Hysteria In The 19th Century Analysis

As Elia Kazan said, “Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it”. (Kazan 1) Past occurrences of hysteria have repeatedly shown that there’s typically a cause to the mob mentality. One instance of mass hysteria occurred with the outbreak of dancing in Strasbourg, France in 1518; it resulted in several deaths, and panic within the community, and an ongoing medical mystery.
On July of 1518, a woman mentioned to as Frau Troffea, treaded into a narrow street in Strasbourg, France and began a crazed dancing affair that lasted between four to six days. This was not the first time France has seen this event. Thirty-four others had joined her and, within a month, the crowd of dancing, hopping
Vitus’s dance, between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries, manias swept across Europe as tens of thousands of people participated in frenzied public orgies and wild dances lasting for days and sometimes weeks. It is little wonder why psychiatrists and medical historians classify such episodes as group mental disorder affecting those overwhelmed by the stresses of the period. (Bartholomew 1)
That old time period of France was not a time to love. People lived harsh lifestyles and it was the beginning of many diseases.
Science has discovered and proved many theories wrong and right. As time moves forward, humanity advances and starts to see things in a different light. Back then, many people believed in abnormal phenomena’s, now society utilizes science so humanity does not have to minimalize thinking to such obscure ideas. While medieval dance frenzies have long been regarded as a classic example of stress-induced mental disorder affecting mostly women, there is much evidence to the contrary. As Lucas Reilly wrote in the web site “Mental_Floss”:
Some blame ergot, a poisonous mold found on damp rye that’s related to LSD. Others accuse Sydenham’s chorea, a disorder linked to strep throat and rheumatic fever that causes fluid, dance-like twitches. Medical historian John Waller makes a more psychological diagnosis: stress-induced mass psychosis. Sixteenth-century Europe was not a great time to be alive.