Mass hysteria (also known as collective hysteria or group hysteria) in psychology is defined as an imagined or assumed threat that causes physical symptom among a large number of people. It spreads rapidly through rumours and fears. Mass hysteria is often characterized by the rapid spread of conversion disorder, a condition where people start complaining about their health without any sound basis of it. This phenomenon is known as Mass psychogenic illness. It is seen that in such instances, psychological anxiety or suffering is converted into physical symptoms. There are two common types: anxiety hysteria and motor hysteria. Anxiety hysteria is of shorter duration, usually for a day, and starts when we interpret some threat to us ,most commonly a strange odour. Motor hysteria is prevalent in harsh social situations such as in a strict school and religious settings where discipline is very extreme. We see a few examples of mass hysteria from india: 1.Mumbai Sweet Water: The 2006 Mumbai “sweet” seawater incident was a classic example of mass hysteresis during which residents of Mumbai claimed that the water at Mahim Creek, (which is considered as one of the most polluted creeks in India) had suddenly turned sweet. Mahim creek receives thousands of tonnes of raw sewage and industrial waste every day. What followed was that, …show more content…
Right kind of fear, suggestion and false belief is needed to trigger mass hysteria which is seen more in rural areas. Modern science has confirmed that most sufferers of mass hysteresis are female. In the cases of mass hysteresis women under study were under a lot of stress and stress can manifest itself through psychological symptoms. Further women are socially considered to be less aggressive and confrontational than men. I is also noted that when women feel oppressed, they get sick which is a more accepted form of