Stendhal syndrome.
Do you think this syndrome really exists?
I once had a teacher who kept on saying to me that everything is possible. Even those things that I think are not possible, still might be true. It’s interesting and I absolutely agree with him.
One of the most interesting psychosomatic disorders that I’ve ever heard of is Stendhal syndrome, also known as Florence syndrome.
The main reason for it occurring is artworks, which are perceived as beautiful and are placed very close to each other, like in art galleries. They create an absolutely incredible environment and overload a person with sensory impressions.
Although it may seem bizarre, there is a fairly long history behind the notion that art can be so overwhelming as to cause physical illness.
People exposed to such high concentration of beauty experience an extremely wide range of symptoms, including anxiety (rapid heartbeat, severe dizziness, panic attacks and fainting), feelings of confusion and disorientation, sweating, nausea, dissociative episodes, temporary amnesia , paranoia and — in extreme cases — even hallucinations.
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The good news is — the negative effects of beauty are relatively short-lived and usually don’t require medical attention.
Bad news — avoiding galleries is not enough to avoid becoming a victim of the syndrome.
Generally, I would say that Stendhal syndrome hasn’t been studied that much these days. However, there is substantial evidence that Stendhal syndrome is real and unique to Florence. It is named after one of the earliest recorded cases, when the French novelist and critic Stendhal made himself sick of art here in 1817.
This strange aesthetic sickness is probably evidence of the special power of Renaissance art.
The beautiful works and the way they have been exhibited in Florence ever since Giorgio Vasari started building the Uffizi in the 1560s have given rise to the very idea of “art” as something hypnotic. For example, to this day, the “wonderful” annunciation, which is said to have been written by Jacopo Pontormo with the help of angels, is revealed to visitors to the Santissima Annunziata church, and its magic is still at work.
According to the scientific paper by Timothy Richard Joseph Nicholson (BMJ Case Rep. 2009; 2009: bcr06.2008.0317.
Published online 2009 Feb 20), being psychologically overcome by the artistic beauty and cultural significance of Florence was first personally reported in 1817 by the French author Stendhal. More recently, a Florentine psychiatrist reported a series of 106 visitors admitted to hospital between 1977 and 1986 after experiencing acute transient psychiatric symptoms in response to viewing the art of Florence.
While Dr. Magherini saw Stendhal syndrome as a real psychiatric phenomenon, more recent of the existing research on this topic have found that there is not enough conclusive evidence to suggest that such a disorder exists.
Do you think this syndrome really exists?
