STENDHAL Syndrome: What it is, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Have you ever felt anxious or groggy when looking at art? It can happen and it has a name! This is Stendhal syndrome, an acute mental uncompensation in which anxiety symptoms are usually present.

In this Psychology-Online article, Stendhal syndrome: causes, symptoms and treatment, we explain the history and origin, the possible causes, the symptoms that he presents and the treatment corresponding to Stendhal syndrome.

Index

1. What is Stendhal syndrome
2. Origin of Stendhal or Florence syndrome
3. Stendhal syndrome causes
4. Stendhal syndrome: symptoms
5. Stendhal syndrome: treatment
6. Stendhal syndrome: movie
7. Stendhal syndrome graphic summary

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 and affective and physiological. There are risk factors and preventive measures that are worth knowing.

Stendhal syndrome is related to paris syndrome, with which it has certain similarities but being different syndromes.

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 Chapel of Santa Croce in Florence There, you will find wonderful frescoes and paintings as well as the tombs of important sages and artists 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:

He had reached that point of excitement that meets the heavenly sensations that fine arts provide and passionate feelings. When leaving Santa Croce, I had an irregular heartbeat, my life was running out, I was walking with fear of falling.

Later, in 1989, Dr. Graziella Magherini was the first to use the term. He published his findings after years of treating patients who, during their visit to the art treasures of Florence, suffered from a similar set of symptoms. The Italian psychiatrist included these manifestations under the name 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 prints of great artistic beauty in a short time, given that it occurs before the experience of contemplating works of art for a period of time.

This syndrome usually occurs when visiting other cities and looking at 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 or Florence syndrome presents episodes of abrupt onset and short duration, that is, start suddenly and can last from a few hours to a little over a week and manifests with psychophysiological symptoms What:

• Feeling of choking
• Chest pain
• Elevated heart rate
• Sweating
• Fatigue
• Vertigo
• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Disorientation
• Blurry vision
• Hallucinations
• Feelings of euphoria or sadness

Dr. Magherini distinguished three clinical presentations: 66% of the patients reported mainly symptoms that affected the thought (delusions, hallucinations, depersonalization), 29% presented predominantly symptoms related to the affectation of the mood (emotional disturbances, depression, mania) and 5% symptoms of anxiety characteristic of panic attack (acute episode of anxiety).

Regarding the Stendhal syndrome treatment, it is important to know that this syndrome is a polymorphic entity from the clinical point of view and, therefore, must be approached individually. It usually subsides in a short period of time. Therefore, in general, it is necessary to prevent possible complications through psychoeducation and strategies necessary in each case, as well as ruling out comorbidities through diagnosis differential.

Prevention is the best option and to avoid suffering from the syndrome, some preventive measures such as rest, hydration, nutrition and sun protection. In addition, knowing that having a psychiatric history is an important risk factor, it would be prudent counsel patients with pre-existing mental illnesses before traveling to places of great personal importance and emotional. Other risk factors to consider are living alone and having received a religious education.

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) and the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the term Stendhal syndrome became popular due to the movie 'Stendhal's Syndrome' from 1996 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.

Here is a graphic summary of Stendhal syndrome, its symptoms, causes, and prevention.

This article is merely informative, in 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.

If you want to read more articles similar to Stendhal syndrome: causes, symptoms and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

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