Bulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public HealthBulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health2415-84102415-8429FSSBI «N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health»1572Научная статьяEPIDEMICS OF PSYCHOPATHIC DISORDERS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE LATE XIX CENTURYPanovaE. Levepanova@gmail.comPeoples Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)18122021410410908042022Copyright © 2021,2021The article examines the experience of Russian psychiatrists in the study of psychopathic epidemics that spread in the Russian Empire at the late XIX century. Special attention is paid to the description of klikushestvo by N. Krainsky, as well as the hysterical epidemics of manerik and meryachenie in North-Eastern Siberia, studied by A. Tokarsky, S. Mitskevich, N. Kashin and others. These disorders were united by several similar signs: they were peculiar only to the peasant population and almost exclusively to women; the mode of their spread was socially mediated - superstitions specific to a particular locality were assimilated through imitation and auto-suggestion; their symptoms were similar in the form of seizures accompanied by shouting, motor excitements, and sometimes falls. The researchers attributed mass prejudices and beliefs to the most significant factors of psychopathic epidemics’ emergence, the spread of which was not hindered even by a high level of literacy among peasants.history of psychiatryklikushestvomanerikmeryachenieистория психиатриикликушествомэнэрикмеряченье1.Бехтерев В.М. Внушение и его роль в общественной жизни / В.М. Бехтерев. - СПб.: Издание К.Л. Риккера, 1908. - 175 с.2.Краинский Н.В. Порча, кликуши и бесноватые, как явления русской народной жизни / Н.В. Краинский. - Новгород: Губ. тип., 1900. - 243 с.3.Сикорский И.А. Психопатическая эпидемия 1892 года в Киевской губернии / И.А. Сикорский. - Киев: Типолит. ун-та Св. Владимира В.И. Завадского, 1893. - 46 с.4.Маевский М.М. Случай эпидемического помешательства на религиозной почве / М.М. Маевский. - Казань: Типолит. ун-та, 1897. - 18 с.5.Якобий П.И. Религиозно-психические эпидемии / П.И. Якобий / Вестник Европы. - 1903. - Октябрь. - С. 732-758.6.Токарский А.А. Мерячение и болезнь судорожных подергиваний / А.А. Токарский. - М.: Типолит. В. Рихтер, 1893. - 181 с.7.Мицкевич С.И. Мэнэрик и эмиряченье: Формы истерии в Колымском крае / С.И. Мицкевич. - Л.: Изд-во Акад. наук СССР, 1929. - 53 с.8.Янковский. Письмо в редакцию // Врач. - 1885. - № 36. - С. 602.9.Bagenoff N.N. Myriatchénié et Klikouchisme / N.N. Bagenoff // Archives internationale de neurologie (Paris). - 1911. - № 22 (5). - P. 273-277.10.Bekhterev V.M. Vnushenie i ego rol` v obshhestvennoj zhizni [Suggestion and its role in public life]. St. Petersburg, K.L. Rikker, 1908. 175 p. (in Russian).11.Krainsky N.V. Porcha, klikushi i besnovaty`e, kak yavleniya russkoj narodnoj zhizni [Portcha, klikushy and demoniacs as phenomena of Russian folk life]. Novgorod, Gubern. tip., 1900. 243 p. (in Russian).12.Sikorsky I.A. Psikhopaticheskaya ehpidemiya 1892 goda v Kievskoj gubernii [The psychopathic epidemic of 1892 in the Kiev province]. Kiev, Tipolit. St. Vladimir University, V.I. Zavadsky, 1893. 46 p. (in Russian).13.Maevsky M.M. Sluchaj ehpidemicheskogo pomeshatel'stva na religioznoj pochve [The case of epidemic insanity on religious grounds]. Kazan, Tipolit. Un-ta, 1897. 18 p. (in Russian).14.Yakobiy P.I. Religiozno-psikhicheskie ehpidemii. Vestnik Evropy [Bulletin of Europe]. 1903,October, pp. 732-758 (in Russian).15.Tokarsky A.A. Meryachenie i bolezn' sudorozhnykh podergivanij [Meryachenie and the disease of convulsive twitching]. Moscow, V. Richter, 1893. 181 p. (in Russian).16.Mitskevich S.I. Mehnehrik i ehmiryachen'e: Formy isterii v Kolymskom krae [Manerik and emiryachenye: Forms of hysteria in the Kolyma Region]. Leningrad, Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1929. 53 p. (in Russian).17.Yankovsky. Letter to the editor. Vrach [Doctor], 1885, no 36, p. 602 (in Russian).18.Bagenoff N.N. Myriatchénié et Klikouchisme. Archives internationale de neurologie [International Archive of Neurology], 1911, no. 22 (5), pp. 273-277 (in French).