All the world's fears

If your girlfriend was annoying you yesterday with stories about how she was abducted by aliens, or planning to go to Alla Pugacheva's birthday party today, don't be quick to accuse her of lying and ridicule her. It turns out a persistent craving to contrive tall tales is a serious illness called mythomania. There are hundreds of similar illnesses. Sometimes the manias are innocuous while at other times they are quite dangerous.

The situation can become especially dangerous when a mania seizes hold of an individual and then takes control of their friends and colleagues. Moscow psychiatrist and candidate of Medical Sciences, Viktor Brutman, spends his life researching such phenomena.

Dostoyevsky, AKA Cuboman

KP: Mr. Brutman, what types of manias are there?

Brutman: There are many types of contrasting manias, including the well-known graphomania and narcomania. Russians often suffer from dipsomania – an uncontrollable craving for alcohol that is in no way related to alcoholism. Light drinkers are the most common victims of this disorder. Completely out of the blue, once every 6 months or several years, people are struck by the mania. It can last anywhere from a few days to several years.

Many people suffer from dromomania – a craving for moving from place to place or taking long trips. The dromonan might leave his family and work and go on an absolutely senseless trip from one end of the city to another. Some dromomans, though, are capable of traveling long distances and leaving for extensive periods of time. For example, there are many sick individuals like these in eastern Siberia and the Far East – nomads endlessly wandering from one place to another.

The plurality of the human character is a favorite subject among writers. Emile Zola described such an illness in his novel, “La Bete humaine.” The main character of the book is an engine driver who, time and again, turns into a sexual maniac.

Authors and psychologists are both interested in the origin of these unexpected fantasies that can last from several minutes to a few hours. Initially, the sick individual is severely depressed and experiences something akin to a spiritual orgasm upon realizing his desire. Thus it's not surprising that the majority of manias are rooted in sex. Among the more commonly known sexual manias are nymphomania and sadomasochism.

Q: Is gambling also pathological?

A: Yes, cubomania (ed. from the Greek "Kubos" – playing dice) is a passion for gambling – cards, roulette, slot machines and computer games. An individual suffering from cubomania is aware that he has already lost several times, but repeatedly feels that he's going to win the next time around. As a result he loses all his money - like the renowned cubomans, Dostoevskiy and Pushkin.

Q: Maybe collecting stamps is dangerous for one's health?

A: If a person's of a weak mind then he may lose control of any desire given time. Consequently, what was once a harmless interest can well turn into a mania. For example, there are bibliophiles as well as bibliomans who aren't concerned with a book's content but rather crave to purchase rarities they'll never read. One of my patients assembles models of caravans and locomotives. All the rooms in his apartment, garage and summerhouse are crammed with boxes of them. He spends all his money on this passion which can drive him to travel across the whole country for months just to buy a model and then put it in a box.

They're contagious

Q: Are these cravings contagious?

A: They're dangerous! A person suffering from a mania loses his ability to control his desires. These desires then mature and partially contradict the individual's "I." Moreover, they demand immediate external release. If such a maniac is confined to a relatively closed environment, such as a group of children at school, crewmembers on a ship, or employees at a factory, then the mania could consume numerous people.

In the 15th Century a nun unexpectedly began biting the women in her convent. Soon after they were all biting each other, including the head nun. The epidemic spread to other monasteries in Germany, and with time reached Holland. The biting stopped when state officials and soldiers arrived to research the strange occurrences; the large injection of new individuals diluted the isolated society.

Scientists distinguish between two types of mass manias – restive and motive. The former continues for no more than several days, as the result of a fictional or genuine threat. In addition, typical symptoms are headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty breathing and overall weakness. Motive hysteria is primarily witnessed in closed environments with difficult living conditions. Such manias can last for weeks or even months. It seems that the biting nuns suffered from motive hysteria.

Examples of restive mania

In March 1983 thousands of female Arabs suffered from symptoms such as lethargy, faintness, stomach pain and headaches in the course of two weeks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The rumor had spread that Israeli soldiers had released poisonous gas. It turned out that the women had breathed exhaust from an unregulated automobile engine. They told their friends that they had been poisoned and in turn passed the word along to their acquaintances. This led the mania to spread like an epidemic. Doctors found no signs of illness among the women.

The Serbian psychologist Dr. Zoran Rodovanovich described a similar story in his book. In Kosovo in 1990, several Albanian students at school began to feel chest pain, nausea and dizziness. The hysteria spread quickly to all the schools in the province. The sick said that the Serbs were spraying poison in the area.

To each his own

Numerous other manias are connected with culture and religion. For example, a case of "disappearing genitalia" recently swept Nigeria. Rumors spread about a strange man who pressed up against men in public places. His victims felt a burning sensation in their groin and then their genitalia was said to disappear.

A local psychiatrist Dr. Sanni Ilechukvu said that many men walked the streets clutching their groin with their hands openly or in their pockets. If someone who wasn't suffering from the hysteria accidentally bumped into one of the "manic" individuals with his shoulder, he faced accusations of attempting to steal the other’s genitalia. Some of the victims asserted that their genitalia returned after they started shouting. Some said the thieves returned smaller penises than the ones they had stolen.

Scientists believe that, in this particular situation, the increased attention to genitalia and the psychosis that surround them is related to the fact that indigenous people to Nigeria treat sexual organs as "ritual and magical objects facilitating reproduction and material well-being."

Do you think the days of religious manias are over? Too bad. They're here to stay.

Last week in India, 48 people went blind while waiting for the Virgin Mary to appear in the sky. The Indian police are now trying to find the source of the rumor, which said that the Virgin Mary would appear above the city of Erumeli on March 13-14 and pass an important message to believers. Hundreds of pilgrims fled to Erumeli to witness the occasion. They stared into the open sky for two days. The weather was sunny and clear, but the miracle didn't occur. However, 48 pilgrims reported to St. Joseph's Hospital after having lost their vision.

"All our patients have the same symptoms. They have photochemical – not thermal – burns from staring at the sky for an extended uninterrupted period," said an ophthalmologist at the hospital Anamma James Isaac.

And you say this is the 21st Century...