On 1st July, 2018, 11 members of the multi-generational Bhatia family were found dead.
They appeared to have hanged themselves in the courtyard of their Chundawat house in Burari (North Delhi) after a nocturnal ritual.
The investigation that followed engulfed the country in fear and conspiracy theories that spanned supernatural, religious, criminal, and psychiatric explanations.
A recent Netflix documentary titled House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths specifically explored the mysterious circumstances of “mass suicide” at Burari.
Experts settled on a condition called “shared psychosis”.
Alternatively known as 'shared psychotic disorder' or ‘induced delusional disorder’, it is a rare mass mental condition wherein a mentally sound group of people comes together to share certain delusions.
It is a phenomenon wherein a person who does not have any pre-existing mental health disorder comes to believe and act on the delusions of another person with severe psychiatric illness.
The spine-chilling documentary also highlights, amongst other things, the importance of mental health, particularly men’s mental well-being that is highly stigmatized in India.
What are the signs & symptoms of Psychosis? Know all in detail below!