From "Animal Magnetism" to "Ochlotelesuggestion"

Abstract

In all epochs there has always been discussion of the incompatibility of mental phenomena and standards of rational thinking, especially during times of social anxiety, when the familiar guideposts that lend life relative stability and reliability are lost. A sense that events are irrational and fundamentally unpredictable arises, regardless of whether the reference is to external events or the discussion concerns one's own organism. The body image begins to form in childhood, absorbing knowledge associated with sciences such as anatomy, physiology, and medicine, which is informed by the latter. For an alert consciousness, there are days when these stereotypes, tried and tested over the ages, begin to be shaky. Our consciousness has a prognostic function. At any moment in time, it may, so to speak, "get ahead of itself on the basis of these stereotypes. But when they begin to fail, when the unpredictability of the future, both immediate and long-term, begins to threaten existence, fertile soil is created ...