Everyone has moments in their lives where they might just go crazy. Mass hysteria is “a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness” (Dictionary.com). There have been multiple instances where large amounts of people have identical symptoms that alienate them from others in society. Many factors play into the incline of mass hysteria in students over others: similar social problems, challenges, or
the story, things got complicated and when everyone noticed, it was too late. A lot of people died and no one could stop it anymore. Even after everyone noticed, they couldn’t do anything against the judges. The Crucible is an good example of mass hysteria along with the events in The Halifax Slasher. They both show similar events but are different because of their setting in history. In the events of The Halifax Slasher, there was a mysterious killer roaming the streets of Halifax, England. A
are accused of witchcraft and some hanged. In Arthur Miller’s famous play The Crucible, mass hysteria leads to the wrongful accusation and hanging of dozens of Salem citizens for witchcraft. It also happened in 1962 when 62 textile workers came down with a disease that was blamed on the bite of a Junebug. When fear becomes widespread and delusional as it has in Salem, it is not fear anymore; it is mass hysteria, a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational
all because people were scared which is a form of mass hysteria. Mass Hysteria is the cause of many panics across the world such as in Le Roy High School in New York where multiple girls suffered a twitch disorder much like tourettes and then in Tanzania when villages west of Lake Victoria experienced an epidemic of laughing and crying. Similar outbreaks have been reported in schools in europe and the US”(Waller par. 2). Most cases of mass hysteria all have different causes and there are three which
This paper is about the diverse ways mass hysteria is classified in our society today, and the possible theories behind what really caused the events in Salem to occur. Janca and Simons portray their opinions towards different events of mass hysteria, and are able to develop their own professional theories relating to the mentality of the individuals that were caught under the influence of hysteria. Those individuals’ minds are examined, and their information is represented in this paper. The cited
Mass Hysteria Outbreaks Many students were taken to the hospital with a wide variety of symptoms.People pondered on what this could be.According to dictionary.com,mass hysteria is,”a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitementor anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms ofillness.”There are many incidents were mass hysteria is seen.It is a psychological thing where many people are coerced into thinking that something is thought to be something that
Mass hysteria can strike anywhere, anytime. Mass hysteria is an illusion or condition that affects a group of people, and is caused by anxiety, fear or stress. It can sometimes put people at risk because in most cases, it makes people sick. Mass hysteria has a negative impact on people like it did on the people of Salem who were killed and locked away. The Crucible was one of many examples of how fear can cause mass hysteria and unfortunately there are many more. Fear causes mass hysteria and has
to light are mass hysteria caused by St. Vitus, Ergotism, Tarantism, and an unknown type of heretical cult. None of these ideas are able to truly explain the abrupt Dancing Plague that occurred in Strasbourg. This is not the first time this type of event has occurred. Dancing epidemics have also occurred in other areas of Europe in earlier centuries, but without the same deadly outcome as the 1518 plague. The most popular theory on the cause of 1518’s Dancing Plague is the mass hysteria theory. John
The Red Scare was a time when people feared communism. Investigators were hired to find spies from the Soviet Union. Due to the power of fear and mass hysteria, many people were accused of being spies who actually had nothing to do with the Soviet Union or communism. Arthur Miller discusses in an essay why he wrote The Crucible when he did. The mass hysteria from the Red Scare was very similar to that of the Salem Witch Trials, “In those years, our thought processes were becoming so magical, so paranoid
trying to get the image of how widespread the idea of Mass Hysteria has occurred around the world and how more people need to be aware about that possibility in order not to greaten the situation.“[T]he reaction of the authorities [can] make things worse” and can make “the situation seem far more serious than it [is]” (Waller 1) by hyping up the participants even more and possibly prompting more people to be added to the mass of hysteria. Mass Hysteria victims usually are triggered by stored up anxiety