COVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteria.

In this article, we aim to develop a political economy of mass hysteria. Using the background of COVID-19, we study past mass hysteria. Negative information which is spread through mass media repetitively can affect public health negatively in the form of nocebo effects and mass hysteria. We argue that mass and digital media in connection with the state may have had adverse consequences during the COVID-19 crisis. The resulting collective hysteria may have contributed to policy errors by governments not in line with health recommendations. While mass hysteria can occur in societies with a minimal state, we show that there exist certain self-corrective mechanisms and limits to the harm inflicted, such as sacrosanct private property rights. However, mass hysteria can be exacerbated and self-reinforcing when the negative information comes from an authoritative source, when the media are politicized, and social networks make the negative information omnipresent. We conclude that the negative long-term effects of mass hysteria are exacerbated by the size of the state.

The origins of factitious disorder.

Factitious disorder is the deliberate simulation of illness for the purpose of seeking the sick role. It is a 20th-century diagnosis, though the grounds for its introduction are uncertain. While previous authors have considered the social changes contributing to growth in the disorder, this article looks at some of the pressures on doctors that may have created the diagnostic need for a disorder between hysteria and malingering. The recent history of those disorders suggests that malingering would no longer be acceptable when applied to the potentially larger numbers involved in workers' compensation or in mass conscription. Equally, the absolution given to hysteria on the basis of the Freudian subconscious would survive only as long as that model retained credibility. Growing egalitarianism and changing doctor-patient relationships in the 20th century would no longer tolerate a sharp division between culpable malingering and exculpated hysteria, which may previously have been made on grounds of class or gender. They would contribute to the need for a mediating diagnosis, such as factitious disorder.

A naturalização dos fenômenos sobrenaturais e a construção do cérebro possuído: um estudo da medicalização do transe e da possessão no século XIX / The Naturalization of Supernatural Phenomena and the Construction of the possessed brain: a study of trance and possession medicalization in nineteenth century

Este trabalho procura discutir o modo como os fenômenos sobrenaturais foram apropriados, pela ciência, no século XlX. a teoria do magnetismo animal, criada por Mesmer, com suas variadas interpretações por várias gerações de discípulos; a construção da teoria da hipnose, com a codificação da histeria abrindo definitivamente as portas das censuras acadêmicas; e a teoria da dissociação, criada no final daquele século, demonstram diferentes explicações fisicalistas que, muitas vezes, serviram para estabelecer distâncias entre um saber popular e o conhecimento de elites profissionais. A construção do cérebro possuído, no século XlX, apoiada na nosologia da histeria, codificada pela Escola de Salpêtrière, refletiu uma importante transformação social da época, em um processo de laicização da assistencia pública, fundamental para a afirmação da psiquiatria como disciplina nascente...

This study discusses the way supernatural phenomena were enfolded by science in nineteenth century. The theory of magnetism, created by Mesmer, and its different interpretations by generations of disciples; the theory of hypnosis with hysteria codification, opening the academic censure; and the dissociation theory, created at theend of the nineteenth century, had demonstrated different efforts of finding physicals explanations, which served, in most cases, to establish distances between folk knowledge and elites of professional knowledge. The construction of the “possessed” brain, in nineteenth century, based on the hysteria nosology of Salpêtrière School,reflected an important social transformation, at that time, in a laicization process of public assistance, and an affirmation of psychiatry as a nascent discipline. Nowadays, the codification of complex mental states as trance, spiritual possession, which inhabit superstitious and popular imagination, receive a nosologic entity status from official diagnostic classification in psychiatry. Brain is mostly the reference used in the hope ofsupernatural naturalization.

MMPI-2 validity, clinical and content scales, and the Fake Bad Scale for personal injury litigants claiming idiopathic environmental intolerance.

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) is a descriptor for nonspecific complaints that are attributed to environmental exposure. METHODS: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) was administered to 50 female and 20 male personal injury litigants alleging IEI. RESULTS: The validity scales indicated no overreporting of psychopathology. Half of the cases had elevated scores on validity scales suggesting defensiveness, and a large number had elevations on Fake Bad Scale (FBS) suggesting overreporting of unauthenticated symptoms. The average T-score profile for females was defined by the two-point code type 3-1 (Hysteria-Hypochondriasis), and the average T-score profile for males was defined by the three-point code type 3-1-2 (Hysteria, Hypochondriasis-Depression). On the content scales, Health Concerns (HEA) scale was significantly elevated. CONCLUSION: Idiopathic environmental intolerance litigants (a) are more defensive about expressing psychopathology, (b) express distress through somatization, (c) use a self-serving misrepresentation of exaggerated health concerns, and (d) may exaggerate unauthenticated symptoms suggesting malingering.

Da relaçäo entre histeria, corpo e classe social / On the relations hyteria, body and social class

O objetivo desse trabalho é discutir a histeria enquanto uma categoria clínica marcada por determinantes de ordem histórica e social. Procura-se mostrar a relaçäo entre a apresentaçäo clínica da histeria e os diversos modelos e representaçöes de saúde/doença, normal/patológico, corpo, sexualidade e morte, entre outros, existentes nas diferentes classes sociais. Dessa forma, tenta-se enfatizar que a histeria enquanto uma categoria socialmente construída näo pode ser considerada a "essência" feminina nem um fenômeno natural

MMPI assessment of patients with functional bowel disorders.

This prospective study was undertaken to assess personality differences among patients with chronic pelvic floor disorders. Sixty patients (43 females and 17 males) of a mean age of 58 (range, 33-87) years with fecal incontinence (n = 19), constipation (n = 30), or levator spasm (n = 11) had a mean duration of symptoms of 35 (range, 2-50) years. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was utilized for psychologic assessment for all patients prior to treatment. Mean scores for scales 1 (hypochondriasis), 2 (depression), and 3 (hysteria) were significantly elevated for the levator spasm group (71, 75, and 73, respectively). A similar pattern was seen for the constipation group, where the mean scores for scales 1 and 2 were significantly elevated (70 and 74, respectively) with a moderate elevation on scale 3 (68). The hypochondriasis (1), depression (2), and hysteria (3) scales are referred to as the "neurotic triad," and profile patterns such as these indicate that these subjects may manifest their psychologic distress as physical symptoms. By contrast, the fecal incontinence patients were within the normal range on all scales. The information from these MMPI profiles can be used to understand the personality and emotional composition of these patients to assist in their evaluation and treatment.

The social recognition of repetition strain injuries: an Australian/American comparison.

In the mid 1980s the problem of occupational overuse injuries, particularly among keyboard operators, gained widespread recognition in Australia. The country appeared to be experiencing an epidemic, the like of which was unknown elsewhere in the world. Three explanations are canvassed in the paper: first, the psychiatric theory that it was a case of 'epidemic hysteria'; second the hypothesis that there really were more such injuries in Australia than elsewhere; and third, the hypothesis that the institutions of Australian society facilitated recognition of the problem, while those of other countries repress awareness of it. The paper focuses on this last hypothesis and seeks to demonstrate it by means of a comparison between Australia and the United States. It shows how, in particular, the system of workers' compensation in the Australian public service facilitated recognition of the problem, while the compensation system in the United States makes it very difficult for sufferers to have their disability acknowledged. Since workers' compensation is virtually the only source of injury statistics, this has led to the visibility of the problem in Australia and its invisibility in the United States.

The post-accident syndrome: variations in the clinical picture.

Three hundred and twenty-seven subjects involved in civil accident litigation and referred by solicitors for either plaintiff or defendant were examined. A precise psychiatric diagnosis was applicable in only a minority of subjects, although psychiatric symptoms, including pain, anxiety and depression, were prominent. Overall the clinical picture was an amorphous one. Cluster analysis was performed to examine a variety of clinical, demographic and historical variables. This showed four stable groups, which are here described as: stoic, depressive, phobic motor accident and prior claimants. It is suggested that the phenomenological approach taken here, paying particular attention to clinical sub-groups, may be a more useful route towards the understanding and treatment of post-accident psychiatric disturbance than is the existing but confused approach, in which motivation has been a prime focus of interest. The particular sub-groups demonstrated here, if replicated, could form the basis for such an approach.