The Devil’s Effect: A Look into Hysteria as an Explanation of the Salem Witchcraft Craze
Abstract:
In the year 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, nineteen people were hanged, and one was pressed to death, all because they were accused of being witches. The girls who afflicted were plagued by violent fits, vivid hallucinations, and several forms of physical harm by unknown forces. When the proposition that this might be the doing of magic, the girls were relentlessly questioned about who was afflicting them, leading to many being accused and several to pay for it with their life. For over three hundred years historian, and those alike, have been trying to wrap their heads around what exactly happened and what factors caused it to happen. In this project there is an investigation into the strange phenomena the happened and how they could accurately be explained. The back bone of all of this is the psychological influences and explanations that have been brought up, and some that have been skimmed over in others works. In 1692, not only was the community going through power, societal and economic struggles, but there was a shift in the views of the rising generation. Their curiosity of all the possibilities in the world lead them to experiment in the occult, which was the defining start to these afflictions. Though there are several explanations for what happened, such as ergot theory and encephalitis, the only one that stands out is mass hysteria. From the fits, to the loss of an appetite, to the hallucinations; the similarities are undeniable in the comparison between the afflictions in Salem and typical hysterics. Witchcraft accusations had been happening for hundreds of years, and the events that occurred in Salem were not much different.