All language subtitles for MASS PSYCHOSIS - How an Entire Population Becomes MENTALLY ILL.eng

“The masses have never thirsted after truth.

They turn aside from evidence that is
not to their taste, preferring to deify error,

if error seduce them.

Whoever can
supply them with illusions is easily their

master; whoever attempts to destroy their
illusions is always their victim.”

(Gustav Le Bon)

According to the psychologist Carl Jung the
greatest threat to civilization lies not with

the forces of nature, nor with any physical
disease, but with our inability to deal with

the forces of our own psyche.

We are our own worst enemies or as the Latin
proverb

puts it “Man is wolf to man”.

In Civilization in Transition Jung states
that this proverb

“is a sad yet eternal truism” and our
wolf-like tendencies come most prominently

into play at those times of history when mental
illness becomes the norm, rather

than the exception in a society, a situation
which Jung termed a psychic epidemic.

“Indeed, it is becoming ever more obvious”
he writes “that it is not famine, not

earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer but
man himself who is man’s greatest danger

to man, for the simple reason that there is
no adequate protection against psychic

epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating
than the worst of natural

catastrophes.”

(Carl Jung, The Symbolic Life)

In this video we are going to explore the
most dangerous of all psychic epidemics the

mass psychosis.

A mass psychosis is an epidemic of madness
and it occurs when a

large portion of a society loses touch with
reality and descends into delusions.

Such a
phenomenon is not a thing of fiction.

Two examples of mass psychoses are the
American and European witch hunts 16th and

17th centuries and the rise of
totalitarianism in the 20th century.

During the witch hunts thousands of individuals,
mostly women, were killed not for any crimes

they committed but because they
became the scapegoats of societies gone mad:

“In some Swiss villages,” writes Frances
Hill “there were scarcely any women left

alive
after the frenzy had finally burned itself

out.”

(A Delusion of Satan)

When a mass psychosis occurs the results are
devastating.

Jung studied this
phenomenon and wrote that the individuals

who make up the infected society
“become morally and spiritually inferior”

they “sink unconsciously to an
inferior…intellectual level” they become

“more unreasonable, irresponsible,
emotional, erratic, and unreliable,” and

worst of all “Crimes the individual alone
could never stand are freely committed by

the group [smitten by madness].”

What makes matters worse is that those suffering
from a mass psychosis are

unaware of what is occurring.

For just as an individual gone mad cannot
step out of

his mind to observe the errors in his ways,
so too there is no Archimedean point

from which those living through a mass psychosis
can observe their collective

Madness.

But what causes a mass psychosis?

To answer this question we must first explore
what drives an individual mad.

While there are many potential triggers of
madness,

such as an excessive use of drugs or alcohol,
brain injuries and other illnesses, these

physical causes will not concern us here.

Our concern is with psychological, or what
are called psychogenic triggers, as these

are the most common culprit of the mass
psychosis.

The most prevalent psychogenic cause of a
psychosis is a flood of negative

emotions, such as fear or anxiety, that drives
an individual into a state of panic.

When in a state of panic an individual will
naturally seek relief as it is too mentally

and physically draining to subsist in this
hyper-emotional state.

While escape from the state of panic can be
accomplished through adaptive means

such as facing up to, and defeating the fear
generating threat, another way to escape

is to undergo a psychotic break.

A psychotic break is not a descent into a
state of

greater disorder as many believe, but a re-ordering
of one’s experiential world which

blends fact and fiction, or delusions and
reality, in a way that helps end the feelings

of panic.

Silvano Arieti, one of the 20 th century’s
foremost authorities on

schizophrenia, explains the psychogenic steps
that lead to madness: firstly there is

“[the] phase of panic – when the patient
starts to perceive things in a different way,

is frightened on account of it, appears confused,
and does not know how to explain

“the strange things that are happening.”

(Interpretation of Schizophrenia)

The next step is what Arieti calls a phase
of psychotic insight, whereby an individual

“succeeds in “putting things together”
[b]y devising a pathological way of seeing

reality, [which allows him] to explain his
abnormal experiences.

The phenomenon is
called “insight” because the patient finally

sees meaning and relations in his
experiences.

. .” But the insight is psychotic because
it is based on delusions not on

adaptive and life-promoting ways of relating
to whatever threats precipitated the

panic.

The delusions, in other words, allow the panic-stricken
individual to escape

from the flood of negative emotions, but at
the cost of losing touch with reality and

for this reason Arieti says that a psychotic
break can be viewed as “an abnormal way

of dealing with an extreme state of anxiety.

. .”

If a panic-triggering flood of negative emotions,
in a weak and vulnerable

individual, can trigger a psychotic break,
than a mass psychosis can result when a

population of weak and vulnerable individuals
is driven into a state of panic by

threats real, imagined, or fabricated.

But as delusions can take many forms, and
as madness can manifest in countless ways,

the specific manner in which a mass
psychosis unfolds will differ based on the

historical and cultural context of the
infected society.

But in the modern era it is the mass psychosis
of totalitarianism

that appears to be the greatest threat:

“Totalitarianism” writes Arthur Versluis
“is the modern phenomenon of total

centralized state power coupled with the obliteration
of individual human rights:

in the totalized state, there are those in
power, and there the objectified masses,

the victims.”

(Arthur Versluis, The New Inquisitions)

In a totalitarian society the population is
divided into two groups, the rulers and

the ruled, and both groups undergo a pathological
transformation.

The rulers are
elevated to an almost god-like status which

is diametrically opposed to our nature
as imperfect beings who are easily corrupted

by power.

The masses, on the other
hand, are transformed into the dependent subjects

of these pathological rulers
and take on a psychologically regressed and

childlike status.

Hannah Arendt, one
of the 20 th century’s preeminent scholars

of this form of rule, called
totalitarianism an attempted transformation

of “human nature itself”.

But this
attempted transformation only turns sound

minds into sick minds for as the
Dutch medical doctor who studied the mental

effects of living under
totalitarianism wrote:

“… there is in fact much that is comparable
between the strange reactions of the

citizens of [totalitarianism] and their culture
as a whole on the one hand and the

reactions of the…sick schizophrenic on the
other.”

(The Rape of the Mind)
The social transformation that unfolds under

totalitarianism is built upon, and
sustained by, delusions.

For only deluded men and women regress to
the childlike

status of obedient and submissive subjects
and hand over complete control of

their lives to politicians and bureaucrats.

Only a deluded ruling class will believe
that they possess the knowledge, wisdom, and

acumen to completely control
society in a top-down manner.

And only when under the spell of delusions
would

anyone believe that a society composed of
power-hungry rulers, on the one hand,

and a psychological regressed population,
on the other, will lead to anything

other than mass suffering and social ruin.

The mass psychosis of totalitarianism has
been induced many times throughout

history, and as Meerloo explains: “It is
simply a question of reorganizing and

manipulating collective feelings in the proper
way.”

The general method by which
the members of a ruling elite can accomplish

this end is called menticide, with the
etymology of this word being ‘a killing

of the mind’, and as Meerloo further
Explains:

“Menticide is an old crime against the human
mind and spirit but systematized

anew.

It is an organized system of psychological
intervention and judicial

perversion through which a [ruling class]
can imprint [their] own opportunistic

thoughts upon the minds of those [they] plan
to use and destroy.”

(The Rape of
the Mind)

Priming a population for the crime of menticide
begins with the sowing of fear so

as to place a population into the state of
panic that primes them for a descent

into the delusionary beliefs of a psychosis.

A particularly effective technique to
accomplish this end is to use waves of terror.

Under this technique the sowing of
fear is staggered with periods of calm, but

each of these periods of calm is
followed by the manufacturing of an even more

intense spell of fear, and on and
on the process goes, or as Meerloo writes:

“Each wave of terrorizing . . . creates
its effects more easily – after a breathing

spell – than the one that preceded it because
people are still disturbed by their

previous experience.

Morality becomes lower and lower, and the
psychological

effects of each new propaganda campaign become
stronger; it reaches a public

already softened up.”

(Meerloo)

While fear primes a population for menticide,
the use of propaganda to spread

misinformation and to promote confusion with
respect to the source of the

threats, and the nature of the crisis, helps
to break down the minds of the

masses.

Government officials, and their lackies in
the media, can use

contradictory reports, non-sensical information
and even blatant lies, as the more

they confuse the less capable will a population
be to cope with the crisis, and

diminish their fear, in a rational and adaptive
manner.

Confusion, in other words,
heightens the susceptibility of a descent

into the delusions of totalitarianism, or
as Meerloo explains:

“Logic can be met with logic, while illogic
cannot—it confuses those who think

straight.

The Big Lie and monotonously repeated nonsense
have more emotional

appeal … than logic and reason.

While the [people are] still searching for
a

reasonable counter-argument to the first lie,
the totalitarians can assault [them]

with another.”

(The Rape of the Mind)

Never before in history have such effective
means existed to manipulate a society

into the psychosis of totalitarianism.

Smart phones and social media, television
and the internet, all in conjunction with

bots that spread propaganda and
algorithms that quickly censor the flow of

unwanted information, allow those in
power to easily assault the minds of the masses.

What is more the addictive
nature of these technologies means that many

people voluntarily subject
themselves to the ruling elite’s propaganda

with a remarkable frequency:

“Modern technology” explains Meerloo “teaches
man to take for granted the

world he is looking at; he takes no time to
retreat and reflect.

Technology lures
him on, dropping him into its wheels and movements.

No rest, no meditation, no
reflection, no conversation – the senses

are continually overloaded with stimuli.

[Man] doesn’t learn to question his world
anymore; the screen offers him answers-

ready-made.”

(The Rape of the Mind)

But there is a further step the would-be totalitarian
rulers can take to increase the

chance of a totalitarian psychosis, and this
is to isolate the victims and to disrupt

normal social interactions.

When alone and lacking normal interactions
with

friends, family and coworkers, an individual
becomes far more susceptible to

delusions for several reasons: Firstly, they
lose contact with the corrective force

of the positive example.

For not everyone is tricked by the machinations
of the

ruling elite and the individuals who see through
the propaganda, can help free

others from the menticidal assault.

If, however, isolation is enforced the power
of

these positive examples greatly diminishes.

But another reason that isolation
increases the efficacy of menticide is because

like many other species, human
beings, are more easily conditioned into new

patterns of thought and behaviour
when isolated, or as Meerloo explains with

regards to the physiologist Ivan
Pavlov’s work on behavioural conditioning:

“Pavlov made another significant discovery:
the conditioned reflex could be

developed most easily in a quiet laboratory
with a minimum of disturbing stimuli.

Every trainer of animals knows this from his
own experience; isolation and the

patient repetition of stimuli are required
to tame wild animals.

. . .The
totalitarians have followed this rule.

They know that they can condition their
political victims most quickly if they are

kept in isolation.”

(The Rape of the Mind)

Alone, confused and battered by waves of terror,
a population under an attack of

menticide descends into a hopeless and vulnerable
state.

The never-ending
stream of propaganda turns minds once capable

of rational thought into
playhouses of irrational forces and with chaos

swirling around them, and within
them, the masses crave a return to a more

ordered world.

The would-be
totalitarians can now take the decisive step,

they can offer a way out and a return
to order in a world that seems to be moving

rapidly in the opposite direction.

But
all this come at a price: The masses must

give up their freedom and cede control
of all aspects of life to the ruling elite.

They must relinquish their capacity to be
self-reliant individuals who are responsible

for their own lives, and become
submissive and obedient subjects.

The masses, in other words, must descend into
the delusions of the totalitarian psychosis.

“. . .the totalitarian systems of the 20th
century represent a kind of collective

psychosis,” writes the medical doctor Joost
Meerloo.

“Whether gradually or suddenly,
reason and common human decency are no longer

possible in such a system: there is
only a pervasive atmosphere of terror, and

a projection of “the enemy,” imagined
to

be “in our midst.”

Thus society turns on itself, urged on by
the ruling authorities.”

But the order of a totalitarian world is a
pathological order.

By enforcing a strict
conformity, and requiring a blind obedience

from the citizenry, totalitarianism
rids the world of the spontaneity that produces

many of life’s joys and the
creativity that drives society forward.

The total control of this form of rule, no
matter under what name it is branded and be

it rule by scientists and doctors,
politicians and bureaucrats, or a dictator,

breeds stagnation, destruction and
death on a mass scale.

And so perhaps the most important question
facing the

world is how can totalitarianism be prevented?

And if a society has been induced
into the early stages of this mass psychosis,

can the effects be reversed?

While one can never be sure of the prognosis
of a collective madness, there are

steps that can be taken to help effectuate
a cure.

This task, however, necessitates
many different approaches, from many different

people.

For just as the
menticidal attack is multi-pronged, so too

must be the counter-attack.

According
to Carl Jung, for those of us who wish to

help return sanity to an insane world, the
first step is to bring order to our own minds,

and to live in a way that provides
inspiration for others to follow:

“It is not for nothing that our age cries
out for the redeemer personality, for the

one who can emancipate himself from the grip
of the collective [psychosis] and

save at least his own soul, who lights a beacon
of hope for others, proclaiming

that here is at least one man who has succeeded
in extricating himself from the

fatal identity with the group psyche.”

(V10)

But assuming one is living in a manner free
of the grip of the psychosis there are

further steps that can be taken: firstly,
information that counters the propaganda

should be spread as far, and as wide, as possible.

For the truth is more powerful
than the fiction and falsities peddled by

the would-be totalitarian rulers and so
their success is in part contingent on their

ability to censor the free flow of
information.

Another tactic is to use humour and ridicule
to delegitimize the

ruling elite or as Meerloo explains:

“We must learn to treat the demagogue and
aspirant dictators in our midst.

.
.with the weapon of ridicule.

The demagogue himself is almost incapable
of humor

of any sort, and if we treat him with humor,
he will begin to collapse.”

A tactic recommended by Vaclav Havel, a political
dissident under Soviet

communist rule who later became president
of Czechoslovakia, is the

construction of what are called “parallel
structures”.

A parallel structure is any
form of organization, business, institution,

technology, or creative pursuit that
exists physically within a totalitarian society,

yet morally outside of it.

In
communist Czechoslovakia, Havel noted that

these parallel structures were more
effective at combating totalitarianism than

political action.

Furthermore, when
enough parallel structures are created, a

“second culture” or “parallel society”
spontaneously forms and functions as an enclave

of freedom and sanity within a
totalitarian world.

Or as Havel explains in his book The Power
of the Powerless:

“….what else are parallel structures than
an area where a different life can be

lived, a life that is in harmony with its
own aims and which in turn structures itself

in harmony with those aims?

. . .What else are those initial attempts
at social self-

organization than the efforts of a certain
part of society...to rid itself of the self-

sustaining aspects of totalitarianism and,
thus, to extricate itself radically from its

involvement in the…totalitarian system?”

But above all else what is required to prevent
a full descent into the madness of

totalitarianism is action by as many people
as possible.

For just as the ruling elite
do not sit around passively, but instead take

deliberate steps to increase their
power, so too an active and concerted effort

must be made to move the world
back in the direction of freedom.

This can be an immense challenge in a world
falling prey to the delusions of totalitarianism,

but as Thomas Paine noted:
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;

yet we have this consolation with us,
that the harder the conflict the more glorious

the triumph.”

(Thomas Paine,
American Crisis)

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