Abnormal Psychology article, Part 2

The "Phantom Anesthetist" of Mattoon

A Field Study of Mass Hysteria

Characteristics of the Susceptible

Sample: Thus far in our investigation we have treated the Mattoon affair as a social phenomenon. The next question, and perhaps the most important, concerns the individuals in the affair. Why were some people susceptible while their next-door neighbors were not? Phrased in more workable form the question becomes one of finding differences between the susceptible sample and the rest of the population of Mattoon. The experimental literature on suggestibility and the clinical literature on hysteria offered several attractive hypotheses for check, but the nature of the case put a distinct limitation on the methods which could be used. It was apparent from the first few interviews that the victims, while they would talk about the "gassing," and their symptoms, and similar superficial matters, would not be willing to cooperate in any inquiry directed toward, for example, unconscious motivation. They had been victimized twice: once by the concatenation of factors, environmental and personal, which produced the symptoms, and later by publicity and gossip, which carried the implication that people who have hysterical attacks are more peculiar, or less sincere, than their neighbors. For these reasons the best one could hope for was a description of the sample in respect of a few objective characteristics.
The 1940 Census Reports (8) give data on a number of characteristics of the Mattoon population; getting the same data for our sample would permit a comparison in these respects. Those characteristics were selected which seemed easy to verify and of possible significance for the present problem: age, sex, schooling, economic level, and occupation. Age was estimated and, in doubtful cases, checked by the estimates of acquaintances. To get a picture of the economic level of the sample four conveniences were used as indices: radio, mechanical refrigerator, electricity, and telephone. Percentages for the first three are given in the Census Reports. The number of residential telephones in Mattoon was kindly furnished by the manager of the local telephone agency, and the percentage computed in reference to the number of occupied dwelling units given in the Census Reports. The Census Bureau's descriptions of their occupational categories were studied before the interviewing began so that the necessary data could be obtained. For example, the Reports state specifically that railway brakemen are classed as "Operatives" while locomotive engineers and firemen are classed as "Craftsmen, Foremen and Kindred Workers." Furthermore in a small town like Mattoon the variety of jobs is limited and cross-checking is relatively easy. Hence placing the occupations of the sample into the Census Bureau's categories offered less difficulty than might be expected. A woman's occupation was used if she worked, otherwise her husband's. (Only two women had husbands in military service. One of these worked, hence her own occupation was used. In the other case the husband had been inducted only recently so his civilian occupation was used.) All these data are brought together in Table I for comparison with similar data for the total population of Mattoon.

TABLE I. 

The Sample of "Gasser" Victims Compared with the Total Population of Mattoon in Respect to Certain Objective Characteristics.


SEX
PERCENTAGE OF SAMPLE
PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION

Women
93
52
AGE
   Below 10
0
14
   10-19
0
18
   20-29
37
17
   30-39
16
15
   40-49
21
13
   50-59
16
10
   60-69
10
7
   Over 70
0
6
EDUCATION
   Grade school only
71
58
   Some high school
29
32
   Some college
0
10
INDICES OF ECONOMIC LEVEL
   Electricity
80
95
   Radio
80
91
   Mechanical refrigerator
28
46
   Telephone
33
60
OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES
   Professional and semi-professional
0
7
   Proprietors, managers, and officials
16
13
   Clerical, sales, and kindred workers
32
21
   Craftsmen, foremen, and kindred workers
5
16
   Operatives
37
24
   Laborers, farm laborers, and farm formen
10
5
   Domestic service
0
5
   Service workers, except domestic
0
9

Statistically speaking, the sample is small; the number of cases on which the percentages in Table I are based varies from 14 for schooling to 29 for sex. The table includes, however, nearly all the cases in which physical symptoms were reported. The investigator checked police records and newspaper accounts for names and found a few others while interviewing. Two people could not be found at home despite repeated calls. three had left town. One would not talk to the investigator. Some of the data on these were obtained from acquaintances. Table I gives us at least a partial description of the people who were most intensely affected by the excitement.
To begin with, the sample has a much greater proportion of women than the general population of the city. This is in agreement with the laboratory studies on suggestibility (1) and the clinical reports on hysteria (5,6). All of the cases have been married but one, who was about twenty years old. As to the age data a word of explanation is necessary. In three cases mothers reported that their children had been "gassed." Since the investigator did not talk to the children apart from their mothers, these cases were eliminated. In two of these cases the mothers reported symptoms for themselves also, hence it is only the age data which are affected. Aside from the absence of children the most noticeable difference between the sample and the population is the surplus in the age group 20 to 29. The significance of this, if it is not accidental, is not obvious.
Since children are more suggestible than adults (1), why were there not more children in the sample? Many children probably did accept the suggestion in the sense that they reported to their parents that they saw the "gasser" or smelled gas. While the dynamics of symptom-formation are not well understood and may be different in each case, it does seem likely that adults would be more inclined to the withdrawing, incapacitating sort of symptoms which appeared in this "epidemic" than children. In the case reported by Schuler and Parenton(7) among high-school children the symptoms were of a more positive, lively nature.
In education the sample is below the total population. This too might have been predicted from the literature on suggestibility.
From the economic indices it seems clear that the sample is less prosperous than the population at large, at least in respect to these four conveniences. The investigator also classified the sample into the economic groups A, B, C, D, according to a widely used scheme based on the location and appearance of the home, occupation, conveniences, and the like. (The investigator has had some experience in using this scheme in consumer research for the Psychological Corporation.) In terms of these categories the sample was about equally divided between the C and D groups. There were two cases which could possibly have been put into the B group. It is noteworthy that no attacks occurred in either of Mattoon's two high-income areas.
Our sample, then, is characterized by low educational and economic level. These two characteristics go together in our culture. In a study similar in some respects to the present study Cantril (2) found that those people who were most strongly influenced by the Orson Welles 1938 broadcast, "War of the Worlds," were likewise of low educational and economic level. No doubt it is education which is more directly related to suggestibility. Cantril found that the better educated were more critical in that they made more and better outside checks on the authenticity of the broadcast and thus were less frequently panicked.
The data on occupation are not clear-cut since the categories used by the Census Bureau were not constructed for studies of this kind. As the number of cases on which good occupational data were available was only 19, the number in some categories was small, and some rearrangement was advisable. The category "Farmers and farm managers" was eliminated as there were none in the sample and less than 1 per cent in the general population. Professional and semi-professional classes were combined. "Laborers, except farm," was combined with "farm laborers and farm foremen." The category "Proprietors, managers, and officials" is a broad one which could include a wide variety of people, hence it is of little use to us. The proprietors of small shops and rooming houses.
As it stands Table I shows a lack of any professional or semi-professional people, which agrees with the data on educational level. A fairly clear-cut vertical comparison can be made if we consider the craftsmen and foremen as skilled workers, the operatives as semi-skilled, and the laborers as unskilled. The proportion of the sample in these three groups decreases--in comparison with the proportion in the population at large--as the amount of skill increases. It is hard to account for the lack of service workers and domestic service workers in the sample. The susceptibility of domestics might be influenced by their living arrangements and by contact with their employers, who in general are in the educated, high-income group. As to the other service workers, one explanation is that police, firemen, and hospital workers were in a sense "on the inside." Also, it is known that, while there has been little change in the Mattoon population in general since 1940, jobs connected with the servicing of automobiles have decreased considerably. But none of these "explanations" is very convincing.
The interviews, one can easily realize, were conducted under rather unfavorable conditions. It was not possible to get any insight into personality makeup of the victims except in a very superficial way. But it was possibly usually for the investigator to work in a few general questions about the victim's health. In only fourteen cases was any information obtained in this way, but, of these, eight, or over half, replied with such phrases as "always been nervous," "never sleep much," and "doctoring for nerves." We have no control data for the total population, but the percentage does seem extraordinarily high. The interview data do not go far, but they reinforce the diagnosis of hysteria and show, as far as they go, that, extraordinary as the Mattoon affair may be on the surface, psychologically it follows a familiar pattern.

Conclusions

Analysis of records available at Mattoon together with the results of interviews with most of the victims leads to the conclusion that the case of the "phantom anesthetist" was entirely psychogenic. There is always the possibility of a prowler, of course, and it is quite likely that some sort of gas could be smelled at various times in Mattoon. But these things do not cause paralysis and palpitations. Hysteria does. The hypothesis of a marauder cannot be supported by any verifiable evidence. The hypothesis of hysteria, on the other hand, accounts for all the facts.
What, then, produced this mass hysteria? There are some gaps in the story, to be sure, but a fairly clear picture can now be drawn. Mrs. A had a mild hysterical attack, an event which is not at all uncommon, which is, on the contrary, familiar to most physicians. The crucial point is that her interpretation of her symptoms was rather dramatic--a quick look through any textbook (e.g., 5, 6) will convince any reader that hysterical symptoms usually are dramatic--arousing the interest of the press, with the result that an exciting uncritical story of the case appeared in the evening paper. As the news spread, other people reported similar symptoms, more exciting stories were written, and so the affair snow-balled.
But such acute outbursts are necessarily self-limiting. The bizarre details which captured the public imagination at the beginning of the episode became rather ridiculous when studied more leisurely. The drama of the story lost its tang with time and the absurdities showed through. For example, the volatility of the gas, which was such an asset in penetrating the physical barriers, became a liability when anyone tried to capture the gas and examine it. The facts seemed to evaporate as rapidly as the agent which produced them. At last the failure of the police and volunteers to find anyone or anything tangible (the best the news photographers could do was to pose women pointing at windows, babies crying, and men holding shotguns) combined with the statements of city officials in the paper produced a more critical public attitude. The attacks ceased. The critical attitude increased and spread, however, police business struck a new low. It is proper to say that the wave of suggestibility in Mattoon left a wave of contra-suggestibility in its wake. Objective records document this generalization.
Naturally the more suggestible people accepted the story at face value. Of these only a small percentage reported physical symptoms from "gassing," presumably because of some personal motivation toward, or gratification from, such symptoms. As might be predicted from psychological and psychiatric literature, those who succumbed to the "mental epidemic" were mostly women and were, on the average, below the general population in educational and economic level. This supports the above analysis and puts the "phantom anesthetist" of Mattoon, in some respects at least, into a familiar psychological pattern.

A Field Study of Mass Hysteria: Footnotes

by Donald M. Johnson, Ph.D.

1. Bird, C. Social Psychology. New York: Appleton-Century, 1940.
2. Cantril, H. The Invasion from Mars. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1940.
3. Goodman, L., and Gilman, A. The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. New York: Macmillan, 1940.
4. Janet, P. The Mental State of Hystericals. New York: Putnam's, 1901.
5. Rosanoff, A.J. (Ed.) Manual of Psychiatry. New York: Wiley, 1920.
6. Sadler, W.S. Theory and Practice of Psychiatry. New York: Wiley, 1920.
7. Schuler, E.A., and Parenton, V.J. "A recent epidemic of hysteria in a Louisiana high school." J. Soc. Psychol. 17, 221-235, 1943.
8. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 16th Census of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Gov't Printing Office, 1942.
9. Illinois Daily Newspaper Markets. Paul L. Gorham, Leland Bldg., Springfield, Ill.