John Waller

Another theory is the mass psychogenic illness or mass hysteria.

Modern historians, most notably John Waller, argue that the dancing plague was a case of mass psychogenic illness triggered by extreme psychological distress.

Strasbourg in 1518 was a place of immense suffering.

The city was reeling from a series of bad harvests.

Another theory is the mass psychogenic illness, or mass hysteria.

Modern historians, most notably John Waller, argue that the dancing plague was a case of mass psychogenic illness triggered by extreme psychological distress.

Strasbourg in 1518 was a place of immense suffering.

The city was reeling from a series of bad harvests.

So the, so we have the author of A Time to Dance, A Time to Die, which is just a great title.

This, this Professor John Waller, he knows how to title things.

Yeah, he does.

Uh, so he's at Michigan State University.

Okay.

Historian John Waller and other modern researchers attribute the event to a stress-induced psychological phenomenon.

It was fueled by extreme regional poverty, crop failure, famine, disease, and the local superstitious fear of being cursed by St. Vitus.

Another theory is ergot poisoning.

Yeah, so that could have been associated, or that was also associated with the Salem witch trials.

However, historian John Waller argues that this theory, it, it doesn't seem likely.

There's no way that it could have lasted that long, that everyone would have the exact same reaction.

Right.

But it is like a fun, fun little theory.

Yeah, that is fun.

But then that same historian, John Waller, in 2008 concluded that the dancers were dealing with the, with mass psychogenic illness.

Basically mass hysteria.

Another theory is the mass psychogenic illness, or mass hysteria.

Modern historians, most notably John Waller, argue that the dancing plague was a case of mass psychogenic illness triggered by extreme psychological distress.

Strasbourg in 1518 was a place of immense suffering.

The city was reeling from a series of bad harvests.

Sometimes they're crying out, experiencing visions, or eventually collapsing from exhaustion.

Historian John Waller has identified the outbreaks of 1374 and 1518 as the two best documented episodes of this phenomenon, and the 1374 event spread widely enough that it wasn't simply the story of one strange afternoon in one strange town.

The name that eventually became attached to this behavior was choreomania.

Chorea comes from the Greek word associated with dance, and mania gives you the other half of that equation.

They weren't recorded as joyfully participating in some sort of ceremony.

And the authorities were treating the behavior as an affliction that needed to be stopped.

The explanation most strongly associated with historian John Waller is what today would generally be called mass psychogenic illness.

Older literature often used the term mass hysteria, but modern terminology sort of avoids some of the baggage attached to that phrase.