Abigail Byrd

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible opens on the quiet town of Salem, Massachusetts, where, behind closed doors, chaos is beginning. Although the story is fictional, it deals with a very real historical issue: witch hunts in America during the 1500s, which were caused by deceit, fear, and religious discipline that led to an outbreak of mass hysteria. Now, this type of hysteria may seem like an ancient idea, predating modern psychological understanding. However, today’s equivalent, mass psychogenic illness, is more common than you would think. As defined by sociologist Robert Bartholomew and psychiatrist and Simon Wessely, Mass Psychogenic Illness, or MPI, is “the rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group, originating from a nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss or alteration of function, whereby physical complaints that are exhibited unconsciously have no corresponding organic aetiology.” Basically, MPI a regular illness. Symptoms arise from being exposed to an afflicted individual, and are then passed to the next person, so on and so forth. The main difference is that mass psychogenic outbreaks are caused not by a physical ailment, but by a mental infection stemming from a surge in stress and anxiety levels.

There are two types of MPI, “anxiety hysteria” and “motor hysteria. Anxiety hysteria, a short-lived type of MPI, is not serious and but quite common, with benign symptoms such as dizziness, headache, fainting, and hyperventilation. The second category, motor hysteria, is significantly less common and much more serious, with symptoms such as twitching, shaking, paralysis, and uncontrollable laughter or weeping. Most cases of MPI dissipate on their own because the stressor is eventually eliminated. However, in some cases, direct action is needed. These types of serious outbreaks, although more common today, have been occurring, and going undiagnosed, for centuries.

Although MPI is a fairly new term, originating in the 20th century, sociologist Robert Bartholomew states that there have been over 6,000 major cases of mass psychogenic illness dating back to the 1500s. Until more modern understandings of mental illness came about, these outbreaks were either written off as insanity, or considered to be a religious and supernatural event, such as demonic possession or witchcraft. One widespread outbreak originated in convents, where groups of nuns across the globe suffered from bouts of mass motor hysteria, including fits of screaming, crying, abnormal movements, and trance-like paralysis. The British Journal of Psychiatry states that “there are more than 100 books alone on the outbreaks [in nunneries] at Loudun, France, between 1632 and 1634”. In the 19th century, the industrial revolution created a new trigger of extensive social anxiety: Factories, which were notorious for their low wages, terrible conditions, and disregard for safety regulations. The fear of contamination and illness, as well as the stress created by the oppressive employment, led to mass motor hysteria outbreaks in many Western job settings. As the 19th century came to a close and “occupational health and safety regulations” were reformed, these issues were quickly replaced by the new anxieties people across the world still face today.

Beginning in the early 1900s, MPI triggers shifted instead to environmental and social concerns. Vaccinations, a controversial topic in the modern medical community, have become linked to MPI in recent years. The Journalism of the Royal Society of Medicine reports that in 1998, the fear of the tetanus-diphtheria toxoid vaccination caused anxiety hysteria in over 800 adolescents in Jordan. A similar incident occurred involving the human papillomavirus vaccination, which costed its production company $1 billion. A second, more sinister stressor that triggers MPI is the fear of terrorism and chemical and biological warfare. Although these types of episodes aren’t prevalent in the US right now, the Department of Homeland Security is becoming increasingly concerned, stating that “an outbreak of mass psychogenic illness in the Homeland related to terrorism or the threat of terrorism is possible”, and recent incidents have implicated that the likelihood will continue to increase. They cite an outbreak that occurred in the Shelkov region of Chechnya in 2005. After rumors of a chemical weapons attack in the area, 13 students exhibited symptoms of headache, fever, and numbness of their arms and legs. Although no chemicals were actually released, the symptoms continued to spread, and 87 people were eventually hospitalized, suffering from psychogenic illness caused by the presence of Russian soldiers near the region. A separate but equally troubling aspect of MPI is the growing extent of the illnesses’ spread, thanks to mass media and social media. Although there isn’t enough information to study their prolonged effects on MPI, it is easy to see the correlation between them- if an incident receives more media coverage, the anxiety and fear of it increases, which lead to an greater likelihood of an outbreak. Social media has also played a part in this by spreading the reach of our communications. Ideas, fears, and anxiety, which used to be fairly isolated, can spread across the globe in a matter of seconds, carrying the risk and symptoms of MPI with them. In 2013, an episode in Le Roy, New York sparked this discussion. Eighteen female high school students developed Tourette’s-like tics, from spasms to violent outbursts, caused not by environmental triggers, but by watching a Youtube video of a girl who actually had a similar syndrome. This outbreak triggered much media noise and controversy, but, when media coverage of the incident ended, the girls recovered. This correlation goes to show that the uproar created and spread by news reports and media attention did have a significant effect on that situation, and could on similar MPI outbreaks in the future.

It comes as no surprise that MPI is more common today than ever before. Anxiety is now a commonplace, with rational and irrational fears growing every day because of technological and societal advances. Thankfully, we now have enough knowledge about MPI that drastic situations, such as the ones in the middle ages, are able to be understood and dealt with accordingly, without executions or exorcism. As the nature of stressors and anxieties shifts in our changing world, so must our understanding of them. Humans will continue to react the same way to triggers, whatever they may be, because of our biological and psychological makeup. So, when odd and widespread symptoms arise in times of stress, we can known that, no matter what, we are all in this together.