In the 15th and 16th centuries, very little was known about psychological disorders. One such misunderstood phenomena was the dancing plague that struck many people in medieval Europe. On July 14, 1518, in Strasbourg, France, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped out of her home and began dancing uncontrollably as though in delirium. She was unstoppable. Soon, a large crowd gathered to watch her dance like that. She seemed to be suffering from what came to be known as the ‘dancing mania’ or ‘dancing plague’. To everyone’s horror, Troffea kept dancing for six days. With shoes soaked in blood, she would collapse out of exhaustion each night, but would wake up the next morning only to start dancing again.
At Strasbourg, the dancing plague struck many, reaching monumental proportions, when at least 15 people were dying every single day. Like Troffea, many of the dancers were usually taken to the shrine of St. Vitus (a Christian saint from Italy) where, over time, their movements ceased.
Dancing mania was not a new disease in the Europe of the 16th century. It had been in existence since the 7th century, occurring in phases with long gaps in between. It, however, reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, infecting thousands of people and killing several others. Though little was understood about the science behind the dancing plague then, explanations, ranging from demonic possession to wrath of God, a spider bite as well as consumption of ergots (a kind of fungus that grows on rye) were offered. At its peak, the mania affected about 1,100 people, and while most recovered bodily control within ten days from being infected, others relapsed one or more times.
In modern medical terms, the dancing mania of medieval Europe was a psychogenic disease—a kind of illness in which a physical abnormality occurred due to psychological factors.