Also known as collective or group hysteria, it occurs when a large number of people, thanks to fear or rumours, experience a collective illusion. Instead, they would rather believe a rumour instead of being rational. After a subsequent blackout, she woke up to realise her hair had been cut.. It’s contributing to this phenomeno,” she says.She lists the 2001 Monkeyman incident as something that was born out of this group hysteria.(Representational image)Imagine waking up one fine morning to a chunk of your hair, ruthlessly chopped off, and lying on Composite Material the floor. “This case isn’t about the mentally disturbed. “In our society, fear is very much a part of our social fabric.”Consultant psychiatrist Dr Hozefa Bhinderawala adds that more than superstition, such cases can be blamed on to people with malicious intent.In the latter incident, residents of Delhi had complained of a monkey-like man, who allegedly terrorised, bit and scratched people before eventually disappearing.
“We all have a way of identifying what other people are going through and believe what they believe,” offers Priyanka Mahajan, psychiatrist at Masina Hospital, as an explanation. After a spate of such instances in the Northern part of the country, Mumbai has seen three different braid-chopping cases now. “When you take part in unnatural or frenzied actions due to a press from your subconscious, it’s called hysteria.”Counselling psychologist Kinjal Pandya explains that in a country like India, when it comes to creating this mass hysteria, fear is the main ingredient. The rumours ended up being so close to the truth, that two men in the capital even died as they tried to escape the creature. She says, “Most times, these women are in a state of dissociation. As many as 90 such bizarre cases have been reported across the country since June. When it spreads like it has now, we call it mass hysteria.. What these women are doing is chopping off their own hair — consciously or subconsciously unaware of it — perhaps in their sleep.
These are mostly women from lower income backgrounds, with minds that are more malleable. While various investigations haven’t been able to pinpoint the truth just yet, instances of this mysterious ‘hair-chopper’ on the prowl seem to have caused mass hysteria across India. It’s mostly done by people who have sound minds but have malicious intent.”end-ofTags: scary hairy tale, hair-chopper. With braid-chopping instances making an appearance in the city too, we delve into what causes mass hysteria in the country and how it spreads. Adds Kinjal, “People will never want to find out what’s actually happening.THE ASIAN AGE.Here in the city, one instance speaks about a woman, who was reportedly combing her tresses, when she experienced a headache.”Priyanka opines that in the case of braid-chopping, the victims have been women, who have been under constant domestic stress.It would seem like this phenomenon is spreading through the country, with women from states like Gujarat and Rajasthan too reporting cases of their hair being cut off with them being unaware of it. And they’re likely to believe in something like this.
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