Francis Berger
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Mass Formation Psychosis: What's The Great and Sudden Revelation?

1/5/2022

17 Comments

 
Dr. Robert Malone's recent diagnosis of the birdemic hysteria as "mass formation psychosis" has triggered a steady stream of oohs and ahs in the media and on the internet.

Naturally, the mainstream media has callously dismissed the diagnosis as an example of individual psychosis emanating from the fetid mind of a recently Twitter-banned virologist and immunologist whose work, fittingly enough, focused extensively the same technology found in many of the birdemic pecks.

On the other hand, independent and dissident voices have reacted to Dr. Malone's mass formation psychosis diagnosis with a Eureka-level of thrill and excitement that would have made Archimedes blush in embarrassment. We have found it! Someone out there has finally managed to put his finger squarely on the pulse of the birdemic and enunciate the appropriate term to describe what the world is experiencing. 

Don't misunderstand - I'm not slagging Dr. Malone's excellent diagnosis. What irks me is the giddy, gee-wow, mind-blown reaction the diagnosis has inspired. All too many have treated Dr. Malone's commentary as if it were some kind of great and sudden revelation and realization; a veritable epiphany of sorts. Which makes me wonder . . . what did these newly illuminated souls believe about the birdemic hysteria before Dr. Malone slapped the mass formation psychosis label onto it? 

In the interest of clarity, I have included a definition of mass formation psychosis below (randomly lifted from a recent search result):

Psychosis is when people lose some contact with reality. Mass formation psychosis is when a large part of a society focuses its attention to a leader(s) or a series of events and their attention focuses on one small point or issue. Followers can be hypnotized and be led anywhere, regardless of data proving otherwise. A key aspect of the phenomena is that the people they identify as the leaders – the one’s that can solve the problem or issue alone – they will follow that leader(s) regardless of any new information or data. Furthermore, anybody who questions the leader’s narrative are attacked and disregarded.

There are four key components needed for an environment to experience a mass formation psychosis: lack of social bonds or decoupling of societal connections, lack of sense-making (things don’t make sense), free-floating anxiety, and free-floating psychological discontent. Free-floating anxiety is a general sense of uneasiness that is not tied to any particular object or specific situation.


This accurately describes the birdemic hysteria, so kudos to Dr. Malone. At the same time, how is any of it revelatory against the backdrop of everything we have experienced in the past two years?

Though I appreciate Dr. Malone's clinical labeling of the birdemic hysteria, I would hasten to add that while the diagnosis clearly identifies the symptoms, it utterly misses the underlying disease. 

Mass despiritualization psychosis.

Note added: The mass formation psychosis of the birdemic hysteria are acute symptoms of mass despiritualization psychosis, which was prevalent and chronic long before the birdemic hysteria broke. If the underlying conditions of mass despiritualization pyschosis continue to be left untreated, they will turn fatal, at least at the level of the masses.  
17 Comments
William Wildblood
1/5/2022 13:04:44

I suppose one has to say better late than never but, as you rightly point out, Dr Malone's diagnosis, and all credit to him as a prominent figure for making it with more to lose than us humble bloggers, only goes part way toward elucidating the problem which is fundamentally spiritual. It would be nice to think it represented a crack in the dam but I'm not so sure of that.

Reply
Francis Berger
1/5/2022 14:55:02

@ William - Yes, credit to him. It's the responses to these low-hanging fruit observations that irk me. I mean, to consider such observations as earth-shattering two years into the event . . .

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islanti link
1/5/2022 14:11:03

You're exactly right and I had similar thoughts when I first heard about this from an interview with Mattias Desmet I happened across a couple months ago.

I think the materialist evil-fighters are just happy to have a clinical word/label they can use and a mainstream unifying diagnosis that "works", but as you said misses the main point.

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Francis Berger
1/5/2022 15:00:20

@ Islanti - "materialist evil fighters" - That's good! Well, the materialist evil fighters have their work cut out for them now, don't they? I think their theories and diagnoses will all fall short in the end. I'll be curious to see how they respond to that.

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The Continental Op
1/5/2022 16:03:23

People didn't notice all these social pathologies which have been percolating and growing for years.

I doubt they're suddenly noticing them (as in understanding) with an eye towards doing something about it, but rather as an easy label to attach to our enemies.

A few might even notice how churches preemptively surrendered, and make some connections. These social pathologies are all downstream from abandoning God and Christ.

Reply
Francis Berger
1/5/2022 18:17:01

@ Continental Op - "These social pathologies are all downstream from abandoning God and Christ."

Yes, this is what needs to be explicitly stated and acknowledged.

Reply
Jeffrey Cantrell
1/5/2022 16:51:03

Great analysis, I agree. I posit that those of the right who are now lauding Dr. Malone may be outwardly happier, but are still living in a somewhat bedimmed state. Their world consists of tightly held "pat" answers and assumptions, but they rarely objectively and critically examine those personal "sacred cows" with an eye to uncovering truth that they can incorporate into their total lives. I suppose this may be a facet of "discernment," but I confess I, too, am just a humble traveler on the road toward what I hope is spiritual enlightenment. Thanks for your wonderful thoughts, and I give thanks to God that I found this (and a few other) site.

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Francis Berger
1/5/2022 18:15:48

@ Jeffrey - Thanks. Dr. Malone put a lot on the table, but nearly all of what he said should have struck most observers as confirmation of discernment rather than earth-shaking news. Still, I hope it does some good and inspires a few to go beyond the mere material explanations.

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bruce charlton
1/5/2022 17:33:41

I hadn't noticed this particularly (although I have seen Malone speaking before) but after reading your post I saw several more news items on this theme. So this formulation of the world post-2020 has indeed made an impact. However, I don't think it will make the right kind of impact for the reasons you have already said.

I know that I myself have indulged in clinical diagnoses of the avoidant outdoor mask-wearers as suffering from induced anxiety neuroses - and I regard this as a literal pathology.

The idea of mass formation psychosis is not really a clinical diagnosis, because real psychosis is characterized by thought disorder, hallucinations, delusions and other such phenomena that result from an abnormal form of thinking; which isn't the case here.

IN other sense, it is clear that modern Western society has been increasingly 'insane' over recent decades - culminating the insane, clearly false, stuff which is mandatory and enforced about trans issues and antiracism, for instance.

But when used in the way that MFP is being used here, it seems likely that the accusation/ observation will be turned to reinforce the materialist delusion; since it excludes any spiritual basis for the diagnosis; but merely states a consensus psychiatric opinion and applies it to the birdemic by a kind of analogy of pattern recognition.

Also, the insanity of the birdemic is rooted in evil rather than error, and therefore goes right to the very root of the phenomenon - while my understanding is that Malone regards much of the birdemic as reasonable and correct, and disagrees with only the wilder excesses - that is he tries to be decent and sensible; which is spiritually fatal in these end times.

As usual, this kind of partial and superficial critique *may* have a good effect - but only if it leads-on-to a holistic and deep rejection of the very basis of the birdemic in actual individual people.

Reply
Francis Berger
1/5/2022 18:12:29

@ Bruce - Yes, I was being very liberal with terms like clinical diagnosis - probably for literary effect. I appreciate your clarifying input there.

What interesting about the reference to MFP is the immediate reference/comparison to National Socialist Germany, which just goes to prove the wrongness of drawing the birdemic into historical comparisons.

As I mentioned in the post, I have nothing against what Dr. Malone is saying and it may indeed have a good effect. Nevertheless, I am disappointed by what he is not saying - not that I expect him too "go there." Still, the problem remains. Since he doesn't "go there", neither will most of the people who listen to him.

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Jeffrey Cantrell
1/6/2022 03:20:17

Being somewhat knowledgeable about pathologies and viruses, the original 2 weeks of isolation made some sense. Granted the preliminary data showing low case fatality rates wouldn’t justify isolation, an ounce of precaution and all that. BUT, after those two weeks, there was absolutely no reason not to return to normal. At that point, it should have been immediately obvious to anyone that evil was afoot. Everything that followed should have been see. For what it was/is … global totalitarian spiritual evil. As such, there can be no compromise. The middle ground has disappeared.

Hari Seldon
1/5/2022 17:40:14

Normie-right discourse on the birdemic has generally been very embarrassing. (See also: "Natural immunity is superior!") At least conservatives have a new meme to preoccupy them in the quarantine camps.

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bruce charlton
1/6/2022 09:39:31

I suppose this Malone business is a taste of the kind of discernment need by Christians now and ever more so as things unravel.

Malone is being demonized for telling A Truth; but his is actually on the side of The System, and operates from within it. He is trying to retain the evil system, but to reduce some of its more egregious evils.

If the system is genuinely unreformable, then Malone represents an Ahrimanic impulse opposing the Sorathic malice of mass pecking - especially of children and reproductive-aged women.

Malone is not himself a competent truth-seeker and speaker - he is just more truthful than the (very low) average in mainstream science. He is not a hero on the side of Good; but a hero on the side of the lesser evil. And 'the lesser evil' is not (and should not be) the kind of motivating idea that enables men to find the courage to stand against evil.

So this is an taste of a situation that will happen more and more often. I find myself sympathetic towards Malone and what he has done, and I oppose those who oppose him - and the reasons they oppose him.

But I am much more excited by any obscure individual who has discerned the spiritual war of this world, and has joined the side of God and divine creation. That is worth far more than within-system dissent.

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William Wildblood
1/6/2022 10:39:58

In that respect he's a kind of Jordan Peterson.

Reply
Francis Berger
1/6/2022 10:59:48

@ William - Coincidentally enough, I made the same connection before reading and publishing your comment (see below).

Francis Berger
1/6/2022 10:57:43

@ Bruce - "I suppose this Malone business is a taste of the kind of discernment need by Christians now and ever more so as things unravel."

Yes, that's the crux of the matter. Though I respect the position Malone has taken, it really does a represent a position of lesser evil rather than a position of good - and Christians must focus on making that discernment.

This does not mean we should flatly oppose Malone the way we oppose those who oppose him, but we must retain the ability to see the people and their messages for what they are rather than see them in a way we would desire them to be.

Not to compare apples and oranges, but the current hype around Malone reminds me of the hype Jordan Peterson garnered a few years back (with the hype around both initiated via Joe Rogan's podcast) . Granted, Malone appears to be a much more respectable and genuine fellow than Peterson, but the "lesser evil/within-system dissent" angle still applies. I had to learn this lesson the hard way with Peterson, to whom I extended the benefit of the doubt for far too long.

I have found the reactions to Malone's commentary to be particularly illuminating take-away from all of this. I have thus far encountered at least a dozen reactions that have equated Malone's comments with Hanlon's razor. So, let's eliminate the possibility of malice and simply chalk it all up to profound stupidity instead. I believe that kind of discernment will prove spiritually fatal in this time and place if it is maintained and not repented.

Reply
Jeffrey Cantrell
1/6/2022 15:19:25

Spot on!

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