Mental Illness In Salem Witch Trials

Mental Illness in Salem Witch Trials
Introduction
Witchcraft is the practice of magic and the use of spells and the invocation of spirits. According to Salem Witch Trials, 2015, the Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts claimed to have been bewitched by several adults in the town. More than 150 people were accused and hung, including men, women, and children (Salem Witch Trials, 2015). There were three girls in particular that sparked the trials: Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and Ann Putnam. Also stated in Salem Witch Trials, their behaviors changed drastically; they began to hallucinate, shout in church, have fits, not eat, not wake up, attempt to fly, and feel as if they

It is where someone’s expectations influence someone else’s behavior and reaction to something. In The Crucible, Reverend Parris expected the girls to continue acting as though they were possessed and Abigail expected the girls to have a fit whenever she did, so that may have been why all of the girls acted out.
The Placebo Effect goes right along with the Self Fulfilling Prophecy. The Placebo Effect is a change in a person 's’ illness or behavior that results from a belief that the situation is actually happening (Placebo Effect, 2015). If the girls truly thought that they were possessed by the devil, then they probably tricked their minds into believing that, therefore their bodies reacted in unexplainable ways. These two theories are both also possible explanations.
How It Could Have Been

In Europe in 1999, more than 100 students in Belgium got sick after drinking Coca-Cola. Scientists examined the beverage and saw that there wasn’t anything to cause real damage and that it was a case of mass hysteria triggered by the scare of mad cow disease and dioxin-tainted animal products (10 Incredibly Insane Cases of Mass Hysteria, 2014). Post traumatic stress disorder is often seen in soldiers that have come back from war. Commonly seen, when soldiers are back at home and hear a loud noise, they automatically take guard because they think the loud noise was a gun fire, bomb, etc (Two Stories of PTSD,