On Mass Hysteria

Witches were accused and executed in Salem, while possessed nuns meowed and had seizures across Europe. Hand-trembling epidemics spread among Swiss and German boarding schools, and laughing attacks were widespread among Tanzanian girl students. Female adolescents in Afghanistan experienced fainting outbreaks, while over 600 boarding school girls in Mexico suddenly lost the ability to walk straight. In Cambodian garment factories, thousands of women have inexplicably fainted during the last decade, and American cheerleaders tick compulsively and have seizures without a biological explanation.

Mass Hysteria, or Mass Psychogenic Disorder—a term now more widely accepted—arises in tightly knit environments burdened by unbearable and inescapable social circumstances. When a stress trigger event unfolds, the group starts experiencing uncontrollable motor symptoms simultaneously, such as trembling, weeping, twitching, ticking, or even fainting. These involuntary symptoms, often resembling trance-like states, can persist for months and have non-organic origins.

Although studied from diverse cultural and academic interpretations, two essential questions remain unresolved: How does it spread, and why does it predominantly affect young women, especially teenage girls?