Episode Details

The spread of the contagion tends to be a function of how connected the victims are to each other. So students at a small town high school, or workers on a factory floor, or even nuns in a convent.

这种"传染"的传播程度往往取决于受害者之间的关联性。比如小镇高中的学生、工厂工人，甚至修道院的修女。

In the Middle Ages, there were several cases reported in Europe in convents, including one extended case in France where a nun supposedly began meowing uncontrollably, only to have that symptom spread to the rest of the nuns in the convent.

中世纪欧洲就记录过数起修道院群体癔症，其中法国一起持续事件中，一名修女突然无法控制地学猫叫，随后症状传染了整个修道院。

And then, of course, there's the witches of Salem, right? Perhaps the archetypical women being hysterical. Many now believe that that was a mass psychogenic illness.

还有著名的塞勒姆女巫审判事件——如今许多人认为那正是一场群体性心因疾病，堪称"女性歇斯底里"的典型案例。

Why does it happen? There's usually some sort of underlying stress or trauma affecting the people involved.

为何会出现这种现象？通常与当事人承受的压力或创伤有关。

Like, for example, in the fall of 2001, when a mystery rash broke out in grade schools around the country, at least dozens and dozens of schools, hundreds of students affected.

例如2001年秋天，全美数十所小学爆发神秘皮疹，数百名学生受影响。

The rash would pass from student to student during the day in the school but then often disappear when the kid went home at night. And then it would reappear the next day and begin spreading all over again.

皮疹白天在校内传播，晚上学生回家后却常会消退，次日返校又再度爆发。

Tests showed no bacteria, no virus, no toxic exposure that would explain it. Turns out what may have been happening is that it was fear of toxic exp