Mass Hysteria Essay

Over the years, Mass Hysteria has been a problem for society around the world but it has mostly been shown in the United States throughout history leaving thousands of people scarred. Mass Hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or not, through a population in society as a result of rumors and far.

Hysteria is defined as an exaggerated or irrepressible emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, hysteria rocked a small Puritan community. Over the span of four short months, nineteen people were hanged to death and another was pressed to death by stones. Puritans in the community accused one another of witchcraft—a crime punishable by death—and so hysteria swept the village. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 remain a mystery to this day; however, religious, economical, and social reasons were undoubtedly to blame.

In the story/play mass hysteria plays an important role in Salem in the late 1600s. For instance Abigail Williams one of the girls in the crucible that uses mass hysteria to exploit the people of Salem around her. Mass hysteria means a group of people who over exaggerate something and becomes a fear. According to a quote from Abigail Williams says ”She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold sniveling woman! And you bend to her! Let her turn you like a-” which means she only accuses people because she wants

The mass hysteria between today’s society and the Salem witch hunt can be compared through Freedom , Religion ,and the killing of innocent victims. Mass hysteria has caused a lot of destruction in society throughout the years. It has brought about a lot of chaos in both Salem as well as the present society. Mass hysteria has brought out a lot of fear in people in both Salem and present society.

During both the devastating Holocaust in the Germany and the tragic Salem Witch Trials in the small town of Salem, innocent people were brutally killed, causing hysteria among the people. Both groups of people endured hardships because of the hysteria that occurred among them. This hysteria caused people to react in ways that they would not usually act. Both of these events are very historical and help The United States of America be a unified and prosperous country that it has grown to become today. Hysteria is defined as an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping

When an entire crowd is choosing to go down the same path it makes it easy for us to follow the leader, even if the outcome may be against our morals or not truly what we believe is right. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, we see people follow one false accusation with more. Sadly, it’s human nature to choose to make the same decisions and behave similarly as those we are surrounded by. This is distinguished in two ways: mob mentality and mass hysteria. Mob mentality is the behavior of a large crowd who are solely followers. Mass hysteria is a condition affecting a large group, characterized by anxiety, irrational beliefs or behavior, and inexplicable symptoms of illness. All of these signs are very much present in the Salem mass, but when it comes down to it, who was the person that started all of this? Abigail Williams is the one responsible for creating the mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts.

Throughout history fear causes people to act in a way that is today is thought of as absurd. In the Salem Witch trials, people commit murder for what they believe to be dangerous, yet they were acts of the fear of the unknown. Within the Puritan belief, the followers are so scared of the wrath of God that they will take radical action to prove they are good Christians. Hysteria can cause groups of people to come together and act upon a radical belief that can lead to a point of ignorance of reality.

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.

Have you ever been caught in a time where there was a case of mass hysteria and it had affected many people? Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. This is seen threw out many times in history. As shown in the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s, hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. this became known as the Red Scare.

“We know we’re punished though we’ve committed no crime” (parentseyes). Mass hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective delusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear. Mass Hysteria happens when people overreact to an event and cause widespread panic or take inappropriate actions. For example in the 1600’s people began accusing others of being witches in Salem, MA. Through rumors, fear, retaliation, and bullying, dozens of people were falsely accused and killed for being witches without any solid foundation. Another mass hysteria situation started on December 7th, 1941, when the Japanese bombed pearl harbor and

Mass Hysteria is a cultural phenomena where a group values some important virtue to such an extreme level that it gets out of hand and becomes a vice. Additionally, there is some imbalance of power and some form of punishment. There are examples of this in the film Reefer Madness and the film Pleasantville. Reefer Madness is about teens in the Thirties abusing marijuana and the horrible consequences that follow. On the other hand, Pleasantville is about two nineties teens who get sent to the fifties tv show Pleasantville and how the change that world through their knowledge.

An example of mass hysteria in the 20th century was the japanese scare. The japanese scare relates to the crucible because they were both examples of mass hysteria and great terror that people felt. These hysterias happen because of a catalyst or a trigger that occurs people to commit certain resolutions, have certain motivations and leads them to have their reasons. The japanese scare is an outstanding example of mass hysteria from the 20th century because the japanese had a bad image because of where they came from, were seen as the enemy in world war 2, and were considered an accomplice to the attack on pearl harbor, thanks to these assumptions, the japanese had prejudices against them, were harassed, maimed, and even executed by random

“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

2. As Talbot (2002) has pointed out, victims of mass hysteria may believe that they have breathed in a strange odor that might or might not have been a toxic substance and that might or might not have been present; the chemical would not, in any case, explain the subsequent symptoms (p.

Mass hysteria has occurred through the thread of time and it is something that raises numerous questions about ethics, morals and how people are thought to be at the time. When you are put into an environment that brings life to your imagination or thought process, you begin to see things that are rather typical or brought to topic occasionally. Some people don’t believe in ghost but when you put them in the “typical” haunted creepy house, they suddenly see apparitions and such. This brings up a really interesting concept, “Environmental psychologist Peter Suedfeld also thinks that what we do cognitively changes under these circumstances and may play a role.” People in Mumbai had a relation to holy water through their religion which and the drastic change in such an event can bring great question to the issue.