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Havana Syndrome pp 167–177Cite as

State Terrorism Masquerading as Psychogenic Illness

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Abstract

Since the 1980s, reports of mass psychogenic illness have increasingly featured themes centering around state-sponsored terrorism. In each instance, longstanding political tensions led to the creation of a folk theory that a hostile foreign power was targeting minorities with poisonous substances as a form of ethnic cleansing. The symptoms of ‘Havana Syndrome’ closely parallel illness clusters that have been identified as mass psychogenic illness, after initially being diagnosed as an attack with chemical weapons by a hostile government. Despite initial confusion surrounding these diagnoses, a consensus has emerged within the medical community that they were psychogenic in origin. The involvement of specific ethnic groups is conspicuous as chemical agents cannot discriminate along ethnic lines. This social patterning of symptoms parallels the events in Cuba as only diplomatic staff and their families were affected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Head and Neck Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Robert W. Baloh

  2. Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Robert E. Bartholomew

Authors
  1. Robert W. Baloh
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  2. Robert E. Bartholomew
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Correspondence to Robert W. Baloh .

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Baloh, R.W., Bartholomew, R.E. (2020). State Terrorism Masquerading as Psychogenic Illness. In: Havana Syndrome. Copernicus, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40746-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40746-9_10

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  • Publisher Name: Copernicus, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40745-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-40746-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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