Hysteria And Its Effects On Society

Mass hysteria has been part of history since the beginning of time. It happened in the United States the years 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. In Salem, two young girls were responsible for starting mass hysteria by showing erratic behavior and accusing other people of witchcraft. This resulted in the death of over 20 people. Salem citizens were very confused and scared because they were never sure of how secure they actually were. Another reason Salem citizens were nervous was because, if their fate was put to the test, it would be in the hands of an unreliable court. Another event that involves mass hysteria was the one known as “The Red Scare”. The Red Scare was a variety of actions that led to an enduring episode of fear and hostility through the years 1940s and 1950s. The Red Scare was caused by a series of threats towards America. The Red Scare had many figures but two that were exemplary to others were Hoover and McCarthy. These men stirred up the environment with more problems than it had before. Citizens of America were surrounded by many threats especially their homes being corrupted by the pressure they were surrounded by. Politics played a very keystone part in The Red Scare because it was the fuel to the fire. Families and friends were being separated since

Moral panic is “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests and its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes more visible” (Cohen, 1973, p.9). This means moral panic is an exaggeration or distortion of some perceived deviant behaviour by the media. In contemporary context, moral panics are not just one-off events, “it is their reappearance that confirms their status as moral disturbances of any significant order” (Marsh and Melville, 2011, p.7). Basically moral panics are social issues that relate to real fears about a particular behaviour such as paedophilia due to the exaggeration of media influence.

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was a historical play written about the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692-93. The Salem witch trials created mass hysteria throughout the entire village of Salem, which was also mainly inhabited by Puritans. Puritans had a set ideal of firm beliefs that managed how they lived. Essentially, they were living as an elect, which meant they (referring to the Puritans) had a place in heaven for the righteous acts they have done in the physical world. Meaning, any sinful acts could potentially hinder the chances of entering heaven as an elect. The Crucible, questioned everything the Puritans abided by. It questioned the basic morals of a pure lifestyle, adultery and

In this world there have been causes of mass hysteria even back in the old days. In 1939 Mysterious girls were having cases of strange twitching making parents of the students curious. A big cause of hysteria was found in a case of a girl suffering in lack of attention. She was having sorts of insecurity and paranoia. For common people, twitching is a sign of nerve problem. But one case in Louisiana in 1939 involved numerous students suffering from twitching and all inflicted students were female. It began when one female student show sign of twitching in her right. It happened during an annual homecoming ball. Unfortunately, the twitching did not end up on that particular day, in fact, the twitching became worse as weeks went by. Following the incident, some of her fellow

Firstly, let me explain to you what a hysteria is, it is uncontrollable emotion or excitement. You’re probably wondering why would this be exciting, well I am about to tell you. When nine and eleven-year-old girls sought to know their destiny they found the unfortunate answer by engaging with a West Indian woman named Tituba. To see their future the woman used an egg white in a glass of water and looked for telltale shapes. One of the girls thought she

Since the early-2010s, debate around the sexualisation of children has instigated much social alarm. A number of media articles (Cameron 2010; Critchley 2009; Doherty 2011; Kermond 2012, Jones & Cuneo 2009; Snow 2013; Tuohy 2012) have depicted the sexualisation of children as a prevailing social matter which accentuate concepts represented in moral panic discourse. In everyday practices of reporting public and social events, moral panic frequently becomes elicited by society’s mass mediated exaggeration of certain social events. What becomes apparent from Critcher’s work (2003), is how understandings of public incidents become portrayed as concerning through socially constructed and distorted notions of panic which become widely adopted views. As Cohen (1972) suggests, moral panic becomes a state of panic through the encouragement of important social agents which believe that an ideological perspective is threatened or endangered by a particular view. Thereby to accentuate these notions using moral panic discourse, this essay will investigate whether representations of sexualised children constitute a moral panic contrived by mediated distortions or is truly a concerning societal issue through an analysis of the processual and attributional model (Critcher 2003). Drawing on both discursive models of moral panic will allow a thorough investigation of the catalysts for moral panic involving the sexualisation of children. This paper will demonstrate how moral panic discourse

Hysteria was one of the class diseases of the 19th century…for centuries hysteria has been seen as characteristically female- the hysterical woman the embodiment of a perverse or hyper femininity…and in [the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s…physicians reported a high incidence of nervous disease and hysteria among women who felt overwhelmed by the burdens of frequent pregnancies, the demands of children, the daily exertions of housekeeping and family management (Smith-Rosenberg, 1972, 652, 653, 657).

Mass hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective allusions of threats through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear. The Crucible by Arthur Miller accurately portrays mass hysteria that took place during the Salem witch trials of 1692. People were accused based on revenge or other malicious motives and to make the situation worse, nothing about the trials was logical. After a few people were accused, fear set into the town and everyone was viewed as a witch until proven innocent. Mass hysteria not only happened during the Salem witch trials, but right after the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001 as well. Mass hysteria ties into both the accusations made in The Crucible and the islamophobia that set in after 9/11.

Until the medical breakthroughs that we have made in the modern day, psychology as a science was not fully understood. Modern technology has given us a clearer idea of psychology, but in the past there was less known about the science. This alongside a predominantly male medical discourse led to a medical diagnosis in many women called hysteria. Female hysteria was a medical diagnosis given to specifically women as far back as the ancient Greek civilization. Hysteria started as a supernatural phenomena, but as medicine evolved it would be described as a mental disorder, (Tasca). Hysteria. in actuality, is an absurd and fabricated diagnosis that institutionalized and discriminated countless women. The way it makes a women feel, and the fact that it strips a woman of any sort of free will is a sickening display of blatant misogyny. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman perfectly displays not only the misogyny, but the torture a woman must face trapped under a hysteria diagnosis. Hysteria as a diagnoses fails to effectively treat many women, instead leading to the mistreatment and wrongful institutionalization of women.

Somatoform are physical symptoms triggered through psychological factors (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Consider “somatic presentations can be viewed as expressions of personal suffering inserted in a cultural and social context” (APA, 2013, p. 310). Andrea expresses somatic symptom disorder through multiple symptoms. Andrea’s physical grievances are excessive, suggesting her need for attention. She states that she is in a tremendous amount of pain and easily agitated and hostile if others do not take her

Chapter 7 covers the fundamentals of somatoform disorders and dissociative disorders. After reading this chapter, I became really interested in somatoform disorders. Somatoform disorder is physical pain due to psychosocial reasons and often misdiagnosed. Just like the story in the beginning of the chapter described the man who was paralyzed but did not have any physical wounds. This a strong example of how powerful the mind. This was discussed briefly in previous chapters, but I better understand the concept of this somatoform disorders. People with hysterical somatoform disorder have changes in their physical functioning. Conversion disorder is a psychosocial conflict that affects the voluntary motor and sensory functioning. Somatization disorders have a long lasting physical

“Believe in yourself. Do not let doubt, fear, panic, hysteria or even extreme faith to get in your way” is a quote by Ruben Papian. Mass hysteria occurred in LeRoy, New York and also in Salem, Massachusetts. Mass hysteria is a situation where many people suffer from similar symptoms. Mass hysteria can lead to a disorder called conversion disorder. Conversion disorder is a mental condition that turns into a physical problem over time. Conversion disorder could cause you to have blindness numbness, paralysis you and also cause fits with no reason at all. This disorder is commonly found in people who have been in stressful situations that could affect their mental health. The girls in LeRoy, New York and Salem were suffering

According to Freud hysteria is a nervous disorder that causes violent fits of laughter, crying, and imagination. It is a lack of

In her book Women's Madness, Misogyny or Mental Illness, Ussher notes that in the Victorian era, hysteria was diagnosed primarily in strong, outspoken women: in other words: women who transgressed the ideal of true womanhood and thus challenged patriarchy. This is

After reading this article, somatic disorder can be described as having physical symptoms that are typically associated with a physical disorder, but no test or finding can confirm a physical or even psychological cause. These aspects make the disease difficult to fully understand and confirm. This disorder can, however, be associated with large amounts of stress. There are several different forms of treatment for this disorder; most of them are associated with talking to a professional mental or physical caregiver. Through these interactions, it is important for there to be a doctor to patient relationship because this allows the doctor to give explanations to the patients that ensures a prognosis and encourages the patient about treatments.