Have you ever felt anxious or dazed when looking at art? It can happen and it has a name! This is Stendhal syndrome, an acute mental decompensation in which anxiety symptoms usually occur.
In this Psychology-Online article, Stendhal syndrome: causes, symptoms and treatmentwe explain the history and origin, the possible causes, the symptoms it presents and the corresponding treatment for Stendhal syndrome.
What is Stendhal syndrome
Stendhal syndrome is also known as Florence syndrome, traveler stress, traveler’s disease or “Stendhal syndrome” in English. It consists of an acute mental decompensation characterized by strong emotions and psychosomatic manifestations, both cognitive, affective and physiological. There are risk factors and preventive measures that are worth knowing.
Stendhal syndrome is related to , with which it has certain similarities but being different syndromes.
Origin of Stendhal or Florence syndrome
The history of Stendhal syndrome It starts a couple of centuries ago. Stendhal is the pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle, the famous 19th century French novelist and a man of extreme sensitivity, who traveled to Naples in 1817 and visited the Santa Croce chapel in Florence. There, there are wonderful frescoes and paintings as well as the tombs of wise men and artists of great importance such as Machiavelli and Galilei.
In that place he experienced a phenomenon that he described in his book Naples and Florence: A trip from Milan to Reggio:
I had reached that point of emotion that meets the heavenly sensations that Fine Arts and passionate feelings provide. When I left Santa Croce, I had an irregular heartbeat, my life was running out, I walked with fear of falling.
Later, in 1989, Dr. Graziella Magherini was the first to use the term. He published his findings after years treating patients who, during their visits to the artistic treasures of Florence, suffered from a set of similar symptoms. The Italian psychiatrist encompassed these manifestations under the name of Stendhal syndrome.
Causes of Stendhal syndrome
The causes of Stendhal or Florence syndrome seem to be cultural and artistic trips due to the saturation of the human capacity to receive impressions of great artistic beauty in a short time, since it is produced by the experience of contemplating works of art for a period of time.
This syndrome usually occurs when visiting other cities and contemplating works of art. That is why Stendhal syndrome is related to tourist trips to famous cities full of art and history such as Florence, Paris, Athens, Tokyo and Rome. These experiences interact with personal predisposition to mental decompensation, but are not limited to people with a psychiatric history.
Stendhal syndrome: symptoms
Stendhal or Florence syndrome presents episodes of abrupt onset and short duration, that is, they begin suddenly and can last between a few hours and a little more than a week and manifest with psychophysiological symptoms as:
- Feeling of suffocation
- Chest pain
- Elevation of heart rate
- Sweating
- Fatigue
- Vertigo
- Dizziness
- Confusion
- Disorientation
- Blurry vision
- Hallucinations
- Feelings of euphoria or sadness
Dr. Magherini distinguished three clinical presentations: 66% of patients mainly reported symptoms that affected the thought (, hallucinations, depersonalization), 29% predominantly presented symptoms related to the involvement of the mood (emotional disturbances, depression, mania) and 5% symptoms of anxiety characteristic of (acute anxiety episode).
Stendhal syndrome: treatment
As for the Stendhal syndrome treatment, it is important to know that this syndrome is a polymorphic entity from a clinical point of view and, therefore, it must be addressed individually. It usually subsides in a short period of time. Therefore, in general, it is necessary to prevent possible complications through psychoeducation and the necessary strategies in each case, as well as rule out comorbidities through differential diagnosis.
Prevention is the best option and to avoid suffering from the syndrome, some preventive measures must be adopted such as rest, hydration, nutrition and sun protection. Furthermore, knowing that having a psychiatric history is an important risk factor, it would be prudent to counsel patients with pre-existing mental illnesses before traveling to places of great personal and emotional importance. Other risk factors to take into account are living alone and having received a religious education.
Stendhal syndrome: movie
Finally, it is important to clarify that it is not a specific and defined mental disorder, as it has not been recognized as such by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) or the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the term Stendhal syndrome became popular due to the 1996 film ‘Stendhal Syndrome’ directed by the Italian Dario Argento and has become a romantic reference to refer to the reaction to the accumulation of beauty and artistic and aesthetic enjoyment.
Graphic summary of Stendhal syndrome
Below, we show a graphic summary of Stendhal syndrome, its symptoms, causes and prevention.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
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