What is this description of a pattern of group behaviour towards individuals within Nordic countries that Sharmi Albrechtsen explored in her book A Piece of Danish Happiness?
Sharmi Albrechtsen Sharmi Albrechtsen is a Canadian born American-Indian journalist and author known for her blog Happy Danes on the official site, Blogging Denmark. She has written a book, A Piece of Danish Happiness, which explores why the Danish people are considered the happiest in the world, according to some sources, including the 2012 Gallup Poll taken by the United Nations. Albrechtsen attributes this happiness to the cultural Laws of Jante, a state of “Hygge” meaning being together comfortably, Denmark’s welfare system, and factors intrinsic to being happy. Her writing infuses her personal story, and in 2012, she told her story to Oprah Winfrey during a televised Lifeclass in Toronto.
Collective mental state Mental state is generally a literary or legal term, and is only used in psychiatry or psychology as the mental state examination, where it refers to the condition of someone's mind. Here there is an assessment of thought processes, memory, mood, cognitive state, and energy level. Where a mental state is shared by a large proportion of the members of a group or society, it can be called a collective mental state. Gustave Le Bon proposed that mental states are passed by contagion, while Sigmund Freud wrote of war fever in his work "Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego" (1922), a perfect example of the collective mental state. Franz Borkenau wrote of collective madness, while many writers have discussed collective depression. Psychosis can be passed from one individual to another as induced psychosis or "folie a deux", but rarely involves more than two people. Where the mental state involves a large population, it is more appropriate to use plain English rather than psychiatric or psychological terminology.