Mass Psychosis – – How an Entire Population Becomes Mentally Ill

Regardless of where you land on the Covid pandemic, the past several years have confirmed that there is a tendency for groups of people to act in a very similar fashion. Why? In the book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, Mattias Desmet the Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University argues that the manipulation of individual and collective emotions such as fear, hope, and optimism/pessimism can become amplified in groups, leading to a form of collective hysteria also referred to mass psychosis. While I encourage everyone to read the book The Psychology of Totalitarianism the following video provides a great overview and starting point: