Contagious hysteria in a West Bengal village

Affectivity, subjectivity, and vulnerability: on the new forces of mass hysteria

Affect theory raises greater awareness of non-representational forces in social life that can shape different levels of subjectivity in ways that may not be immediately known to the subjects. In outbreaks of mass hysteria when subjects are suddenly exposed to bizarre and extreme behaviors, the question of affect becomes a key to understanding how their subjectivity is impacted by situations that seemingly slip immediate control. Hysterical subjectivity occurs not from unconscious forces but from affective contagions spreading throughout network assemblages. These are flows of fear and conflict that with non-conscious influences constitute the new forces of mass encounters. In these encounters, micro-flows of imitation are automatized by various assemblages of intention and action to produce repeatable contagions of affects and behaviors. The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the power of these flows as facilitating a global affectivity of mass hysteria. It is an affectivity in which imitation takes on a central role as technology of the social for the behavioral control of mass populations. Ubiquitous mask-wearing in the pandemic is not only seen as a prophylactic against viral infection but also intended as a mandated form of mimicry for propagating the new politics of virality. These are politics that empower fear as an agent of cascading contagions paralyzing social, cultural, and economic life around the world.

In-law psychological aggression and its impacts on women's health

Conflicts between couples and their parents-in-law are a common phenomenon in Chinese families. In this study, in-law psychological aggression (InPA) victimization and its association with intimate partner violence (IPV), women's health, and gender role valuation were examined. A household face-to-face survey with random sampling was conducted, and a total of 260 married Chinese women with parents-in-law were recruited. Among the participants, 11.2% and 43.1% had experienced InPA victimization and IPV victimization, respectively, and 7.3% had experienced both. Women's daily contact with parents-in-law, anxiety symptoms, demand to obey parents-in-law, and the low valuation of the male role significantly positively related to InPA victimization, whereas discussions of in-law conflict with husbands were significantly negatively related to InPA victimization. Therefore, in developing interventions for women experiencing InPA victimization, the role of the husband in InPA victimization and the risk of co-occurring InPA and IPV should be considered. These findings reflect the need to raise awareness about the influence of culture on gender roles, the harm caused by InPA victimization, and the urgent need to help Chinese women who are experiencing in-law conflict.

Psychiatric morbidity of a rural Indian community. Changes over a 20-year interval

BACKGROUND

Cross-sectional studies give no indication of the changes that may occur in the mental health status of a community in course of times. Studies should be designed to assess these changes.

AIMS

To assess the changes, if any, in the prevalence of mental disorders in a rural community after an interval of 20 years in the context of its changing socio-economic conditions.

METHOD

A door-to-door survey of the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in two villages was conducted by a team of psychiatrists. The survey was repeated after 20 years by the same team and by the same method. Changes in the mental health status of the community were compared.

RESULTS

Total morbidity per 1000 fell from 116.8 to 105.2. Morbidity in men fell from 86.9 to 73.5 per 1000 and in women from 146.8 to 138.3 per 1000. Rates of anxiety, hysteria and phobia had fallen dramatically and those of depression and mania had risen significantly.

CONCLUSION

The level of psychiatric morbidity showed no statistically significant change. The morbidity pattern (relative proportion of type of morbidity), however, showed some interesting changes. Similar studies should be done on a larger sample.

On the origin of mass casualty incidents in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, in 1990

In March 1990, a mysterious outbreak of illness spread suddenly among thousands of ethnic Albanian high school students in Kosovo (Yugoslavia). It was an unprecedented event on the worldwide scale both in terms of the number of cases and in terms of controversies concerning the aetiology. A retrospective analysis indicated that the epidemic consisted mainly of cases who felt ill in the absence of exposure to any physical agent. It is suggested that in an atmosphere of severe tension between the two ethnic groups living in Kosovo an increased frequency of respiratory infections may have triggered mass sociogenic illness.

Tarantism, dancing mania and demonopathy: the anthro-political aspects of 'mass psychogenic illness'

This study questions the widely held assumption that the phenomenon known as mass psychogenic illness (MPI) exists per se in nature as a psychiatric disorder. Most MPI studies are problematical, being descriptive, retrospective investigations of specific incidents which conform to a set of pre-existing symptom criteria that are used to determine the presence of collective psychosomatic illness. Diagnoses are based upon subjective, ambiguous categories that reflect stereotypes of female normality which assume the presence of a transcultural disease or disorder entity, underemphasizing or ignoring the significance of episodes as culturally conditioned roles of social action. Examples of this bias include the mislabelling of dancing manias, tarantism and demonopathy in Europe since the Middle Ages as culture-specific variants of MPI. While 'victims' are typified as mentally disturbed females possessing abnormal personality characteristics who are exhibiting cathartic reactions to stress, it is argued that episodes may involve normal, rational people who possess unfamiliar conduct codes, world-views and political agendas that differ significantly from those of Western-trained investigators who often judge these illness behaviours independent of their local context and meanings.

The social psychology of 'epidemic' koro

The few isolated reports of individual koro exhibit a symptomatology indicative of major psychiatric conditions (ie. psychosis or affective disorder), and appear unrelated to collective episodes which involve social, cultural, cognitive and physiological factors in the diffusion of koro-related beliefs. Yet, koro 'epidemics' continue to be viewed as exemplifying mass psychopathology or irrationality. An examination of the similarities between koro 'outbreaks' and a sub-category of behaviour which has been loosely labeled as 'mass hysteria', suggests an alternative, non-psychopathological explanation. In reclassifying 'epidemic' koro as a collective misperception rather than a culture-bound syndrome, it is argued that koro is a rational attempt at problem-solving which involves conformity dynamics, perceptual fallibility and the local acceptance of koro-associated folk realities, which are capable of explaining such episodes as normal within any given population.

Is hysteria on the wane? A community survey in West Bengal, India

A field survey was conducted in two villages--Gambhirgachi and Paharpur--in 1972. The survey was repeated after 10 years in the former village and after 15 years in the latter one. The second survey showed very little change in the rate of total mental morbidity. The rate of prevalence of hysteria declined significantly in both villages. In Gambhirgachi the rate of hysteria dropped from 16.9 to 4.6 per 1000 in 10 years, and in Paharpur it dropped from 32.3 to 2.05 per 1000 in 15 years.

Ethnocentricity and the social construction of 'mass hysteria'

This study provides a critical historical review and analysis of the variety of human expressions which have been erroneously labeled under the grandiose category "mass hysteria". It is argued that Western science reductionist approaches to the classification of "mass hysteria" treat it as an entity to be discovered transculturally, and in their self-fulfilling search for universals systematically exclude what does not fit within the autonomous parameters of its Western-biased culture model, exemplifying what Kleinman (1977) terms a "category fallacy." As a result of objectivist methodologies, the etiology of actions labeled as "mass hysteria" is typically viewed as deviant, irrational or abnormal behavior resulting from a malfunctioning 'proper' social order. However, what constitutes 'the' correct social order is a function of a researcher's historical sociocultural and/or scientific milieu. This study reviews the problem, advocating Geertz's (1973) culturally relativistic approach to understanding various cross-cultural behavior that is sensitive to and tolerant of the unique context and milieu of participants. "Mass" or "epidemic hysteria" is viewed as an invention of Western psychiatry and should be abandoned and replaced with the term collective exaggerated emotions. Instead of attempting to 'discover' a neatly packaged, unitary external disease entity, the focus of a meaning-oriented approach emphasizes the deciphering of foreign realities, semantic networks and symbol systems.

Mass hysteria: two syndromes?

On the basis of a literature review it is concluded that mass hysteria can be divided into two syndromes. One form, to be called 'mass anxiety hysteria', consists of episodes of acute anxiety, occurring mainly in schoolchildren. Prior tension is absent and the rapid spread is by visual contact. Treatment consists of separating the participants and the prognosis is good. The second form, to be called 'mass motor hysteria', consists of abnormalities in motor behaviour. It occurs in any age group and prior tension is present. Initial cases can be identified and the spread is gradual. Treatment should be directed towards the underlying stressors but the outbreak may be prolonged. In mass anxiety hysteria the abnormality is confined to group interactions; in mass motor hysteria abnormal personalities and environments are implicated.