mass hysteria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mass hysteria describes a strong emotional excitement in large crowds, for example (euphoric) on the occasion of rock and pop concerts, major sporting events or (mourning) after the death of famous people. The term must be distinguished from that of moral panic , which is aimed specifically at social control .

emergence

This usage dates back to The Quarterly Christian Spectator in 1830 and was used, among other things, during a cholera outbreak. Marshall McLuhan began scientifically describing the phenomenon in Understanding Media in 1964.

In this sense, for example, the excessive enthusiasm for the Beatles was and is assigned to the area of ​​mass hysteria just as much as the mourning for Rudolph Valentino , Josef Stalin or Eva Perón . The medieval dance frenzy , the witch craze of the early modern period and other mass fears (such as the fear of communists in McCarthyism ) are often referred to as mass hysteria. The term is also sometimes used synonymously with stampede . Social psychology deals scientifically with the behavior of people in crowds under the topic of crowd psychology . This is also addressed in Masses and Power , the major work by Elias Canetti , who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature, published in 1960 .

Concrete example in the recent past

The Arjenyattah epidemic was a mass hysterical event. In 1983, students in Palestine developed panic attacks and severe physical discomfort within a few hours. Detailed medical examinations were carried out on a total of 949 victims.

See also

literature

  • James N. Butcher, Susan Mineka, Jill M. Hooley: Clinical Psychology 13th updated edition. Pearson Studies, Munich, etc. 2009, ISBN 978-3-8273-7328-1 .
  • Thomas Brudermann: Crowd Psychology. Psychological contagion, collective dynamics, simulation models. Springer, Vienna and others 2010, ISBN 978-3-211-99760-4 (also: Klagenfurt, University, dissertation, 2009).

web links

Wiktionary: mass hysteria  – explanations of meaning, word origin, synonyms, translations

itemizations

  1. ↑ The Journal of Health Conducted by an Association of Physicians (1831) p. 180
  2. ↑ McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Signet
  3. ↑ GW Small and JF Borus: Outbreak of illness in a school chorus. Toxic poisoning or mass hysteria? In: NEJM 308, 1983, pp. 632-635. PMID 6828094