Can Mental Illness be Contagious?

Kind of, is O’Sullivan’s argument.

Psychosomatic illness has been an important aspect of psychology for a while. However, the contagion of psychosomatic illness is a relatively new and strange concept.

O’Sullivan’s idea is that that the power of the subconscious and its constant absorption of all things around us (especially social things) mean that mental illness, when combined with certain external factors, can be observed, internalised, and replicated.

It’s a strange concept. It’s like if you could catch anxiety or depression from other people (a stress on ‘it’s like’. This is just a semi-helpful analogy.)

To make her case, she describes her interactions with people across the world suffering from bizarre, unexplainable illnesses. She starts in Sweden where a number of refugee children, dotted across the country, have seemed to spread coma-like states amongst each other, for seemingly no reason and despite showing no evidence of neurological damage. They’ve been that way for years and the numerous doctors and physicians who visit them are all confused and powerless to help. A report in 2020 stated that ‘there are no scientific studies that answer how to diagnose abandonment syndrome, nor what treatment works’.

O’Sullivan describes the condition as ‘resignation syndrome’. These families’ unpredictable, sometimes hopeless circumstances, combined with news of the illness passing amongst others led to a psychological process that resulted in genuine physical illness.

In fact, when these families were granted asylum, many of the children recovered. In other words, the cure was ‘the restoration of hope to the family’. This isn’t some cheap trick though. The medical professionals who have visited them are in agreement that this is a legitimate physical illness.

As O’Sullivan travels across the world, a pattern emerges. In Colombia, she documents how contagious seizures and convulsions seem to pass amongst young girls, sometimes causing whole classrooms to erupt in fits. Blamed on a contaminated HPV vaccine, interviews with locals seem to suggest that these bizarre experiences are a socially constructed behaviour stemming from deep-rooted mistrust of the government.

            “I’m not sure about that government vaccine – my friend who had the vaccine just had a seizure – I’ve definitely had a contaminated vaccine”

In Kazakhstan, residents of a former-mining town fall asleep for days at a time. This then happens to others in the community. Their theory is government poisoning, again stemming from a mistrust of their government.

            “The government is trying to get rid of us, my friend just fell really ill, the government definitely poisoned us”

These ideas become so deeply ingrained into the subconscious that they develop into actual illnesses.

A more famous example is ‘Havana syndrome.’ During a time of particular tension between US and Cuban governments, a number of US diplomats stationed in Cuba, on completely different occasions, complained of a strange noise, then suffered a number of peculiar symptoms. The going theory was enemy attacks via ‘sonic weapon’.

            “There’s a lot of hostility for us in Cuba, my colleague said his symptoms started after hearing a strange noise weapon– wait, what was that I just heard?”

One of the key ideas within these socially constructed illnesses is that we have a constant ‘white noise’ that our brain chooses to ignore. Think of the feeling of clothes against your skin, your teeth rubbing against each other, or the feeling of your blinking eyes. Your brain chooses to ignore all of these because you’d go crazy if you paid attention to all of them.

However, the more people engage with socially patterned illnesses around them, the more likely they are to pay attention to the ‘white noise’. In certain circumstances, the increased attention to the ‘white noise’ combines with a growing belief in a contagious illness, usually coinciding with external circumstances around them. This belief in the illness becomes so intense that it becomes reality.

The potential for psychosomatic illness to ‘pass on’ only grows when they are boosted by public hysteria, media scandalisation or political manipulation. The suggestibility of the human mind means that external factors can be internalised into the subconscious to such an extent that, in certain circumstances, it results in actual illness, which is a pretty fascinating idea.

Is Western Medical Science Too Obsessed with Clinical Diagnoses?

One interesting aspect of this book is that O’Sullivan, despite her extensive career in neurology and psychology, was powerless in the face of these context-specific, socially determined illnesses. She couldn’t convince the Colombians that the governments’ HPV vaccine was medically sound, nor could she wake the Swedish refugee children by showing the normal results of their brain scans. The failure of her academic background seems to suggest that understandings of illness, especially in the western world, have ignored the importance of social factors.

This introduces an interesting idea. Has the focus on symptoms and diagnoses and manuals in Western medical science neglected the socio-cultural factors that can play an important part in illness? If I suffer from insomnia, my UK-based GP will likely prescribe me some melatonin or a sedative.  This pharmacological approach would probably work. But, for example, in a place where insomnia is believed to be caused by a guilty conscience, a more sociological approach may be more effective. In this case, this could involve making amends with someone you’ve wronged. (This is completely made up, but I hope the idea is clear). 

Obviously, modern medical science is brilliant. This book has just convinced me that social factors seem to be a somewhat neglected aspect in our understanding of illness.

Can Illness Give Voice to the Voiceless?

When people are ill, they receive attention. This idea is particularly interesting when thought about in the context of those most neglected by society. Think of the Swedish refugee children. Their illness brought them media exposure, political engagement and a feature in a globally published book. They didn’t fake the illness with these goals in mind, but perhaps when one feels so unheard and desperate, there is some subconscious realisation that the only way to get the appropriate attention is through something like these drastic illnesses.

This is a repeated pattern. Throughout this book it’s clear that illness can be a powerful tool to feel heard and to get some desperately needed attention.