Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI)

Primer

Mass Psychogenic Illness (MPI) (also known as called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria, or mass hysteria) is the spread of illness symptoms through a population where no infectious agent is identified for the contagion.

“No one is immune from mass sociogenic illness because humans continually construct reality and the perceived danger needs only to be plausible in order to gain acceptance within a particular group and generate anxiety. As we enter the 21st century, epidemic hysteria again will mirror the times, likely thriving on the fear and uncertainty from terrorist threats and environmental concerns. What new forms it will take and when these changes will appear are beyond our capacity to predict.”[1]

– Bartholomew & Wessely (2018)

History

Tics

Vaccines

References

1) Bartholomew, R. E., & Wessely, S. (2002). Protean nature of mass sociogenic illness: from possessed nuns to chemical and biological terrorism fears. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 180(4), 300-306.