions, hallucinations, hyperventilation, epileptic fits, and visions. Ultimately, most people who experienced dancing mania simply dropped down, overwhelmed by exhaustion. This mania was contagious, but it often struck small groups, such as families and individuals. They danced, they screamed, they laughed, or cried, some sang, some danced until they broke their ribs and subsequently died. Seems like a scene from a horror movie, but this occurrence actually happened more than once. No proper explanation has been offered for this occurrence, it started suddenly and the groups of individuals involved seemed to be in a sort of a trance and up to now theories are still being offered.

The Joker is in Town (The Laughter Epidemic of Tanganyika) 

They say Certain kinds of laughter are contagious. The Year was 1962 January 30, in a small village in Tanzania, at a mission-run boarding school for girls in Kashasha. According to historical records, an outbreak of uncontrolled laughter began with three girls and quickly spread throughout a school, affecting 95 out of 159 students aged between 12 and 18. In April and May, 217 people, mostly school children and young adults, experienced laughing fits in the village. While there is nothing inherently wrong with laughter, the problem with this epidemic was that the symptoms (laughing) lasted from hours to days, which obviously disrupted normal classes. The situation got so bad that the school had to be closed, and after a few days, the entire village and neighboring schools were affected. As a result, many more schools had to be closed. However, the cause of the epidemic was never identified, I mean they never found the Joke that started the epidemic 🤭😂. Legend has it that the joke was “………………………….” Okay lets not start an epidemic.

The Cat Ladies

It was during the middle ages that a certain nun in a german monestry suddenly started meowing like a cat, eventually inspiring the other nuns to follow suit. Eventually, the surrounding population would be amazed when all of the nuns in the monastery would meow together for a specific amount of time.

Until the Police threatened to lash the nuns. Mass hysteria or boredom. The Horror. I guess the police found the cure for mass hysteria, a good old fashion whip.

Strawberries with Sugar virus

Be careful what you let your kids watch. The year was 2006  in some Portuguese schools , rashes, breathing difficulties, and dizziness were among the symptoms reported by at least 300 students from 14 different schools. A medical outbreak theory prompted the temporary closure of certain schools. However, it was later discovered that the symptoms the students were experiencing were the same as those of the characters in a then-recent episode of a popular teen girl show called Morangos com Açúcar ('Strawberries With Sugar,' where a life-threatening virus affected the school. And so the 300+ students fell ill because they were convinced that they had the virus they had watched from a TV show. Eventually, the Portuguese National Institute for Medical Emergency declared the condition to be mass hysteria.

The Conclusion

I won't attempt to explain the causes of the aforementioned phenomenons. Theories have been proposed, and some explanations have been offered. You're welcome to look into them. While some attribute mass hysteria to the spiritual realm, I don't deny the influence of an unseen world. However, it's important to acknowledge the psychological aspect of it. History has many fascinating incidents to explore, and we can understand some of the current occurrences better by looking at history. As the wise man said, 'there is nothing new under the sun. I didn't write the above Article just for fun, but to comment on the phenomenon of Psychological Contagion. Some refer to it by different names and apply it differently, but essentially it's a phenomenon where the behavior observed in one individual leads to the same behavior being produced reflexively by others. This can occur subconsciously. The examples mentioned above are extreme, but it's worth contemplating how self-aware we are and how much of our behavior is actually our own. And in our case it is not just behaviour but our mind has the ability to manifest physical symptoms as long as it is convinced that a condition or state is real, to a certain extent as long as the mind believes it, physical evidence is of no consequence.

# Self-awareness is the ability to focus on yourself and how your actions, thoughts, or emotions align with your internal standards.

References

Dancing plagues and mass hysteria | The Psychologist. (2015, July 8). Web.archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20150708141642/https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-22/edition-7/dancing-plagues-and-mass-hysteria

Book sources. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4419-1222-0

Horne, E. (2007, May 31). {Radio Lab in Tanzania}: From the Central African Medical Journal, 1963. {Radio Lab in Tanzania}. http://rltz.blogspot.com/2007/05/from-central-african-medical-journal.html

List of mass hysteria cases. (2024, January 9). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_hysteria_cases