Recently, quite often began to mention an amazing phenomenon that strikes some tourists who come to Paris or Jerusalem. People who, it would seem, should enjoy the sights of these amazing cities and enthusiastically listen to the guide, suddenly find themselves disoriented, are in a state of delirium and mental excitement. What happens to them? What influences the psyche of visitors so strongly? We will talk about this later in the article.
It's hard not to notice such a tourist
Parisians have long been accustomed (and even somewhat tired) to the endless number of tourists passing through the historical part of the famous city of lovers. No one pays attention to visitors from different countries, but sometimes among the disciplined and serious guests from Japan, who, by the way, especially love Paris, suddenly there is one who behavesclearly inadequate.
He looks frightened, thrashing about, yelling something in his tongue, trying to hide somewhere and shying away in horror from anyone who offers to help him.
As a rule, everything ends with the unfortunate patient being escorted to the psychiatric ward of the hospital.
Where did the Paris Syndrome come from
Thanks to psychiatrist Hirotaki Ota, who described in 1986 a strange mental disorder that overtakes mainly tourists from Japan, a new syndrome became known to the whole world.
Moreover, the Japanese embassy in Paris even opened a one-of-a-kind psychological assistance service offering it to tourists from the Land of the Rising Sun who came to France. It turns out that sensitive and vulnerable Japanese are experiencing a real culture shock in the European capital, which for some (and their number reaches 20 people a year) results in a real mental disorder, which, with the light hand of doctors, is called the "Paris syndrome".
Signs of Paris Syndrome
The mentioned pathology is referred to by specialists as psychosis, and it usually manifests itself in the form of a characteristic headache, an acute sense of persecution, anxiety, depression and mild hallucinations. It is not uncommon for such patients to have an aggressive attitude towards the French. In severe cases, there may even be suicide attempts that accompany many types of mental disorders.
Symptoms that occur with this syndrome are also expressed asderealization, manifested in the feeling of the unreality of everything that a person sees around, as well as in depersonalization (perception of oneself from the outside, a feeling of loss of thoughts, feelings and ideas).
The listed manifestations are usually accompanied by vegetative disorders, expressed in heart palpitations, sweating and dizziness.
Why does this syndrome manifest itself in the Japanese as well
Yes, mental disorders sometimes appear quite unexpectedly. And the mentioned syndrome serves as confirmation of this. As it turned out, every summer a certain number of the million Japanese who visited Paris become victims of this mysterious disease. And half of them, by the way, require hospitalization.
The explanation for this phenomenon was found quickly enough. It's all about the totality of the physical and psychological state of tourists who first arrived in the capital of France and discovered that this city is not at all what they had imagined in their enthusiastic imagination.
Tours to Paris can be disappointing
For all foreigners, Paris has long become a symbol of romantic dreams, refinement of taste and sophistication in handling. At the mention of it, almost everyone imagines one of the many carefully advertised pictures, which depicts either small cafes with cozy summer areas overlooking a cobbled street, or the Seine embankment, or the famous Eiffel Tower.
Japanese also found themselves at the mercy of the image of the dream city cherished by the local media. And thanks to this, as it turned out,ideas about Paris among ordinary Japanese are very far from reality.
The pictures on the TV screen show lines of flower-decorated pretty houses huddled together in perspective, but the camera doesn't pan down to the dirty pavement. And as a result of this presentation, foreigners who have bought tours to Paris experience real difficulties in adapting to its real, by no means elegant and cloudless life. And, by the way, they feel guilty about it.
Two worlds - two cultures
The explanation of the problem lies in the huge difference in cultures, which cannot but affect especially young girls, who, as noted, are most often victims of the Paris syndrome.
Because in this psychological clash between Europe and Asia, two extremes come face to face:
- natural shyness and modesty of the Japanese and the personal freedom of the French;
- Asian deference pushed to the limit and European irony:
- restraint in expressing the emotions of guests and a quick change in the mood of local residents;
- highly developed collectivism of Japanese tourists and exaggerated selfishness of Parisians.
Language differences are also capable of provoking the Parisian syndrome in the Japanese - after all, even for those who know a little French, it can be difficult to perceive some expressions that simply do not have an adequate translation. And this, in turn, not only deprives a person of the opportunity to communicate, but can also cause a feeling of depression and isolation fromenvironment.
Paris and Parisians are not at all glamorous
From the above it becomes clear the mechanism of occurrence of the described disorder - this is a discrepancy between the real Paris and its glamorous image. Constant strikes, dirt and frequent thefts on the streets, rather untidy Parisians, as well as their habit of quickly getting involved in an argument, cause confusion among the restrained and polite Japanese. And the clash of the team spirit of Asians and Western individualism leads to the loss of familiar landmarks and, as a result, to increased self-doubt.
According to those who survived the Paris syndrome, visitors are especially frightened by the fact that local residents behave as if they do not see foreigners addressing them at close range. This, as well as the cold, irreverent treatment of the attendants, brings the impressionable Japanese, accustomed to the fact that in their country the client is always greeted as a noble person, to a nervous breakdown.
Paris syndrome questioned
Despite the fact that the topic is mentioned regularly in the Land of the Rising Sun, there is still no consensus on whether the Paris syndrome actually exists.
Many Japanese psychologists and psychiatrists question its existence, believing that all this is just a very unsuccessful attempt at a joke. It's no secret, they explain, that some people are able to break down psychologically, leaving the usual society. And this state can only be attributed to culture shock. In addition, it is important that speech in this situation is more oftenit's all about young ladies going to Paris for their romantic dream of a sophisticated French youth.
And according to individual observations, it turns out that almost a third of patients at the time of the onset of the syndrome were already suffering from schizophrenia. Therefore, there is every reason to assume that the clinical picture described above was due to an exacerbation of the existing disease. Although all this does not negate the provoking facts.
What do Paris and Jerusalem syndrome have in common?
As an analogue of what Japanese tourists are experiencing, another syndrome is often cited, which is called Jerusalem in medicine. It was recognized as an independent disease after the work of the staff of the Kfar Shaul Psychiatric Hospital, located in Jerusalem, was published in 2000 in one of the prestigious international medical publications.
Her specialists have been studying the syndrome since the early eighties and have accumulated interesting material confirming that some foreign tourists who have finally arrived at the place of their dreams lose their sense of reality and are plunged into a state of psychosis.
Features of the Jerusalem syndrome
Jerusalem syndrome, of course, has its own characteristics. One of them is that people of different nationalities and belonging to different religious denominations are exposed to it. Pilgrims, as a rule, strongly dream of visiting the shrines that overwhelm the Eternal City (and Orthodox, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims can consider them as such), and, once there, theyhard to cope with the ex altation caused by proximity to iconic places.
As a rule, the set of main symptoms that accompany this syndrome always looks the same:
- the patient is excited and excited;
- he seeks to separate himself from those with whom he travels and moves around the city alone;
- he has an obsessive desire to wash himself, to cleanse himself - for this he very often takes a shower and cuts his nails;
- he refuses food and sleep;
- from a white hotel sheet, the patient tries to make himself a toga;
- he yells out Bible lines, sings religious hymns and tries to preach to others.
Unfortunately, with the Jerusalem syndrome, there is a danger that some patients pose both to themselves and to others. Indeed, in a state of delirium, they can not only imagine themselves as one of the biblical characters, but also try to destroy those who are considered enemies.
Who may be at risk
Medics studying the described problem came to the conclusion that almost 90% of those who reacted so violently to visiting the Eternal City had some mental abnormalities even before the trip here.
The Jerusalem syndrome threatens people with high emotionality and suggestibility, who, having realized their dream, find themselves in a state of religious ecstasy, in some cases turning into psychosis.
He, as in the case of the Paris syndrome, is characterized by depersonalization and derealization. But if in the first variantpsychosis most often affects young girls, then both men and women are equally affected by the disease (which, by the way, does not prevent them from identifying themselves with male saints).
Most often, as noted by researchers, bouts of inappropriate behavior occur near the Wailing Wall. There are constantly a lot of people praying, among whom you can almost always see a person in a hysterical fit.
Are these diseases treated
Both the Paris syndrome and the similar Jerusalem syndrome, fortunately, are short-lived. The insanity lasts no more than two weeks, after which there is no trace of the symptoms, and the memory of the most acute manifestations of these ailments is not preserved. A person who has experienced any of the described syndromes continues to live a normal life, never again experiencing anything like this.
The treatment of such patients, as a rule, involves their rapid removal from provoking situations, as well as getting rid of psychological and physical stress, which helps to reduce emotional stress and makes it possible to mobilize internal resources. Therapy in many cases can be carried out on an outpatient basis.
But psychopathological syndromes should not only be stopped, but also mandatory rehabilitation measures should be carried out for the patient subsequently. An important role in this is given to psychocorrection, with the help of which the patient is helped to “work through” traumatic memories, reduce stress and streamline emotions. And if the manifestation of the syndrome is not based onmental illness, then it will be possible to speak with confidence about the complete recovery of a person. Well, at least until the next trip!
