Paris Syndrome

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The Eiffel Tower , symbol of the city of Paris

As Paris Syndrome ( French syndrome de Paris , japanese パリ症候群 Pari shōkōgun ) is a temporary mental disorder called, mostly Japanese during stay in Paris meets. It is a culture- related syndrome that is similar in nature to the Stendhal and Jerusalem syndromes , but not a recognized diagnosis (according to ICD-10 or DSM-IV ). The trigger of the Paris Syndrome is the strong difference between the expectations of tourists and theCity reality .

history

The basis of the term Paris Syndrome ( Pari shōkōgun ) was provided by the Japanese psychiatrist Hiroaki Ota , who worked in Paris, published the book Pari shôkôgun in 1991 and diagnosed the first people with the syndrome as early as 1986. Youcef Mahmoudia, a doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris , concluded that Paris syndrome was a psychopathological manifestation associated with the journey rather than the traveler. According to his theory, the excitement caused by visiting Paris causes an increase in heart rate, causing shortness of breath and dizziness, causing hallucinations similar to Stendhal's syndrome .

Symptoms

Paris syndrome is characterized by some psychological symptoms: acute delusions , hallucinations , paranoia (the perception of being a victim of prejudice, aggression or hostility from others), derealization , depersonalization , anxiety and psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia or sweating .

The characteristics differ. In October 2006, for example, Yoshikatsu Aoyagi, head of the consulate at the Japanese embassy in Paris, reported on two women who believed that their hotel room was bugged and that a conspiracy was directed against them; a man who believed he was Louis XIV and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves .

frequency

The number of cases per year is not precisely recorded. In reporting on the syndrome, the numbers are between 12 and 100 cases per year. The Japanese embassy in Paris speaks of 20 to 24 "serious cases" per year.

Japanese tourists in Paris

In the article Les Japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris: un modèle original de price en charge transculturelle , which appeared in the French psychiatry magazine Nervure in 2004 , the authors, including Ota, name a number of 63 patients between 1988 and 2004. Of these 63 patients were 34 women and 29 men between the ages of 20 and 65, with 50% between 20 and 30 years old.

According to Ota, Japanese women in their thirties are most affected. The syndrome is not limited to tourists: in a 2005 article, Ota mentioned that 73% of patients are young women with little motivation to learn French but who can live in Paris thanks to financial support from their family . Young women from this family background who want to study art history in Paris with “romantic ideas”, for example , fall into this pattern. There are also reports of the increasing appearance of Paris Syndrome among Chinese tourists.

Between 700,000 and a million Japanese visit Paris each year and between 20,000 and 25,000 Japanese live in Paris, although other sources also mention 28,000 Japanese residents. In 2004, 14,000 Japanese residents of Paris were registered with the consulate, assuming “thousands more” who were not registered with the consulate. In 1996, 20,060 Japanese lived in France, 9,012 of them in Paris.

trigger

The article Les Japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris: un modèle original de prise en charge transculturelle described the combination of four factors as the trigger for the Paris syndrome:

  • Language barrier : Few Japanese speak French and few French speak Japanese. This seems to be the main reason and the rest of the factors.
  • Cultural differences : There is not only a big difference between languages, but also in gestures and facial expressions. In contrast to the strict, emphatically polite manners of the Japanese, the French are often more informal, which the Japanese perceive as unfriendly. The rapid and frequent change in language and behavior, especially in terms of humor, is the biggest problem. Mario Renoux , President of the Franco-Japanese Medical Association, described in an AP article the “aggressive impatience and de [n] direct French Humor "as intimidating.
  • The idealized image of Paris: there is a risk that visitors will be unable to reconcile the popular Japanese image of Paris with reality.
  • Exhaustion : The overcrowding of one's own time and energy, be it on a business trip or on vacation, leads to psychological destabilization of some visitors. When trying to experience as much as possible during their stay in Paris, they take over. In addition, there are the effects of jet lag .

In an article in the daily Liberation, Renoux named Japanese magazines as being primarily responsible for the development of the syndrome. Renoux states that Japanese media (but magazines specifically) describe Paris as a place where most of the people on the street look like models and most women wear Louis Vuitton clothing. In another report he was quoted as follows regarding the Japanese view of Paris:

"Ils voient le Montparnasse des Années folles, Manet, Renoir, et des Parisiennes habillées comme des gravures de mode. »

"You see Montparnasse in the roaring twenties , Manet , Renoir and the Parisian women dressed as if on fashion drawings."

Other idealizing influences could be films like The Fabulous World of Amélie , which portray Paris romantically. The film drew 1.3 million people in cinemas in Japan, placing Japan in 6th place in the world in terms of admissions. In addition, some Japanese television and film celebrities live in Paris.

treatment

In milder cases, Paris syndrome is treated by bed rest and hydration , in more severe cases by staying in a clinic (25% of cases) and by traveling home. In a quarter of the cases handled by the Japanese embassy, ​​an immediate trip home is necessary. In 2011 there were at least six cases in which the embassy had to arrange for a return home under medical supervision.

According to Mahmoudia, after the treatment, "one third feel better immediately, one third suffer relapses and the rest develop psychosis ".

In 2006, Yoshikazu Sekiguchi founded an offshoot of the non-governmental organization green bird in Paris , which has set itself the task of cleaning cities. Sekiguchi stated that the green birds want to “make Paris more attractive”, which would “also help against the Paris Syndrome”.

reception

Media criticism and doubts about the existence of the syndrome

An editorial in the Japan Times criticized the study's relation to Japanese tourists and left the question unanswered as to why the syndrome occurs specifically in Paris and not in “New York or Mexico City”. The article concluded, “Even if Paris does send a handful of fragile Japanese travelers to the doctor, it seems an exaggeration to label their afflictions as a syndrome.” stretch to label their affliction a syndrome. ").

In the article “Say Cheese!” By Lauren Collins in The New Yorker magazine , she dealt with Paris Syndrome and a New York Syndrome that may exist analogously. She quoted Howard Sigman, a consular officer at the Japanese consulate in New York. The latter stated that he did not believe in Paris Syndrome or a "New York burden". In his view, the cases that have to do with the Japanese embassy in Paris due to the culture shock are "mostly the result of an existing mental illness".

The science blog Neurobonkers suggested that due to the small number of patients it could be a case of illusory correlation . A rate of 12 people with a million Japanese visitors per year was assumed and this was compared with the rate of people who experience a schizophrenic episode at one point in their lives , which is the equivalent of 7,000 people per million people.

The royalwithcheese blog described the use of the term Paris Syndrome for two different cases. At the beginning, this was applied to Japanese people who lived in Paris. However, the media and doctors like Youcef Mahmoudia and Mario Renoux would then have applied it to Japanese tourists. The author doubted the syndrome nature of Paris Syndrome and wrote that it was "nothing more than the fan death in Korea".

The Sunday Times columnist AA Gill jokingly named Rome as a cure for Paris Syndrome.

Cultural works

The French writer Philippe Adam wrote a book called Le Syndrome de Paris , which was published in 2005. It deals with the story of an intern at the Japanese Embassy in Paris who is struggling with Paris Syndrome. The book was made into a film in 2008 by the Japanese director Saé Shimaï. The film Mimi no Nikki also dealt with the subject of Paris Syndrome. The film was released in 2012 and deals with the life of a young Japanese woman in Paris.

The artist Jun Yang designed the Café Paris Syndrom and a hotel room in the Gallery for Contemporary Art , which he named Hotel Paris Syndrom . The Hotel Paris Syndrom opened in December 2010 and, like the café, corresponds to the syndrome in that original French-looking furniture and photographs are merely reproductions and thus represent the difference between expectation and reality.

There are also two documentaries on Paris Syndrome. John Menick's “Paris Syndrome” was published in 2010 and is described by him as a “short, cinematic essay”. The documentation is 27 minutes long. In 2012 Raphaël George published his nine-minute documentary “Le Syndrome de Paris”, in which the symptoms of the syndrome are described and Pierre Rameau, doctor at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne, explains the syndrome.

literature

  • Philippe Adam: Le Syndrome de Paris , Inventory / Invention, 2005, ISBN 978-2-915453-73-7
  • A. Viala, H. Ota, MN Vacheron, P. Martin, F. Caroli: Les Japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris: un modèle original de prize en charge transculturelle . (2004), In: Nervure de journal Psychiatrie 5, pp. 31–34 PDF version (French) ( Memento from December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  • Hiroaki Ota: パ リ 症候群 (Pari shôkôgun), Toraberu Jānaru 1991, ISBN 978-4-895592-33-8
  • Janima Nam: Paris Syndrome: Reverse Homesickness? , Paper for a lecture at the ASA Conference 2007, PDF

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Hans-Hermann Nikolei: Japanese sick at the goal of their dreams. n-tv , August 30, 2009, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Caroline Wyatt: 'Paris Syndrome' strikes Japanese. BBC News , December 20, 2006, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  3. ↑ a b Harumi Befu, Sylvie Guichard-Anguis: Globalizing Japan: Ethnography of the Japanese Presence in Asia, Europe and America , Routledge 2001, p. 40
  4. ↑ Youcef Mahmoudia: Voyager rend-il fou? ( Memento of July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (French)
  5. ^ Caroline Wyatt: Mastering French manners, the hard way. BBC News , December 23, 2006, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  6. ↑ a b 'Paris Syndrome' leaves tourists in shock. Reuters , October 23, 2006, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Angelique Chrisafis: Paris syndrome hits Japanese. The Guardian , October 25, 2006, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  8. ^ A b c Martin Trauth: Paris makes the Japanese sick. Der Tagesspiegel , September 16, 2009, accessed on July 1, 2012 .
  9. ^ A. Viala, H. Ota, MN Vacheron, P. Martin, F. Caroli: Les Japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris: un modèle original de prize en charge transculturelle . (2004), In: Nervure de journal Psychiatrie 5, pp. 31–34 PDF version (French) ( Memento of December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), p. 32
  10. ↑ a b royal with cheese: Paris Syndrome: An Urban Myth? ( Memento of November 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), December 1, 2011, accessed on July 13, 2012
  11. ↑ パ リ 症候群 , February 2, 2005, accessed July 13, 2012 (Japanese)
  12. ^ Ania Nussbaum: The Paris Syndrome Drives Chinese Tourists Away. Bloomberg News , August 12, 2014, accessed February 24, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Thomas Crampton: French Are 'Foreign' in Opéra District: A Japanese Haven In Central Paris , The New York Times , February 20, 1995, accessed July 13, 2012
  14. ↑ Everett Kennedy Brown: Hitachi's friendly face , March 27, 2003, accessed July 13, 2012
  15. ↑ Understandfrance.org: Paris for the Japanese ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 13, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.understandfrance.org
  16. ↑ Jon P. Alston, Melanie Hawthorne, Sylvie Saillet: A Practical Guide to French Business . iUniverse, 2003, ISBN 978-0-595-26462-9 , pp. 196 . , Introduction XIII
  17. ↑ a b Hugh Schofield: Japanese hit by 'Paris syndrome' as depressing reality of French manners shatters romantic ideals ( Memento from January 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ a b Kate Brumback: A dark mood in the City of Light for some Japanese , AP Worldstream, from December 17, 2004, article at Highbeam Research ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link became automatic used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  19. ^ Levy Audrey: Des Japonais entre mal du pays et mal de Paris. Liberation, December 13, 2004, accessed July 1, 2012 (French).
  20. ↑ a b Le Figaro : Le spleen des Japonais à Paris ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dated June 24, 2006, accessed on July 13, 2012 (French) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lefigaro.fr
  21. ↑ IMDb: Box Office for The fabulous world of Amelie , accessed on July 13, 2012
  22. ^ A b Chelsea Fagan: Paris Syndrome: A First-Class Problem for a First-Class Vacation. The Atlantic , October 18, 2011, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  23. ↑ Reuters : Japanese ex-pats clean up Paris streets for tourists , April 20, 2009, accessed July 18, 2012
  24. ↑ The Japan Times: Japanese and the 'Paris Syndrome' , October 29, 2006, accessed July 13, 2012
  25. ↑ Lauren Collins: SAY CHEESE! , dated January 22, 2007, accessed July 18, 2012
  26. ↑ Neurobonkers: Paris Syndrome: Peculiar Madness or Urban Legend? , on July 7, 2012, accessed on July 13, 2012
  27. ↑ Michael Yessis: Japanese Tourists Succumb to 'Paris Syndrome' , October 24, 2006, accessed July 13, 2012
  28. ↑ Gregor Haschnik: A heart and no soul , from September 25, 2006, accessed on July 18, 2012
  29. ↑ Festival de film des femmes de bruxelles: Saé Shimaï: Le syndrome de Paris (The Paris Syndrome)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 18, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ellestournent-damesdraaien.org  
  30. ↑ Thomas Hajdukowicz: Mimi no Nikki: Une Japonaise à Paris ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dated February 16, 2012, accessed July 18, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.journaldujapon.com
  31. ↑ Stephanie von Aretin: Leipzig: Traveling with Insider Tips , Mair Dumont Marco Polo 2008, ISBN 978-3-829704-72-4 , p. 95
  32. ↑ GFZK: GfZK Hotel , accessed on July 18, 2012
  33. ↑ Hotel Paris Syndrom: Do you have to expect disappointment when you book the Hotel Paris Syndrom? ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 18, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gfzkhotel.de
  34. ↑ John Menick: Paris Syndrome  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Short documentation, 27 minutes, 2010), accessed on July 18, 2012@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.johnmenick.com  
  35. ^ Raphaël George: Le Syndrome de Paris (short documentation, 9 minutes, French, 2012), accessed on July 18, 2012