Anxiety and Mass Formation/Hysteria

In this stand-alone episode, Jaxon and Max discuss the hypothesis of “Mass Formation” posited by Dr. Mattias Desmet. This Mass Formation can be described as crowd psychosis or mass hypnosis.

Dr. Desmet suggests that there are four element that must be in place in order for the Mass Formation to occur. 

1) There needs to a lot of socially isolated people or people who experience a lack of social bond 
2) People who experience a lack of ‘sense making’. Unable to come to sensible conclusions. 
3) There is a lot of Free-Floating Anxiety (FFA). Free-Floating because there’s nothing to connect their anxiety to. No focal point. Unable to identify what’s causing and so no way to deal with it. 
4) There’s also a lot of Free-Floating Psychological-Discontent. People may experience their daily lives as lacking any purpose or meaning

Dr. Mattias Desmet is a professor of Psychology at the University of Ghent in Belgium. 

Here’s the link to the article that got Max thinking about the topic as the subject of an episode. 
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/mass-formation-psychosis

Max’s Note: While editing the audio for this episode I missed a few “bad words”. In order to expedite the episode release time, I will not be re-editing to add the censor guitar squeals. I apologize if the words are offensive, but there a very few that I missed. 

Email us at: JaxandMax@brainsnackspodcast.com

This was recorded as a video podcast. To watch click HERE!

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