“Hysteria is an audiovisual contagion. You have to see and hear someone exhibiting symptoms in order to find yourself replicating those symptoms. See it enough, and it becomes you. This is hysteria’s essential and most terrifying threat: Anyone is susceptible.”
By: Nashyiela Loa Zavala, Psychiatrist
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” By: Martin Luther King
“Those who make peaceful revolution (freedom of speech) impossible, will make violent revolution (protest theatrics) inevitable.” By: John F. Kennedy
“People generally seem to have a very visceral reaction to damaged property and any sort of protester-incited violence or destruction. Why is that, and is that changing? It’s pragmatic. No one wants to see their own property damaged. If you are a business owner, who puts your entire livelihood into a business, you probably don’t want it to be the sacrificial lamb of a movement.
One evening when I was going out, researching for my book on the 1992 LA uprisings, I ended up in this South LA shopping center where there were a couple businesses burning. There was this older black man standing. He was watching everything unfold and told me, ‘See that over there; that’s my record store.’ He said he would give it all up to see something positive come out of this.
In other words, he meant that things have to burn to get attention, to get people to realize that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the system. Yes, he might be a victim of the looting because his shop was burning, but he was willing to make that sacrifice to hope that the movement would advance in a positive direction. Not everyone might feel that way, but there are some people who do.” Excerpt from There isn’t a simple story about looting
Commentary: Hysteria affects youth and young adults, particularly those with Borderline Personality Disorder , as they often experience heightened anxiety stemming from their environment—such as broken families, systemic discrimination, or catastrophic events. Many have endured or witnessed physical and/or psychological abuse within their communities, either firsthand or through media coverage. ‘Mob mentality’ is closely related to ‘mass hysteria’. Fear triggers two primary responses: ‘fight or flight’. The riots occurring across the country can be seen as a manifestation of a futile attempt to fight against a perceived impending threat.
The only effective remedy is therapy that helps maintain a clear distinction between what society considers normal and what has become a ‘corrupted state of mind’. However, if the ‘thin blue line’—symbolizing the separation between order and chaos—begins to blur, there is a significant risk that hysteria will persist and escalate.
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