Euphoria, panic, and delusions: Stendhal, Paris and Jerusalem Syndromes

December 28, 2013 2:43 PM

Marie-Henri Beyle was a French novelist, better known by his pen name Stendhal. Though he is now known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology and he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism, during his lifetime his reputation was largely based on his books dealing with the arts and with tourism. He is also notable for personal experiences he recorded in Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio. There he wrote that his "heart was beating fast at the thought of entering Florence," then when in the Basilica of Santa Croce, he "experienced the most intense pleasure art has ever bestowed upon me ... a sort of ecstasy." Later, he "was seized with a fierce palpitation of the heart;" he "walked in constant fear of falling to the ground." This was the first recorded case of hyperkulturemia, also known as the Stendhal or Florence Syndrome, a psychosomatic reaction to art and/or scenes of beauty. Similar psychosomatic experiences have been recorded in Paris and Jerusalem, though the former largely linked to cultural shock and disconnect at the imagined and real Paris, while the latter most often associated with evangelical Christian tourists who are overwhelmed by their experiences and come to believe they are the Chosen One. The good news for people who suffer from any of these syndromes: the symptoms generally diappear once the person leaves the location or region that set off the psychosomatic illness.
posted by filthy light thief (19 comments total)

I experience this almost every day in Humboldt County. The drive south to Fortuna down the Eel River Valley takes my breath away depending on how the fog is layered and sometimes I even cry.

The first time I saw Half Dome I burst into tears. I cried all the way through Yosemite Valley while my family stared at me like like I needed to dropped off at the nearest asylum.

I have also had this experience while looking at amazing art but never to the same depth of emotion as when experiencing what nature can crank out on her own. I never viewed it as an illness per se, more like an intense emotional response to the overwhelming awesomeness of Mother Nature and the creativity of others.
posted by cairnoflore at 3:02 PM on December 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

I think the classification of "illness" comes with the experience being more extreme, to the point of a full-blown panic attack or hallucinations.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:05 PM on December 28, 2013

I look forward to someone trying to either homogenize the local art gallery for fear of too much aesthetic pleasure causing adverse reactions in some, or just shut it down altogether and replace it with another gym.
posted by philip-random at 3:22 PM on December 28, 2013

When I was twelve and going to Italy for the first time, I spent most of the trip half petrified that I would be struck down by Stendhal syndrome, and half scared that I was too stupid to see it. I can see where he was coming from, though-- Rome in the morning, Florence at sunset, the halls of the museums-- but thankfully no fainting spells yet.
posted by jetlagaddict at 3:36 PM on December 28, 2013

Full-blown panic attack or hallucinations

Why hasn't the Ikea Effect been codified?
posted by wotsac at 4:01 PM on December 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Stendahl derail - The Charterhouse of Parma was great. The Red and the Black is still on the to be read list.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:50 PM on December 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

Why hasn't the Ikea Effect been codified?

Decision fatigue? (Not sure if that's what marketing weasels call it.)
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:48 PM on December 28, 2013

I didn't need to do any more than let my eyes skim over them before I was moved to tears. So great was the impression some of the pictures made on me. Others left me cold. That was my only parameter with art, the feelings it aroused. The feeling of inexhaustibility. The feeling of beauty. The feeling of presence. All compressed into such acute moments that sometimes they could be difficult to endure. And quite inexplicable.

--Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book One
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:20 PM on December 28, 2013

IIRC, Paris Syndrome was mostly specific to Japanese tourists whose motivation to visit Paris came from having seen Amélie. In the wake of the film's popularity, it was so prevalent that the Japanese embassy in Paris had staff on hand to organise counselling and transportation home for those affected.
posted by acb at 8:28 PM on December 28, 2013

One more reason I never want to visit Israel.
posted by mike3k at 8:30 PM on December 28, 2013

it was so prevalent that the Japanese embassy in Paris had staff on hand to organise counselling and transportation home for those affected.

I'm pretty sure this has been debunked.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:08 PM on December 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Anyway, does the Stendhal Effect thingy extend to museums? When I do get the chance to look at antiquities I get a little overloaded.

The last time I was in a national museum I actually so overwhelmed I had to go to a little side room and take a nap. I wonder if that was why that little room existed in the first place.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:10 PM on December 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

, Paris Syndrome was mostly specific to Japanese tourists whose motivation to visit Paris came from having seen Amélie. In the wake of the film's popularity, it was so prevalent that the Japanese embassy in Paris had staff on hand to organise counselling and transportation home for those affected.

Delightfully substantive article talking about whether Paris Syndrome is a myth or not. (spoiler: kinda mostly. Certainly its prevalence is vastly overstated and it seems to be linking things that would not be linked in other instances.) Here's another one deconstructing it.
posted by smoke at 9:27 PM on December 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

New York syndrome: in phase 1, foreign tourists whose knowledge of the city derives entirely from movies are confused and disorientated by the absence from the streets of giant monsters, alien invasion fleets, super villain/hero battles, etc. In phase 2 they begin to speak only in snappy one-liners and may come to believe that they are Woody Allen.
posted by Segundus at 10:16 PM on December 28, 2013 [3 favorites]

I think the only time I've really been overcome by art was in the Sagrada Familia, looking up, seeing the light streaming in from the abstract stained glass. I cried almost uncontrollably. I had to sit down and close my eyes to recover. I think the fact that I have a really strong memory of beautiful music playing, but I'm unsure today if there was actual music playing or if I imagined it should tell you what an impact it had on me.
posted by empath at 2:52 AM on December 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

Funny thing about Paris Syndrome being linked to Ameilie, from one of the windows in this apartment I can see the cafe they used as the cafe interior for the movie ( and boy are they still trying to wring that last golden egg out of that goose) and it only just look occurred to me why they green screened in a leafy, sunny plaza into the windows and not the actual view, which is a dark alley on one side and a pungent fishmonger/butcher on the other.
posted by The Whelk at 6:58 AM on December 29, 2013

I live in Florence, not a 100 yards from Santa Croce, and during the summer, Stendhal Syndrome is definitely a thing - there's an ambulance there, or at the Uffizi, or by the David at the Accademia, at least once every couple of days. But I'd posit it's not so much being overcome by beauty as a result of the standard US tourist schedule: Florence is *hot* in the summer, and the people who come here are a difficult combination of older-than-average, jet-lagged, rushed, over-hot, and deeply dehydrated. They're getting heatstroke more than something poetic.

This is especially true of cross-Europe bus tours, the If it's Wednesday it must be Tuscany lot, who get marched around at speed from the David to the Duomo, to the Uffizi, to Santa Croce. It'd be too much for most anyone, especially an out-of-shape Iowan, just off the plane, who didn't have a proper breakfast, and who's a bit over-excited because they've been saving up for years to see the place in Room With A View. Add in 90f summer sunshine and a lack of water, and thump, down they go.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 9:45 AM on December 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm surprised no one yet has mentioned the film The Stendhal Syndrome yet, which is how I became aware of the disorder. While the movie is about a young police woman tracking a serial rapist, it opens with her experiencing a vivid hallucination of being kissed by a fish while she is in the Uffizi.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:54 AM on December 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oops Here's the second link.
posted by smoke at 2:22 PM on December 29, 2013