ABSTRACT
According to the description of Prof. I. A. Sikorskii, the psychopathological epidemic was expressed in an abnormal kindliness which often turned, generally speaking, into an exalted joyful state, into a cheerful mood and a particular sensitivity, which were not stipulated by any external circumstances. As well, following the development of individual cases of insanity in the course of this psychopathological epidemic, it is easy to convince oneself that, owing to unusual psychic susceptibility, both suggestion and auto-suggestion also have great importance. Obviously, the hallucination had an effect totally similar to that of suggestion and it was difficult to find any difference between an artificially conducted suggestion and the suggestion produced by hallucinations. In general, it should be noticed that the development of the psychopathological epidemic known as Malevannism, both in individual cases and in the mass as a whole, is indebted to a considerable extent to suggestion, mutual suggestion and auto-suggestion.
