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Abstract
Similarities between past Mass Psychogenic Disease events and mass behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic are compared. Isolation of mass populations in typically dense urban areas are examined as an unusually condition that could form initial stimulation for MPD. Psychological factors like uncertainty, confused political discourse, blaming of subgroups and minorities as well as rival political or religious groups could also be motivations.
Highlights
In recent years interest in mass outbreaks of behavior aberrations have brought renewed interest to the syndrome of mass psychogenic disease (MPD)
One should consider that isolation and quarantine as well as people leaving cities for the countryside or suburbs are forms of general mammalian dispersal in response to disease [5]
The main problem for humans is the apparent lack of an effective general dispersal pattern for modern populations
Summary
In recent years interest in mass outbreaks of behavior aberrations have brought renewed interest to the syndrome of mass psychogenic disease (MPD). I have favored congregate living over single unit housing (see my book, An Ethnography of the Goodman Building: The Longest Rent Strike, [24]), The nature of contemporary urban landscapes seems to promote depression, but not more aggression when we factor in increased density and population per square mile This problem of density was mentioned in the recent Financial Times article by Jonathan Wheatley (Pandemic forces rethink by city planners in emerging nations, Sept 23, 2020) [25]. In my study of human behavior during past pandemics (Caldararo, Niccolo, Evolutionary Aspects of Disease Avoidance, [31]) we do find an increase in violence as well as burning, victimization and mass migration, as in the remarkable European flagellants who, by the thousands, marched across parts of Europe during the Black Plague In these cases of chaos the main factor was a lack of strong institutions and government. In Salem, the colonists turned on themselves, today with Covid-19, like many epidemics of the past, the targets are foreigners, minorities, doctors and government
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