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Original poster

Mass hysteria in history

35 replies

DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 03/10/2019 00:55

I came across this informative YouTube channel and this video struck me as interesting and enlightening. The nuns who went meow is funny, but it’s persistence and spread seem to have distinct parallels with the spread of young girls transing themselves. Add in the power of social media and you can see how even the oddest ideas take hold.

Add in a social climate which is strictly enforcing gender stereotypes and the-end-of-the-world zeitgeist which, (I think), is driving so much anomalous behaviour generally, and you have a perfect storm of uncertainty.

”For an episode of mass hysteria to begin, all that is necessary is troubled times in the culture, a shared set of beliefs and a final, fearful, anxiety-provoking trigger to set the phenomenon into motion”

”The disorder is thought to be driven by a subconscious attempt to "convert" a strong, unbearable emotional or sexual thought into something more socially acceptable. Moreover, whereas individuals can exhibit conversion disorder, it is not at all uncommon for more than one individual to share in this trick of the mind. The sufferers can reinforce the behavior in each other, particularly if they share a common set of beliefs and are burdened by similar anxieties and fears.”

www.huffpost.com/entry/mass-hysteria_b_1239012

I know there was a recent peer-reviewed paper which came to the same conclusion (but more scientifically). This is Transgender Trends annotated review of the evidence.

www.transgendertrend.com/current-evidence/

I suppose what struck me was that we’d certainly call meowing nuns ludicrous and not persuade ourselves they were cats or attempt to graft tails onto their bums. But when young girls, en masse, decide they are boys, what fracture in our culture led us to go, “Sure. We believe you. Take some (dangerous) drugs and book in for surgical mutilation.”?

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AutumnRose1 · 05/10/2019 14:57

I don't think I've articulated myself well at all

Oh well.

"Optimal Blood pressure levels changed to bring more people into the *high blood pressure" zone for treatment."

Yes, mine used to be low, apparently it's very good now! I'm not sure if this comes under mass hysteria but I was the victim of a huge amount of invasive and unnecessary medical testing last year. I didn't know if it was an isolated case but then this year mum had a UTI and they tried to do similar to her. Based on my experience, she had the courage to say no. I'm wondering if a lot of people are going through it because they think they should.

WrathofSWhlttleKlop · 05/10/2019 14:39

Data on medical diagnosis and treatment depend on standardised classification.
Gender dysphoria no longer designated a psychiatric condition. (WHO)
Aspergers syndrome now under the wider autistic umbrella.
Cholesterol levels "no longer a nutrient of concern".
Optimal Blood pressure levels changed to bring more people into the *high blood pressure" zone for treatment.

Not all bad but small changes in classifications changes data.

And then there is big pharma...

Endofthedays · 05/10/2019 14:15

And neither self harm nor eating disorders have declined. Both have increased over the past trend.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental health issue.

Trans, while being a huge concern, is not as serious a problem as anorexia.

Endofthedays · 05/10/2019 14:11

You wouldn’t know how many pupils in a school were self harming because the norm for self harm is that the person is highly secretive and doesn’t tell anyone at all that they are self harming.

Antibles · 05/10/2019 14:10

I'm in two minds about chronic Lyme. There is a long and undistinguished history of the medical profession dismissing people only because the medical profession doesn't yet have the answers. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence and there is a huge amount not yet known about viruses and bacteria. The medical professional dismissed microscopy and the germ theory of disease for over a century, for starters.

Antibles · 05/10/2019 14:04

I think micro analysis happens when people have the luxury to navel gaze because nothing more serious is happening to them. Food in their stomach, a pleasant roof over their head, a steady income, not living in a war zone, leisure time, a civilisation that allows some to do thought-based work rather than manual.

Original poster
DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 05/10/2019 13:25

Is micro analysis of everything another mass hysteria?

I don’t know if I’d call it hysteria, but I think it’s related to the narrowing of our concerns to the identity of individuals or the precise level of an artist’s acceptability.

I believe that fear of climate change is driving our increasing solipsism. The big picture is too terrifying, so we’re curling into ourselves, like a frightened hedgehog, until all we can see are our navels.

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AutumnRose1 · 05/10/2019 12:00

Also, Twitter. This might sound mad, but over the years I've really enjoyed it for creative writing, arts etc

Now it seems to have become people constantly talking about identity and/or illness instead of their creative work. I realised that if I unfollowed, I'd have no one, so have just deleted it.

I hear a lot about "evolving understanding" and "ongoing conversations" around meanings in art and writing, but I'm just looking at it thinking "must we analyse the fuck out of everything?" Is micro analysis of everything another mass hysteria?

AutumnRose1 · 05/10/2019 11:56

Apologies if stating the obvious

I'm struggling because I live in a very woke world, in real life.

Yesterday I was wondering if the wokeness is a form of mass hysteria? I just can't think what's happened to get us here.

Original poster
DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 05/10/2019 00:37

What a fascinating article, thank you for posting it.

These paragraphs struck me as applicable to the phenomenon of young girls believing they are boys.

“I knew that mental-health diagnoses were a difficult subject among chronic-Lyme patients; non-Lyme doctors who suggested a psychiatric basis for symptoms were a source of profound frustration. Such suggestions were understood to translate directly as All in your head, so get over it.”

“We set a standard that says something like, for your suffering to be legitimate and for us to pay attention to you and want to see you — this is ‘we, medicine’ — you should have a mechanism behind it. So are we surprised that there’s a whole lay group organized around saying we need a mechanism and we demand you see that there’s a somatic mechanism behind this thing?” He went on: “There’s suffering that has no name and no precise mechanism, possibly because it’s not localizable to a mechanism. And that doesn’t make it illegitimate, either.”

“If Lyme can be an identity, it is also a market,”

“Her husband was dubious, and when Hartman echoed his skepticism on Facebook, the backlash was swift and intense. People she’d thought of as friends accused her of medical child abuse; they threatened to call CPS.”

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Springfern · 04/10/2019 20:39

Another one

www.thecut.com/2019/07/what-happens-when-lyme-disease-becomes-an-identity.html

The philosopher Ian Hacking calls them 'transient mental illnesses'

Qcng · 04/10/2019 08:00

Completely agree Dance like

Original poster
DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 03/10/2019 23:51

*Posie Parker spoke to whassisname on LBC, she spoke of the rise in teenage girls coming out as trans. Used the phrase "social contagion".

Whassisname, O'Brian (James? Dick?) Spluttered in venomous response "OMG you think bring trans is.... Contageous!!!!"

Which really just goes to show how inane much of the thinking around trans issues is. There are many human behaviours which are “contagious”, in a way which doesn’t imply particle infection.

Yawning and laughing are two really common ones. Vomiting is another. You could argue that fashion is another kind of social contagion - look at that Zara dress which got so much attention. Anything which becomes super-popular on social media is said to “go viral”.

I’d speculate that humans might be wired for this kind of behaviour - at less extreme levels shared behaviours probably promote social cohesion.

Under stress we know that people flock to others like them: men in uniform will gravitate to other men in uniform in a crisis, for example. So perhaps when the social environment is so stressful, aberrant behaviours are a way of constructing in-groups to ease anxiety.

I can we’ll see why teenage girls would embrace the trans narrative, the world is toxic for girls, but why society treats the phenomenon as a metaphysical crisis of identity and not an indication of cultural breakdown is a mystery.

Or maybe not. Fixing society is a lot harder and more expensive than indulging the fantasies of middle aged men and schoolgirls.

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Grimbles · 03/10/2019 18:46

@ArnoldWhatshisknickers

Bridgend was one such incident (or set of incidents) Sad

hoodathunkit · 03/10/2019 18:45

We had a very good thread on exactly this issue a little while ago

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3664470-The-mystery-of-screaming-schoolgirls-in-Malaysia

:)

Coldhandscoldheart · 03/10/2019 17:28

@Qcng are numbers of anorexics actually falling? There still seems to be a tremendous difficulty getting treatment in many areas.

ArnoldWhatshisknickers · 03/10/2019 12:42

Thinking about it AGP in itself could be considered in these terms. It often seems to rear its head amongst men who would be considered of an age to be having a 'midlife crisis' and midlife crisis seems to also go through fashions. Think of all the jokes about MAMILs, which wasn't a thing at all until relatively recently.

DreadPirateLuna · 03/10/2019 12:41

Ok I probably should have watched the video first, they do mention the dance mania in Strasbourg Blush

ArnoldWhatshisknickers · 03/10/2019 12:39

Another, deeply troubling, one that can be added to the list is suicide, which is why strict reporting guidelines on the issue exist, even if some refuse to apply them.

Antibles · 03/10/2019 12:37

The anorexics were never "affirmed", why are the trans affirmed?

Good question. The answer is probably: because the latter is currently nicely serving the interests of some adult males who have the power in society to push their agenda. Men with AGP who want the acceptance and validation, perverts who want access to women's spaces for the sexual opportunities, narcissists for the power trip, and MRAs out of misogyny.

I guess anorexia didn't offer the same rich opportunities.

Patnotpending · 03/10/2019 12:30

Can I add cutting to the list? I'm 60 and I didn't know anyone who cut themselves or encounter anyone with scarred arms during my time in education or my early years at work. Then it began to be publicised and suddenly, in the mid-to-late-90s, I began to see young women with scarred arms in public and in the workplace.

I'm sure some people cut themselves in the past, but it wasn't a 'thing'. My friend's daughter talked to me about it a couple of years ago and seemed to think it was no longer as prevalent as it had been and was seen as rather passe. I can't help hoping the trans fad will go the same way.

DreadPirateLuna · 03/10/2019 12:28

Dancing manias in Europe in the 14th to 17th centuries. Whole towns would break out in mass episodes of dancing for days and some dying of exhaustion.

This was also the era of the Witch Craze, so something was obviously in the air.

Qcng · 03/10/2019 12:10

Unfortunately the words "social contagion" give the expression that the whatever-it-is, is "contageous".

Posie Parker spoke to whassisname on LBC, she spoke of the rise in teenage girls coming out as trans. Used the phrase "social contagion".

Whassisname, O'Brian (James? Dick?) Spluttered in venomous response "OMG you think bring trans is.... Contageous!!!!"

So unfortunately, with some analysis you can see patterns of social contageon, but then you get idiots implying that you mean the thing is like a disease.

Anyone with more than two braincells can see there was a huge spike in teenage girls bring anorexic in the 90s and now there's a huge spike in girls coming out as trans, and few anorexics to be seen. The anorexics were never "affirmed", why are the trans affirmed?

It is indeed a madness of crowds in our living times.

Antibles · 03/10/2019 12:02

The disorder is thought to be driven by a subconscious attempt to "convert" a strong, unbearable emotional or sexual thought into something more socially acceptable

While at first I only thought of the teenagers identifying as trans, does it also apply to some of the middle aged men wanting to convert their AGP into something more socially acceptable?

snowbear66 · 03/10/2019 11:55

Another case study is Bulimia
[www.thecut.com › article › how-bulimia-became-a-medical-diagnosis]
Gerald Russel wrote an article about bulimia in The Cut:

“Until 1972,” he continued, “the disorder was extremely rare. But after 1980, it became widespread in a very short period of time.
... Russell’s discovery took on characteristics of a pandemic that was set to claim 30 million people, but neither he nor anyone could do a thing at that point to stop it...Once they are out, they are virtually impossible to rein back in again.

30 million!