Stendhal or Florence syndrome The art attack

One of the most unusual psychological disorders that exist is the call Stendhal Syndrome, also known as Florence or Hyperkulturamia syndrome. The trigger for this disease is exposure to large amounts of beautiful and beautiful works of art, which are concentrated in a single place (for example an art gallery or the city of Florence itself in Italy, hence its name).

Content

• What is Stendhal syndrome
• Historical history of Stendhal syndrome
• Cases and classification of Stendhal syndrome
• Syndrome or suggestion Is there really Stendhal syndrome?
  • References

What is Stendhal syndrome

When exposed to concentrated works of art, those affected experience a wide range of symptoms that include physical and emotional anxiety (fast and intense heart rate, dizziness that often translates into panic and / or fainting attacks), feelings of Confusion and disorientation, nausea, dissociative episodes, temporal amnesia, paranoia, and - in extreme cases - hallucinations and temporal "madness'. The syndrome has also applied to other situations in which people feel totally overwhelmed when they are in the presence of what they perceive as "immense beauty" (it can be something of the natural world as a beautiful sunset). The effects are relatively short duration and do not seem to require medical intervention.

Historical history of Stendhal syndrome

This syndrome was first named after the 19th-century French author Henri-Marie Beyle (1783-1842), better known for his pseudonym "Stendhal" at the age of 34 (in 1817) described in detail his negative experiences (In your book Naples and Florence: A Milan trip to Reggio) After seeing the Florentine art of the Italian Renaissance (and hence its alternative name as Florence Syndrome). When Stendhal visited the cathedral of Santa Croce in Florence and witnessed the first famous frescoes of the Giotto roof, what he saw impacted him in such a way at the emotional level that he wrote:

"I was in a kind of ecstasy, of the idea of ​​being in Florence, near the great men whose tombs he had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty ... I reached the point where one meets heavenly sensations ... everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could forget. He had palpitations of the heart, which in Berlin they call "nerves". Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling ".

After Stendhal's writings, there have been hundreds of cases of people who experience similar effects, particularly in the famous Uffizi gallery in Florence, and have often referred to as "tourism disease" or "art disease". However, it was not until 1979 that the condition He was named Stendhal syndrome by the Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who at that time was the head of psychiatry at the Hospital of Florencia Santa Maria Nuova. She began to observe that many tourists who visited Florence seemed to be overcome with a series of symptoms that included temporary panic attacks and apparent madness that lasted two or three days.

Cases and classification of Stendhal syndrome

On the basis of his memory of the reading of the Stenhal account, he named this temporary disorder Stendhal syndrome. Later he documented 106 similar cases admitted to the hospital in Florence between 1977 and 1986 in his 1989 book "Di Stendhal Syndrome". In his book he describes the detailed cases of these people who after seeing famous paintings or sculptures had serious emotional reactions that included high anxiety and / or psychotic episodes. She explains that psychological disorders are typically associated with "A mental disorder or latent psychiatric disturbance that manifests itself as a reaction to paintings or other masterpieces". The 106 cases were classified into three types:

• Type I: Patients (n = 70) with predominantly psychotic symptoms (for example, paranoid psychosis).
• Type II: Patients (n = 31) with predominantly affective symptoms.
• Type III: Patients (n = 5), whose predominant symptoms of somatic anxiety expressions (for example, panic attacks).

He also reported that 38% of type I individuals had a psychiatric history, while more than half (53%) of type II no. To date, there are relatively few cases published in academic literature. The most recent case is written by DR. Timothy Nicholson and his colleagues, who published a report of a case in the magazine British Medical Journal which explains the case of a 72 -year -old man who developed a transient paranoid psychosis after a cultural tour of Florence.

Syndrome or suggestion Is there really Stendhal syndrome?

Many professionals do not finish giving credit to this syndrome and wonder if it really cannot be caused by the exhaustion of the visitor and not so much of beauty against works.

In addition, they also indicate if the fact that it is associated almost undeniable to Florence, where the cases have been described, have been described, because the bad languages ​​speak of the fact that it is a way of promoting the artistic beauty of said city.

References

Amâncio, Ex (2005). Dostoevski and Stendhal syndrome. ARQ Neuropsychiatric
Bamforth, i. (2010). Stendhal syndrome. British Journal of General Practice, December 945-946.
Fried, Ri (1998). Stendhal's syndrome: hyperkulturemia. Ohio Medicine
Nicholson, Trj, Paralyte, C., And McLoughlin, D. (2009). Important Clinical Lesson Remember: Stendhal syndrome: a case of cultural overload. BMJ case reports