ABSTRACT
Psychopathological epidemics reflect first of all the dominant ideas of the masses at a certain time, as well as of a certain social stratum or a certain region. Owing to auto-suggestion, one or another mystical idea flowing out of the world outlook of the Middle Ages often appeared to be the source of a series of convulsions or other manifestations of great hysteria which also received the impetus toward epidemic expansion. This is obviously the origin of convulsive and other medieval epidemics known as St. Vitus’s and St. John’s dance, a popular dance in Italy called “tarantella,” and finally of so-called placidity. The self-flagellation epidemic which spread out from Italy in Europe in 1266 is remarkable. An even more instructive picture is presented in the description of convulsive epidemics that occurred in Paris in the last century. Las Casas notes an interesting convulsive epidemic developed among the Indians in the district of Cape Saint Augustin.
