Analysing Historical Mass Psychogenic Epidemics & Gender Dysphoria

Not everyone that terms themselves a psychologist has any recognised form of scientific or clinical qualification and there is a strong undercurrent of pseudo-science on a range of topics. Even in the medically qualified field there is often considerable variation in opinion among professionals and they do have form for falling down diagnostic 'rabbit holes' as mentioned already. There is not even agreement on what is contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [DSM] Although it is from the US it does have influence here in the UK.

What I don't get is the number of psychologists promoting this stuff. Surely they must know about these past episodes? Do they not join the dots?

@UtopiaPlanitia so many people are using gender identity as a chance for radically rebranding themselves and women like this are rebranding themselves as uber kind and trendy and better than others.

Spot on. I know of this woman through social circles (tho her kids are younger, so I don't know her well) but your take absolutely fits if one looks through her past social. She was part-time pre-school teacher w/ power DH. She suddenly found politics at the same time her son found gender. Now, she's no longer in her DH shadow, she's in the cool women's club and leading the pack.

I'm from a family of teachers and respect the hell out of them...so no shade there, but it was obvious she was ambitious and this rebranding was easier than a slogging career that takes you away from your kids.

Exactly!

Just one example of the very weird lack of dot-joining:

Paula Durlofsky, Ph.D., a psychologist in private practice in Bryn Mawr, Pa., told Psychiatric News the problems associated with teens’ screen time “really underscore the power that social media has to shape young minds, minds that are still developing and so vulnerable and impressionable.” She advises clinicians to routinely ask patients about their social media and technology use during initial consultations and how they think it’s affecting them. “Keep in mind that social media use may be a factor in their condition.”

Ps. I'd also like to thank you for posting the webinar Utopia.
Mia is always so good to listen to.

She mentioned that previous outbreaks of mass psychogenic illness lasted around 20 years and I'm hoping that this particular psychogenic epidemic will disperse in a similar amount of time (even sooner would be better).
If this is the case, we should be reaching the tail end of it soon. The social contagion at my university was already rife around 2010.

Hormone treatments and surgery seem to be seen in a similar way, the "alchemical" mechanisms for changing sex or forcing the body into alignment with "gender identity"

Sorry for the weird italics. I only wants to emphasize "kind"

Thank you @UtopiaPlanitia for posting this. Well worth a listen [better through a smart speaker for sound]. I thought the presentation and questions at the end provided a comprehensive overview of the issues around the rise of trans genderism especially in relation to children and young people.

There was also the very recent tourettes/tic epidemic
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2022.06.4.19

Apologies, it wasn’t ‘Deenie’ - can’t remember the title now.

Yes, I remember that late eighties teen phase as being a bit like ‘Pick your cause’ at my school. One girl brought a load of leaflets about animal testing into school, so we were all desperate to go to the Body Shop. One lucky girl had already been to a Body Shop (there wasn’t one in our nearest town) so brought some products into school to show the rest of us! 😂
Another brought in material about animal welfare and the meat industry, so several girls went vegetarian. Eating disorders and self harm were around but not hugely prevalent, although possibly influenced by Judy Blume’s ‘Deenie’.
The leaflet was the social media of choice (could be passed around at breaks and read in lessons) and, if it was on a printed leaflet, it surely was the truth? I think the TRAs might have actually missed a trick there tbh!
Anyway, just my own recollections!

that's interesting I remember being the same, and it would account for the (seems to me) over representation of bright middle class teens
for me it resulted in me giving up on religion and becoming vegetarian which have both worked out well for me

oh god, I thought I was the only one!

no- I want properly edited speech with well constructed arguments addressed to me as an intelligent listener, not someone chatting to their mate

I found this really interesting - the sound quality isn't perfect (a few weird banging noises at times) but it's a recording of a live seminar/webinar. I'm just grateful that modern technology allows us to access such things from the other side of the world.

Mia is an absolutely amazing researcher and speaker - I highly recommend the webinars she did with Genspect on a range of other past medical scandals (lobotomy, ovariotomy, apotemnophilia, growth hormones) drawing parallels with our current situation. WPATH Files Webinar Series: Medical Scandals of the Past — Genspect

(I would also say that her delivery is quite 'soft' but what she has to say is extremely clear and doesn't pull punches. I really admire her.)

He wrote the book about an obscure mental illness that affected males a couple of hundred years ago somewhere in Europe whereby they'd start walking in a daze and be found miles away from home.

Because he couldn't write about the social contagion of multiple personality issues that was going on at the time.

Someone called Hacking who wrote "Mad travellers," which this is taken from.

She mentions that happening in the 1980s/ 90s and a book about it