Hysteria

one confessor speculated “that the devil must keep the witches’ signatures because he “Carried [hers] away with him”(Triggs 2). There have been events all throughout American history that have been monumental and has had events that led into mass hysteria caused by fear. Many of these events were brought on by the ignorance of others. Events like the mass internment of Japanese-Americans during World War Two and the Red-Scare brought on during the Cold War with the fear of Russian espionage in…

Mass hysteria seems to be a timeless term that people have frequented themselves with generation after generation. This paranoia has been resuscitated time and time again; whether it was the belief that everyone was a witch or that they were a Communist. Mass hysteria develops from a belief or heavy devotion, however small, then gains momentum expeditiously through people who also may have this extremist mentality as the originator. Many historical events have been the victim of some form of…

During this, his first major presentation to professional colleagues, he outlined a stunning and controversial hypothesis: “that at the bottom of every case of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience”. Freud was more or less professionally isolated for a time after the presentation of his 1896 paper. Freud’s reputation plummeted. His private practice in decline and his professional…

The Red Scare was the widespread, overwhelming fear that communists were trying to overthrow the American government in the early 1920’s. The recent end of World War I and the Russian revolutions, along with various other communist revolutions around the world helped promote their paranoia. This paranoia led to those in power at the time taking advantage of the people’s frantic state and exploiting their rights and freedoms. They did this simply to further their own agenda, even though many…

Hysteria made a prominent mark on history, not only for women but also men. Hysteria is discussed by Victorian authors such as Charlotte Brontë and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Their works of Jane Eyre and “The Yellow Wallpaper” give a woman’s perspective to the commonality of diagnosing women with hysteria during the Victorian era. Brontë’s Bertha Mason and Gilman’s Jane are examples of women and their reactions to the treatments forced on them. Hysteria was a medical diagnosis associated solely…

upon Americans fears often prompting mass hysteria. In his book, American Hysteria, Andrew Burt explains why these hysterias occur and uses five historical examples. His thesis is that political extremism is used as a coping mechanism for Americans who have lost social status and their sense of national identity which results in a scapegoat being blamed. Overall Burt’s book does an excellent job of explaining the origins of the phenomena that is hysteria, the historical impacts of it, and how to…

studying an epidemic there is much more to it than the medical aspect; the social occurrence. Even after the disease and its ways of transmission were accurate identified, fear and ignorance remained widespread. In the mid- and even later 1980s, “AIDS hysteria” became a familiar term in the media and public life. Before the disease was officially called “AIDS”, in 1982, it went by “gay-related immune deficiency” (GRID). Homosexuality was no socially accepted in the 1980’s, making it harder for…

Dr. Freud and Dr. Breuer who’ve acquired enough knowledge to study hysteria. However, the study leaves many unanswered questions to scholars who feel enigmatic about the cure of hysteria. Freud’s criticism of doctors portray the significance of undetermined cure’s and seeking knowledge of hysteria from “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” known as Jane suffers from hysteria, her husband John who’s a physician rents a colonial mansion for a…

witchcraft continue to spread throughout Salem, the community begins to feed into it which later results in mass hysteria.…

Mass hysteria is a condition on a group of people caused by paranoia, anxiety, and fear. The Lynching Era in the United States between the 1880s-1930s caused major paranoia for newly freed African Americans. Lynching was a form of killing done by a mob of people typically through hanging. The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK, were a group of people with hatred towards the African American race. The KKK terrorized African Americans even after they gained legal equal rights in America out of…