By Jan Deichmohle:
History of Mass Hysteria
An early occurrence of a new form of irrationality was surfacing in the age of ‚enlightenment’, when a mob was yelling (rather unenlightened) “Hang to the lanterns, who has a handkerchief!”, and “Hang to the lanterns, who hasn’t got horny skin!”.[i] The people who had soft skin, faced the danger to get lynched.[ii] On the picture above, women lead an armed march of revolutionaries.
Symbol of the French Revolution was an allegorical Marianne, portrayed swinging the tricolour during street fighting. When women and children, the whole family are involved in ideologies, this results in radicalisation. What had been rather a peripheral matter and aberration before, was transformed into a principle, the foundation of a systematically spread hysteria, and was spread along with ideological world views, closed in itself.