In psychology and sociology, mass hysteria also known as collective hysteria, group foreboding, or collective obsessional behavior is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, causing rumors and fear (memory acknowledgment) in society. The medical term illustrates the spontaneous manifestation (production in chemicals in the body) of the similar hysterical physical symptoms by more than one person. A common kind of mass hysteria occurs each and every time a group of men or women believes or imagine that they may be suffering from a similar disease, condition, disorder or health problem. Mass psychogenic illness or epidemic hysteria affects groups of persons, indicated by excitement, stress, panic, anxiousness, irrational behavior, values philosophy morals, or inexplicable indications of illness. Several reasons for mass mania or mass delusions: Uncertainty and fear of the mystery Humans fear the unknown and they do their best to make everything expected. When humans fail to understand something, they are generally scared. This kind of fear can motivate them to leap to irrational conclusions to calm themselves. Studies have shown that at the times of great uncertainty mass foreboding is more likely to take place. Excessive stress When a person is subjected to excessive stress he is more likely to make irrational conclusions about things or get delusional. Humans are smart but their thoughts often prevents them from using the minds properly. Reception to suggestions Human brain is very receptive to suggestions. Found in a single case of mass hysteria children in a school developed the symptoms of a no disease right after a popular kid at college, institution, university developed those symptoms. Whenever this occurs the powerful ideas were absorbed by the minds of people, kids and because of this, they believed they got infected by that disease. Panic causes irrational thinking When humans experience panic they have a tendency to think irrationally. With the effect of panic a suggestion can certainly skip to the subconscious mind and turn into a perception. Attention seeking Sometimes people experience mass hysteria to draw focus or awareness of their conditions. India s history of mass hysteria monkey man to braid cutting Forty-five-year-old kamlesh, who lives in delhi-ncr in gurgaon, became a victim of mass hysteria. Her brother, who stays in rewari where similar cases had taken place, had discussed this with her. Several cases of mysterious braid chopping have been reported recently in from rewari, mahendergarh and mewat. It became an epidemic which was caused by mass foreboding. The far-flung parts of the location metropolis and surrounding areas were affected. Some bizarre instances in india, which till date remain unexplained: Monkey man or kala bandar The sweet water on mahim creek The muhnochwa scare Ganesha s milk miracle Such incidents happen in india often, such as the black monkey, the statue of lord ganesh drinking milk in uttar pradesh, sweet water in mumbai and vampire sucking blood in tamil nadu. People in india easily affected because they were shown fear of superstition from childhood with statements like if you did not do this work then god would be angry, feeding will make god happy. Never worrying about the fear of the people, there is no awareness among the people in this area. Another example in which god krishna cursed a person named ashwathama in mahabharata. Even after 5000 years people have claimed that they have seen ashwathama, and anyone who looks at him, either goes crazy or paralyzed. Thus there is a fear of ashwathama in the entire village. Similarly, there is story of the fort bhangarh. After 5 o clock, there is no one is permitted to stay there, as the ghost comes after 5 o clock. Therefore, there is reason to close because of fear, but some of my friends have claimed that they stopped and nothing else appeared. The problem of braid cutting in the cities of uttar pradesh, haryana, delhi, gurgaon has been reported in signioficant number, but are mostly from the illiterate areas. No such case are reported from educated society of delhi or uttar pradesh. The braid cutting phenomena is a superstition, which spreads like an epidemic. All this happens because of superstition and illiteracy. People easily believe because they do not have the ability to think, understand and rationalize. As there was an incident of appearing the black monkey in delhi, that incident also happened in the village, the person who was nervous, had trouble in the village, the incident of sweet water in mumbai was also in the village. The only remedy is to improve education standards and making people aware of the facts.

Get the App

For Doctors

Book Appointment

Treatment

Ask a Question

Plan my Surgery

Health Feed

Health Feed

AllQ&AsTipsQuizzes

Home > Home Remedies for Depression > Health Feed > Tips

Home Remedies for Depression Tips

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

Stress And Meditation!

Dr. Hemang S Jani89%(483 ratings)

Master of Physical Therapy MPT CARDIO, B...read more

Physiotherapist•Rajkot

Storm of thoughts in mind is a sign of stress. Silence and meditation calm the mind down, making it more still, focussed and sharp.

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

Removing Stress!

Dr. Chinmaya Debasis Panda93%(145 ratings)

MBBS, MD, CCEBDM(diabetology), CCMTD(thy...read more

General Physician•

Reduce stress by regular exercise, adequate sleep, laughing and maintaining good relationships.

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

Social Distancing!

Dr. Sajith Babu S M90%(12 ratings)

MCh Neurosurgery

General Surgeon•Trivandrum

Social distancing is the key when you live with the virus. Reverse quarantine children and old age. Practice social distancing. Use online consultations.
#stay safe

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

Colors Shows Your Personality!

Dr. Shivi Saxena90%(55 ratings)

M.Phil - Clinical Psychology, PG Diploma...read more

Psychologist•Moradabad

Anybody said that life is colorless without colors. That is the color that you have a smile. You are happy. Happiness is filled in your life. Some colors make you happy, make some sad. Some colors give you comfort and peace, some encourage you to move forward.Have you ever thought that why you choose the color that is closest to you? because it reflects your personality.
There are some such colors today that will tell your personality. Introduce your personality to you.
Black: if your co...more

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

Mass Hysteria!

Dr. Shivi Saxena90%(55 ratings)

M.Phil - Clinical Psychology, PG Diploma...read more

Psychologist•Moradabad

In psychology and sociology, mass hysteria also known as collective hysteria, group foreboding, or collective obsessional behavior is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, causing rumors and fear (memory acknowledgment) in society. The medical term illustrates the spontaneous manifestation (production in chemicals in the body) of the similar hysterical physical symptoms by more than one person. A common kind of mass hysteria occurs each and every...more

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

World Mental Health Day - How Does Social Media Affect Our Mental Health?

Dr. Vaibhav Dubey86%(25 ratings)

MD - Psychiatry, MBBS

Psychiatrist•Bhopal

World Mental Health Day (10 October) is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. Being away or oblivious to social media is synonymous to not following the herd. Social media probably is no more the latest fad; it is the given code to take a deeper look into the present age. The rewarding fact about social networking sites is their ability to transport us to people and places millions of miles away from us. This epoch dictates of over...more

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip

Stress and Infertility - How Stress Affects Your Fertility

Dr. Sameer Pahlajani88%(29 ratings)

MBBS

IVF Specialist•Raipur

In today s modern, fast paced society, it is easy for people to become stressed. In fact, one would almost think that being stressed is the in thing, and if you aren t stressed it must mean there is something wrong with you! Realistically however, stress is not a good thing for our bodies in general, and has a very real impact on your fertility.

Can Stress Have an Effect on Your Fertility?

If your mind and body is under stress your body is signaled to release a hormone - Adre...more

Last Updated: 4 years ago• Featured Tip