The "phantom anesthetist" of Mattoon: a field study of mass hysteria.

The writer analyzes the records of an example of mass hysteria in a small Illinois town. One woman's hysterical report of being gassed and paralyzed at night led to heightened suggestibility of many others. Most victims were women of slightly below average social status. A surge of telephone calls to the police, reporting prowlers and 'gassers,' was followed by an abnormal decrease in calls to the police after the attacks were judged to be imaginary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)