"Women are very good at mass democracy: suddenly agree & amplify an ingroup, no matter what it says, in ways that emphasize shared vulnerability"
AI generated list:
"Mass psychogenic illness refers to the rapid spread of physical symptoms-such as fainting, tremors, or convulsions-through a group without any underlying organic or environmental cause. Psychological and sociological research recognizes these outbreaks as overwhelmingly concentrated among women and adolescent girls, with male-centric mass delusions typically manifesting quite differently through anxieties about external physical threats or bodily harm rather than shared physical illness.
Event & Year. Estimated Female Range. Specific Setting & Context
The Nuns Meowing and Biting Manias (Middle Ages). 100%. Occurred entirely within isolated European Catholic convents under strict religious and behavioral discipline.
St. Theresa's Eregi Girls" School Outbreak (2023). 100%. Struck students residing and studying at a Kenyan all-girls secondary school, leading to leg paralysis right before exam season.
1973 Singapore Factory Psychosis. 100%. Swept an electronics manufacturing facility staffed entirely by young female workers operating on high-pressure assembly lines.
Malaysian Factory Spirit Possession (1970s-80s). 100%. Massive waves of collective trances and screaming that repeatedly shut down electronics and textile factories staffed by young, newly urbanized women.
The Tabora Exam Fainting Spells (1984). Almost Entirely Female. Cascading fainting episodes highly concentrated within the female cohorts and girl dormitories of a school under strict testing pressures in Tanzania.
The Meldingen Tremor Outbreak (1892). 100%. Struck schoolgirls in a localized classroom setting, manifesting as sudden hand tremors that completely halted their ability to write.
Chalmeicac Sleep Contagion (2007). 100%. Affected hundreds of students living under highly disciplined, cloistered conditions at a massive Catholic girls' boarding school in Mexico.
Herat Province Convulsion Epidemic (2013). 100%. Swept exclusively through localized girls' schools in Afghanistan following rumors of toxic environmental poisonings.
El Carmen de Bolivar Vaccine Panic (2014). 100%. Hospitalized hundreds of pre-teen and teenage girls following a collective fear of an HPV vaccine roll-out at a local school.
The Groß Tinz Writing Tremors (1892). 100%. A localized motor epidemic that exclusively struck young schoolgirls in Germany, causing violent hand shaking when holding pens.
Dhankuta Secondary School Collapse (2016). 100%. Began during a class in Nepal when a small group of adolescent girls hyperventilated, wept, and collapsed in sequence.
Starehe Girls' Centre Epidemic (2019). 100%. Forced the complete closure of a high-profile all-girls school in Kenya when a localized group developed a high-pitched, collective barking cough.
The Redondo Beach School Faint (1989). 100%. Occurred at a California school where a localized squad of female cheerleaders fainted simultaneously after smelling a rumored "toxic leak" from a paper spirit poster.
The Chinki Seizure Outbreak (2014). 100%. Dozens of adolescent girls living inside a tribal residential school dormitory in India fell into synchronized convulsive fits, claiming spirits were choking them.
The Leiria Tremor Outbreak (1947). 100%. Struck a tight social network of young female lace-makers and textile apprentices inside a workshop following an aggressive administrative crackdown on breaks.
The Lille Witchcraft Panic (1639). 100%. Took place inside a French religious charity orphanage and school for girls, where fifty young girls collectively claimed to be surrounded by flying devils.
The Moruga Spirit Possession Outbreak (Trinidad, 2010). 100%. A cluster of high school girls in Trinidad collapsed into wild, violent fits and trance states while in their classrooms.
The Diriamba "Crazy Sickness" (Nicaragua, 2003). 100%. An outbreak of grisi siknis (crazy sickness) that swept a cohort of schoolgirls in Nicaragua, causing them to hallucinate and flee into nearby brush.
The Amagasaki Tremor Cluster (Japan, 1971). 100%. A tight-knit social group of junior high school girls in Japan developed synchronized muscle spasms right before major grade placements.
The Maharashtra Hostel Panic (India, 2026). 100%. Swept an all-girls residential hostel where a small group began uncontrollably crying and laughing, prompting hundreds of students to flee the building over fears of supernatural activity.
The Odisha Boarding School Faint (India, 2024). 100%. Began with an index case of a 12-year-old girl at a girls' boarding school before rapidly spreading physical fainting and shaking to nearly 100 other students.
The Kuantan Dormitory Monks (Malaysia, 1976). Almost Entirely Female. Triggered during a campus competition when a student screamed over a rumored apparition on top of a girl's dormitory, setting off mass screaming fits across the campus.
Bellevue Twitching Leg Outbreak (1939). Vast Majority (over 95%). Concentrated heavily within a localized group of high school girls in Louisiana who developed synchronized leg twitching.
West Bank Fainting Epidemic (1983). Vast Majority (over 95%). Close to 1,000 adolescent schoolgirls fainted across multiple girls' schools over groundless rumors of airborne chemical deployment.
stag on X - " I wonder if this phenomenon could be modeled as a phase transition of a far-from-equilibrium system, where a small perturbation can grow enough to change the whole structure “small interventions can be either ineffective or explosively effective depending on the system's position within the hysteresis loop”"
Ceb K. on X - "imo the best way to think of it is as “recursive/transitive endorsement/prestige” games, where you’re trying to eg endorse people/ideas who are endorsed by people/ideas who are endorsed (eg PageRank type algorithms). Sudden large phase transitions: “we all think all-X now honey!”"
Budman on X - "I explain it this way: Women made babies. They were included in the tribe by default. Men had to provide value. They were rejected by default. Men need Strength, Courage, Honor, and Mastery to make it into the tribe. Women need to follow consensus to not get kicked out."
abc on X - "ou can add every woman claiming to have ‘long covid’ and so many of them saying they’re nonbinary to the list"
