The Paris syndrome. Psychiatric disorder in Japanese people visiting France

Recently, quite often began to mention an amazing phenomenon that amazes some tourists who have come to Paris or Jerusalem. People who seemingly should enjoy the sights of these amazing cities and listen enthusiastically to the guide, suddenly find themselves disoriented, in a state of delirium and mental agitation. What happens to them? What so strongly influences a mentality of visitors? We'll talk about this later in the article.

Such a tourist is hard not to notice

Parisians have long been accustomed (and even somewhat tired) to an endless number of tourists passing through the historic part of the famous city of lovers. On visitors from different countries, no one pays attention, but sometimes among disciplined and serious guests from Japan, who, incidentally, are especially fond of Paris, suddenly turns out to be one, behaving obviously inadequately.

He looks frightened, rushes, screams in his own language, tries to hide somewhere and in horror shies away from anyone who offers him help.

As a rule, all ends with the fact that the unhappy patient is taken to the psychiatric ward of the hospital.

Whence it became known about the Paris syndrome

Thanks to the psychiatrist Hirotaki Ota, who described in 1986 a strange mental disorder that overtakes mainly tourists from Japan, the whole world became aware of a new syndrome.

Moreover, the Japanese embassy in Paris even opened the only one-of-its-kind psychological aid 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 in the European capital a real cultural shock, which some (and their number reaches 20 people per year) translates into a present mental disorder, which, with the light hand of doctors, is called "the Paris syndrome."

Signs of the manifestation of the Paris syndrome

The mentioned pathology is referred to as psychosis, and it usually manifests itself as a characteristic headache, an acute sense of persecution, anxiety, depression and light hallucinations. Often found in such patients and aggressive attitude towards the French. In severe cases, there may even be attempts to commit suicide, which accompany many types of mental disorders.

Symptoms that arise in this syndrome are also expressed in the form of a derealization, manifested in a feeling of unreality of everything that a person sees around, as well as in depersonalization (perception of oneself from the side, a sense of loss of thoughts, feelings and notions).

To the listed manifestations vegetative disturbances, expressed in rapid heartbeats, sweating and dizziness, usually join.

Why this syndrome manifests itself and the Japanese

Yes, mental disorders sometimes appear very unexpectedly. And the mentioned syndrome serves as a confirmation of this. As it turned out, every summer some Japanese from a million of those who visited Paris, are victims of this mysterious disease. And half of them, by the way, require hospitalization.

The explanation for this phenomenon was found quite quickly. It's all about the physical and psychological state of the tourists who first came to the capital of France and discovered that this city is not at all what it was in their enthusiastic imagination.

Tours in Paris are capable and disappoint

For all foreigners Paris has long become a symbol of romantic dreams, refinement of taste and elegance in circulation. When you mention it, almost everyone imagines one of the many carefully advertised pictures showing either small cafes with cozy summer areas facing directly to a cobbled street, or the Seine embankment, or the famous Eiffel Tower.

Residents of Japan, too, were in the power of the image of the city of dreams, cherished by local media. And thanks to this, as it turned out, the idea of Paris among ordinary Japanese is very far from reality.

The pictures on the TV screen show lines of flowers adorning flowers in the perspective, adorned with flowers, pressed against each other, but at the same time the camera does not sink to the dirty pavement. And as a result of this filing, foreigners who bought tours to Paris, experience real difficulties with adapting to his real, far from elegant and cloudless life. And, by the way, feel guilty at the same time.

Two worlds - two cultures

The explanation of the problem arises also in the huge difference in cultures, which can not but affect especially the young girls, who, as noted, are most often victims of the Paris syndrome.

After all, in this psychological clash of Europe and Asia two extremes are brought to the surface:

• Natural shyness and modesty of the Japanese and the personal freedom of the French;
• Perfected to the utmost by the respectfulness of Asians and the irony of Europeans:
• Restraint in the expression of guests' emotions and quick change of mood of local residents;
• The highly developed collectivism of Japanese tourists and the exaggerated selfishness of Parisians.

Provoke the Paris syndrome in the Japanese and are capable of language differences - because even those who know little French, it is difficult to perceive some expressions that simply do not have an adequate translation. And this, in turn, not only deprives the person of the opportunity to communicate, but also can cause feelings of depression and isolation from the outside world.

Paris and Parisians are not at all glamorous

From what has been said above, the mechanism for the appearance of the described disorder becomes understandable-this is the discrepancy between real Paris and its glamorous image. Constant strikes, dirt and frequent thefts in the streets, rather slovenly Parisians, and their habit of quickly getting into a dispute with the restrained and polite Japanese cause confusion. And the clash of the team spirit of Asians and Western individualism leads to the loss of the familiar landmarks and, as a result, to increased self-doubt.

According to those who survived the Paris syndrome, especially frightens newcomers is that the local people behave as if they do not see the foreigners addressing them at point-blank range. This, and also the cold disrespectful treatment of the staff, brings to impressionable Japanese people, accustomed to what in their country the client is always met as a noble person, to a nervous breakdown.

The presence of the Paris syndrome is questioned

Despite the fact that in the Land of the Rising Sun the topic mentioned is regularly mentioned, there is still no consensus on whether there is actually a Parisian syndrome.

Many Japanese psychologists and psychiatrists question its existence, believing that all this is just a very unsuccessful attempt to joke. It's not a secret, they explain, that some people are able to break down psychologically, leaving the habitual society. And you can only attribute this state to cultural shock. In addition, it is important that the situation in this situation is most often about young ladies going to Paris for their romantic dream of a refined French youth.

And according to some observations it turns out that almost a third of patients at the time of the onset of the syndrome already suffered 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 provoking facts, all this does not cancel.

What is common between the Paris and Jerusalem syndrome?

As an analogue of what Japanese tourists are experiencing, there is often another syndrome called in medicine in Jerusalem. He was recognized as an independent disease after the work of the Kfar Shaul psychiatric hospital in Jerusalem was published in 2000 in one of the prestigious international medical publications.

Her specialists from the beginning of the eighties studied this syndrome and accumulated an interesting material confirming that some foreign tourists who have 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

The 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 overflow the Eternal City (and they can be considered as such by Orthodox, Catholics, Jews and Muslims), and, finding themselves there, they can hardly cope with the exaltation caused by the proximity to the iconic Places.

As a rule, the set of basic symptoms accompanying this syndrome always looks the same:

• The patient is agitated 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 off his nails;
• He refuses food and sleep;
• From a white hotel bed sheet the patient tries to make himself a toga;
• He screams the lines from the Bible, sings religious hymns and tries to read the sermons to others.

Unfortunately, with the Jerusalem syndrome there is a danger that some patients present to themselves and to others. After all, in a state of delirium, they can not just imagine themselves as someone from the biblical characters, but also try to destroy those whom they consider enemies.

Who can be at risk?

The physicians who studied the problem described concluded that almost 90% of those who had so violently reacted to the Eternal City visit had any deviations in the psyche before the trip.

It threatens the Jerusalem syndrome and people with high emotionality and suggestibility, who, having realized their dream, find themselves in a state of religious ecstasy, in some cases passing into psychosis.

He, like in the case of the Paris syndrome, inherent depersonalization and derealization. But if in the first variant the psychosis most often affects young girls, then the diseases are equally exposed to both men and women (which, incidentally, does not prevent them from identifying themselves with male saints).

Most often, as noted by researchers, attacks of inadequate behavior occur near the Wailing Wall. There are always a lot of worshipers, among whom you can almost always see a person in a hysterical fit.

Are these diseases treated?

And the Paris syndrome, and a similar Jerusalem, fortunately, are short. Intervention lasts no more than two weeks, after which the symptoms do not remain a trace, and the memory of the most acute manifestations of these ailments is not preserved. A person who has undergone any of the described syndromes, continues to live a normal life, never again experiencing anything like this.

Treatment of such patients, as a rule, assumes their rapid removal from provoking situations, as well as getting rid of psychological and physical stress, which helps to reduce emotional tension and gives an opportunity to mobilize internal resources. Therapy in many cases can be carried out and in an outpatient setting.

But psychopathological syndromes should not only be stopped, but also carried out for the patient, afterwards, without fail, rehabilitation measures. An important role in this is given to psychocorrection, through which the patient is helped to "work out" traumatic memories, reduce tension and regulate emotions. And if the basis of the manifestation of the syndrome is not a mental illness, then it will be possible to speak with confidence about the complete recovery of a person. Well, at least until the next trip!