>It feels as though our society has collectively forgotten that mental illness can be socially transmissible. I remember in 00s there seemed to be mainstream ac

>It feels as though our society has collectively forgotten that mental illness can be socially transmissible. I remember in 00s there seemed to be mainstream acknowledgement and concern that anorexia and distorted perception of one's body can be socially transmissible In the 90s, there was a study done on "sensitivity to environmental toxins," where people would complain about sickness and headaches and similar things from new carpet or new paint in offices. IIRC, the study found that the reported cases were in a kind of "line of sight," i.e. one person would complain about it to another person, and before long it had passed all the way through the weird social groupings in cube farms, passed from person to person. It's odd, but important to remember, that humans are still just smarter than average herd animals.