Prompt Cast
Understanding Mass Hysteria: Causes, Examples, and Symptoms
TLDR Mass hysteria, also known as mass psychogenic illness, is a phenomenon where people experience physical symptoms without a physical cause, often triggered by stress and occurring in close-knit communities. Examples throughout history include nuns meowing in unison, people believing they were bitten by a kissing bug, and cases of self-inflicted injuries reported as attacks.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Mass hysteria, also known as mass psychogenic illness or collective delusions, is a phenomenon where people experience physical symptoms without a physical cause, often triggered by stress and occurring in close-knit communities.
04:29
In medieval times, there were numerous cases of mass hysteria occurring in strict and tight-knit nunneries, with examples including nuns bleating like sheep, yelping like dogs, and meowing like cats.
09:00
In a medieval convent in France, all of the nuns started meowing in unison, but they were forced to stop when soldiers threatened to beat them, and this belief in demonic possession and the removal of individual responsibility is a hallmark of mass psychogenic illness.
13:17
Newspaper reporting about the kissing bug and chagas disease in the 1890s led to a mass psychogenic illness where people believed they were being bitten by the kissing bug and exhibited symptoms, but it stopped when the newspaper stopped writing about it.
17:37
In the Halifax Slasher case of 1938, multiple women reported being slashed by an anonymous stranger, causing fear and panic in the town of Halifax, England.
21:51
In the Halifax Slasher case, it was discovered that many of the victims had actually slashed themselves and falsely reported being attacked by a slasher, leading to a mass psychogenic illness; a similar case occurred in Taipei, Taiwan in the 1950s.
26:07
In Tanganyika in 1962, a mass hysteria outbreak occurred at a girl's boarding school.
30:45
In the West Bank in 1983, a mass hysteria outbreak occurred among young Arabs, leading to accusations of chemical warfare between Palestine and Israel.
34:59
In Portugal in 2006, a mass psychogenic illness occurred among kids who watched a teen soap opera, causing them to believe they were experiencing the same symptoms as the characters in the show.
39:18
Anxiety is a common symptom of mass hysteria, which occurs frequently around the world, and if you want to learn more about it, you can listen to other episodes of the podcast or search for it on their website.
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Society & Culture
