Mass hysteria—other names include collective hysteria, group hysteria, or collective obsessional behavior—is the spontaneous manifestation of the same or similar hysterical physical symptoms by more than one person.
A common manifestation of mass hysteria occurs when a group of people believe they are suffering from a similar disease or ailment. Sometimes referred to as mass psychogenic illness or epidemic hysteria.
Read more about Mass Hysteria: Characteristics
Famous quotes containing the words mass and/or hysteria:
“The mass believes that it has the right to impose and to give force of law to notions born in the café.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (18831955)
“To try to write love is to confront the muck of language: that region of hysteria where language is both too much and too little, excessive ... and impoverished.”
—Roland Barthes (19151980)