On the Theory of Maximal Stress Cooperation

What does a culture do when it is struck by war, famine, epidemic or historical humiliation? This essay explores Heiner Mühlmann's radical theory: when faced with a threat to their very existence, communities transform into collective “wild animals”, synchronised by extreme stress and fear, making sacrifice possible, then fixing these crises in time through rituals, institutions and symbolic settings. From the physiology of stress to Greek phalanxes, from the ethology of tupaia to modern wars, Laurent Ozon presents Mühlmann's work to shed light on how these ‘cooperative cyclones’ found cultures, structure memory and give deep meaning to the state, while illuminating our contemporary crises.