To insinuate that the distinguished members of the United States and Canadian diplomatic corps are experiencing a mere “mass psychogenic illness” stemming from their time in Havana would be a profound disservice to their integrity.
During the latter part of 2016, numerous personnel within the US delegation in Cuba began to exhibit a constellation of symptoms, including vertigo, auditory discomfort, and ringing in the ears. As documented by investigating physicians, these ailments emerged subsequent to their perception of high-frequency auditory phenomena and cranial pressure. By the onset of early 2017, a contingent of 14 individuals from the Canadian mission had begun presenting with comparable afflictions.
The perplexing phenomenon, widely referred to as “Havana syndrome,” has since been the subject of extensive deliberation and conjecture. A central point of contention revolves around whether the affected individuals are afflicted by a psychogenic disorder, originating in the psyche, or a somatogenic disorder, resulting from a physical impairment of neural tissue. The concept of mass psychogenic illness represents a modern nomenclature for what was historically recognized as “epidemic hysteria.”
The pertinent inquiry is whether these diplomats are contending with hysteria, now rebranded as “Havana Syndrome,” or if they have sustained a lesion, potentially inflicted by a concealed device engineered for the purpose of causing harm.
Victims Experienced Traumatic Brain Injuries
Several critical issues undermine the “psychogenesis” (hysteria) hypothesis. Foremost among these is the fact that hysterical symptoms are understood to arise from psychological processes.
Conversely, a comprehensive study spearheaded by Michael E Hoffer, a neuro-otologist at the University of Miami, revealed significant dysfunctions within the central vestibular system (inner ear) in 36 percent of the American diplomats and their family members impacted by Havana syndrome.
Pathology affecting this region of the auditory system is inherently organic. Damage to the inner ear is not a manifestation of psychological distress; rather, it indicates that the very tissues of the inner ear have endured some form of physical trauma.
Reports suggest that the Canadian nationals who were repatriated to the University of Miami, and subsequently underwent examination at the University of Pennsylvania, received diagnoses of “traumatic brain injuries comparable to concussions.”
It is fundamentally erroneous to categorize these diplomats and their families as exhibiting characteristics consistent with any psychogenic profile. In 1974, psychiatrist François Sirois of Laval University undertook an analysis of 70 documented outbreaks of “epidemic hysteria,” encompassing both historical and contemporary instances.
Of these 70 occurrences, an overwhelming majority, 69, were observed exclusively among adolescent females and young women. The sole exception, a koro epidemic in Singapore during the 1960s, exclusively affected males. (Koro is characterized by a delusional conviction that one’s genitalia are retracting into the body.)
Historically, the term “hysteria” – denoting physical manifestations “of unknown origin” – was predominantly associated with the female population. This historical linkage stems from the societal reality that women, traditionally, have borne a disproportionate burden of hardship and sorrow, and have frequently processed these profound emotional experiences through the development of somatic symptoms.
The proposition that these middle-aged men and women serving in the diplomatic missions of the United States and Canada in Havana could be succumbing to “mass psychogenic illness” stretches credulity to its breaking point.
Endometriosis Was Once Misdiagnosed as Hysteria
It is misguided to assume that their symptoms could be attributed to some form of psychological mechanism. The underlying principle of psychogenesis/hysteria resides in suggestion. As an illustration, consider the phenomenon where all the schoolgirls in a particular setting become incapacitated and experience vomiting during recess, not due to organic causes, but because they have been psychologically influenced into manifesting these symptoms.
The loss of equilibrium, the sensations of pressure within the cranial cavity, and similar experiences reported by these diplomats are no more psychological in nature than a diagnosis of mumps.
“Stress” has been frequently posited as the driving psychological factor. It is undeniable that these diplomats and their families have endured considerable stress.
However, stress is an omnipresent aspect of contemporary existence, affecting nearly everyone. Educators in urban school systems worldwide also operate under significant stress, yet they do not develop the specific maladies observed in these diplomats.
The precise etiology of these lesions remains a subject of speculation. Nevertheless, the medical field possesses a well-documented history of attributing unexplained physical ailments to psychogenic causes when organic pathologies were present but not yet identified. For instance, multiple sclerosis in women was, at one time, erroneously classified as a manifestation of hysteria.
Similarly, prior to the definitive identification of endometriosis, significant pelvic discomfort experienced by women was often diagnosed as hysteria. It would be a grave error to repeat such a misjudgment.
