Stendhal's Syndrome

Stendhal's syndrome is psychosomatic disorder in which the influence exerted by works of art on the human psyche is expressed in physiological symptoms. Typical symptoms of this syndrome are rapidpalpitation, dizziness, possible loss of consciousness and even hallucinations. They appear at a time when a person is under the influence of works of art.

That is why most often Stendhal's syndrome manifests itself in art galleries, in museums, at exhibitions - that is, where many are concentrated at onceworks of art. However, the symptoms can be caused not only by objects of art, but also by the excessive beauty of nature: the sight of a beautiful landscape or natural phenomenon, an animal or an incredibly beautiful woman can also provoke the emergence of Stendhal's syndrome.

It is easy to guess that Stendhal's syndrome got its name by the name of Stendhal, the famous French writer of the 19th century(the real name of the writer is Henri-Marie Beyle). In his book "Naples and Florence: The Journey from Milan to Reggio", he described his feelings while visiting the Church of the Holy Cross in Florence in 1817.

According to the book, at the end of the church, the writer began to beat heartily, he was afraid that he might collapse to the ground. It seemed to him that "the source of life had dried up," after getting acquainted with the masterpieces of art, "everything became meaningless, small, limited."

There are many descriptions of how peoplefelt dizzy and even fainted at the sight of Florentine works of art, especially in the Uffizi Gallery, the earliest of them date back to the early 19th century. Despite this, Stendhal's syndrome received its name only in 1979, when it was described was described by the Italian psychologist Graziella Magerini.

Magerini studied and described more than one hundred identical cases among tourists in Florence. In her book Stendhal Syndrome, she not only described the possible manifestations of the syndrome, but also classified people from different countries in terms of their susceptibility to the syndrome.

So, residents of Florence and tourists from other cities of Italy have a kind of immunity to this syndrome, because from the very childhood are in thisatmosphere and get used to it. Also, the syndrome is not affected by tourists from Asia and North America, because their culture is too far from Italian. Among other tourists, Stendhal's syndrome is most often manifested in single people with religious or classical education (sex in this case does not matter).

For the first time such a diagnosis was made in 1982. Of course, Stendhal's syndrome can manifest not only in Florence, but most often the crisis comes exactly during a visit to one of the fifty museums of the cradle of the Renaissance. Suddenly, the visitor is struck by the depth of feelings invested by the artist in the work, the perception of emotions is unusually aggravated, the visitor is allegedly transferred to the image space.

Wherein the victim's reaction is quite unpredictableeven cases of hysteria andattempts to destroy a work of art. Therefore, all museum guards in Florence are taught how to behave with victims of Stendhal's syndrome, despite the fact that the syndrome is relatively rare.

Stendhal's syndrome is reflected in the movie: in 1996 came out the eponymous thriller of Italian director Dario Argento. The main character of the film, Anna, suffers from thissyndrome, and the killer maniac enjoys her weakness. The action of the film, of course, takes place in Florence. The basis for the film was the aforementioned book by Graziella Magerini.

The syndrome of Stendhal has "relatives" - the Jerusalem Syndrome and the Paris Syndrome. Jerusalem Syndrome, as can be understood from the title, is related tovisiting Jerusalem. The pilgrims or tourists suffering from this syndrome imagine that they are endowed with prophetic and divine powers, they can consider themselves incarnations of biblical heroes. The Paris syndrome observed mainly in Japanese tourists visiting France, it is associated with significant differences in the cultures of the two countries.