A lesser-known, less readily-acknowledged social affliction at play — which requires a relatively high degree of critical thinking along with a lengthy attention span to truly comprehend — is the concept of a mass delusional psychosis:
A psychosis can be defined as a detachment from reality, or the loss of an adaptive relationship to reality. In the place of facts and thoughts based in objective reality in the world, those afflicted by psychosis become overwhelmed by delusions — false beliefs that are believed to be true, in spite of the available evidence presented, even if witnessed first-hand by the eyes and ears of the psychotic.
One of the most notable examples of a mass delusional psychosis was that of the American and European witch-hunts of the 16th & 17th centuries.
Thousands of people, especially women, were killed during the witch-hunts, because they were blamed as the scapegoats or the "others" by societies that had collectively gone completely mad.
For a mass delusional psychosis to occur, a society first needs to be put under an intense and prolonged state of fear, along with isolation and a severance of the usual familiar social bonds and support networks that people have in their everyday lives.
Then follows the "othering" - the persecution, demonisation and scapegoating of a cohort of people, likening them to animals or something sub-human.
Once the population's rational and logical faculties are overrun with fear, they can no longer think critically; unchecked, that fear quickly becomes an existential threat to the "others."...<<<Read More>>>...
