Mass hysteria in history

[DancelikeEmmaGoldman]

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.”?

Except I’d didn’t add the YouTube video. 🙄

Mass hysteria is interesting isn't it?

Salem Witch Trials being the gold standard.

There are some parallels, especially the social contagion aspect. But is anorexia, or self harm, called mass hysteria? Because ROGD certainly follows the similar pathways to those two issues.

I'm really clumsy at presenting my thoughts, so I'll leave it to others. A great discussion point.

I'll end with, the wiff of mass hysteria I see is from TRA's towards GC women. Also the manta of TWAW. I truly believe that another witch trial is gathering pace.

*mantra, obvs.

Early 20th century spiritualism:

Huge numbers of people bereaved and traumatised by losses in war and from the Spanish flu, inspired by the new technological miracle of wireless broadcasting to believe in messages out of the ether, taken advantage of by any number of frauds and shysters promising to put them in touch with their dead nearest and dearest.

Satanic Ritual Abuse in the 80s and 90s- bad science used to 'prove' a phenomenon with children suffering and innocent people going to jail as a result.

...and the reflex anal dilation test that creates the very proof it seeks: Someone has been sticking something up this child's bottom.

But is anorexia, or self harm, called mass hysteria?

No, but that may be because the term Mass hysteria has fallen out of fashion in favour of social contagion. Anorexia and self harm are certainly described as social contagions and clearly fall into the same category given their uneven spread across society as a whole.

I've seen women state dozens of girls in their schools were caught up in these social contagions whereas in my own experience, and perhaps (given my age) more pertinently my children's experience of the very same school, these things didn't happen at all, not one single anorexic or self harmer to be seen.

Fascinating topic OP. The Tanganyika laughter outbreak in 1962 was a curious one.

Is this why the Samaritans advice is to not to keep mentioning suicides to vulnerable people a la trans lobby?

No, but that may be because the term Mass hysteria has fallen out of fashion in favour of social contagion.

Yes of course. Great post Arnold.

In my girls school there was a spate of girls pulling out their eyelashes and eyebrows.

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

:)

@ArnoldWhatshisknickers

Bridgend was one such incident (or set of incidents)

*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.

Completely agree Dance like

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'