hysteria
Contagious emotional chaos
Hysteria is a state of uncontrolled emotion—panic, fear, or excitement that overwhelms rational thought.
A crowd might descend into hysteria after a gunshot, or fans into hysteria when their team wins.
Historically, hysteria was a medical diagnosis applied almost exclusively to women, attributing emotional disturbance to the uterus.
That gendered history lingers: calling someone hysterical often dismisses their feelings as irrational, especially when directed at women.
Psychological distress causing physical symptoms
- somatizationMental distress expressed physically
- psychogenicCaused by the mind
- psychosomaticMind-induced bodily illness
- FreudianOf unconscious-mind theory
psychoanalysis · repression · abreaction · histrionic · Victorian · neurasthenia · dissociative · shell shock
Disorderly, aggressive crowd
- contagionDisease spread by contact
- panicUncontrollable sudden fear
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
- SalemCity or name
moral panic · craze · mania · frenzy · epidemic · outbreak · bandwagon · groupthink
Intense journalistic attention surge
- tabloidSensationalist newspaper format
- hypeExaggerated promotional fanfare
- alarmismNeedless raising of fears
- fearmongeringDeliberately spreading exaggerated threats
clickbait · exaggeration · hyperbole · pearl-clutching · overblown · inflammatory · scaremongering · yellow journalism
Exaggerated emotional behavior
- overwroughtExcessively emotional or elaborate
- agitationDisturbed, restless state
- excitabilityProneness to strong reactions
- outburstSudden emotional release
meltdown · screaming · sobbing · uncontrollable · overreaction · breakdown · fit · conniption
conversion disorder
Psychological distress causing physical symptoms
- somatizationMental distress expressed physically
- psychogenicCaused by the mind
- psychosomaticMind-induced bodily illness
Freudian · psychoanalysis · repression · abreaction · histrionic · Victorian · neurasthenia · dissociative · shell shock · talking cure
mob
Disorderly, aggressive crowd
- contagionDisease spread by contact
- panicUncontrollable sudden fear
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
Salem · moral panic · craze · mania · frenzy · epidemic · outbreak · bandwagon · groupthink · copycat
media frenzy
Intense journalistic attention surge
- tabloidSensationalist newspaper format
- hypeExaggerated promotional fanfare
- alarmismNeedless raising of fears
fearmongering · clickbait · exaggeration · hyperbole · pearl-clutching · overblown · inflammatory · scaremongering · yellow journalism · breathless
histrionics
Exaggerated emotional behavior
- overwroughtExcessively emotional or elaborate
- agitationDisturbed, restless state
- excitabilityProneness to strong reactions
outburst · meltdown · screaming · sobbing · uncontrollable · overreaction · breakdown · fit · conniption · vapors
- fearmongeringscaremongering, fearmongering, scare tactics, fear tactics, alarmism
- herd behaviorherd mentality, bandwagon effect, conformism, peer pressure, following the crowd
- madnessmadness, lunacy, insanity, mania, schizophrenia
- witch huntswitch trials, witch hunt, witch hunts, Salem witch trials, Salem trials
- mass delusionsgroupthink, mob mentality, herd mentality, moral panic, satanic panic
- mental crisesnervous breakdown, mental breakdown, mental collapse, mental break, emotional collapse
hysteriacalm
Free from agitation
calmness · serenity · tranquility · composure · equanimity
hysteriaself-control
Ability to restrain impulses
composure · control · self-possession · poise · levelheadedness
hysteriacalm
Free from agitation
sobriety · level-headedness · measured response · rationality · reason
- mass hysteriaShared irrational public fear
- female hysteriaDefunct psychiatric category for women
- wartime hysteriaMass anxiety during armed conflict
- war hysteriaFrenzied public demand for combat
- hysterical blindnessPsychological loss of sight
hysterical, hysterics, hysterically, hysteric, hysteresis, hysterectomy, hysterias