Ethnocentricity and the social construction of ‘mass hysteria’

Abstract

This study provides a critical historical review and analysis of the variety of human expressions which have been erroneously labeled under the grandiose category “mass hysteria.” It is argued that Western science reductionist approaches to the classification of “mass hysteria” treat it as an entity to be discovered transculturally, and in their self-fulfilling search for universals systematically exclude what does not fit within the autonomous parameters of its Western-biased culture model, exemplifying what Kleinman (1977) terms a “category fallacy.” As a result of objectivist methodologies, the etiology of actions labeled as “mass hysteria” is typically viewed as deviant, irrational or abnormal behavior resulting from a malfunctioning ‘proper’ social order. However, what constitutes ‘the’ correct social order is a function of a researcher's historical sociocultural and/or scientific milieu. This study reviews the problem, advocating Geertz's (1973) culturally relativistic approach to understanding various cross-cultural behavior that is sensitive to and tolerant of the unique context and milieu of participants. “Mass” or “epidemic hysteria” is viewed as an invention of Western psychiatry and should be abandoned and replaced with the term collective exaggerated emotions. Instead of attempting to ‘discover’ a neatly packaged, unitary external disease entity, the focus of a meaning-oriented approach emphasizes the deciphering of foreign realities, semantic networks and symbol systems.