Hysteria :: essays research papers

Hysteria is a very unique and abnormal mental disease. What makes it so interesting is that it causes sensual symptoms that someone would not normally experience. &8220Mental conflicts are unconsciously converted to symptoms that appear to be physical, but for which no organic cause is found(Hysteria 1). One major bug outburst of hysteria occurred in 1692, resulting in the deaths of twenty-four innocent lives. &8220By the time hysteria had spent itself, twenty-four people had died(TWHSTSV 2). This type of hysteria was majority hysteria, where a group of people are in a frenzy as opposed to just one individual. Evidently, hysteria is a very drab disease and has the potential to cause many avoidable deaths.Mass hysteria is a frenzy that has the potential to effect an entire community, state or maybe even country or nation. &8220It is a condition where a group of people dash about wildly, screaming and sometimes talking as if another(prenominal) person is in them experiencing rap id breathing, spasms of extremities or even fainting(Hayes 1). In some ways, it can be look on as a chain reaction. &8220It is frequently caused by new problems that worsen existing difficulties(TWHSTSV 2). When one person sees another running about wildly and finds out what the cause is, he or she provide do the same until eventually the idea spreads to the entire population. Some problems that cause these are &8220overly strict regulations, lack of open communication between the regimen and the residents, as well as inadequate healthy recreational outlets(Hayes 1). All these issues are things that if performed, can help prevent or calm an outbreak of hatful hysteria.In the Salem Witch Trials, the &8220existing difficulties that led up to the witchcraft theory were ordinary stresses of seventeenth century life in Massachusetts. These include &8220a strong belief in the devil, factions among Salem Village fanatics and rivalry with nearby Salem Town, a recent small pox epidemic and the threat of good time by warring tribes(D&8217Amario 1). All these issues led to rising fear and suspicion. &8220Soon prisons were filled with more that 150 men surrounding Salem their names had been &8216cried out&8217 by tormented young girls as the cause of their pain. All would await trial for a crime punishable by death, the practice of witchcraft(D&8217Amario 1). Many theories exist as to why these girls behaved as they did and caused the witchcraft hysteria. One theory states &8220they had eaten bread contaminated with a hallucinogenic fungus(TWHSTSV 2), which supposedly caused them to act as they did.