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{{short description|Psychosomatic condition of being overwhelmed by art or beauty}}{{For|the film|The Stendhal Syndrome}}{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal’s syndrome or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion, and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty.JOURNAL, 10.1136/bcr.06.2008.0317, Stendhal syndrome: A case of cultural overload, BMJ Case Reports, 2009, bcr0620080317, 2009, Nicholson, Timothy Richard Joseph, Pariante, Carmine, McLoughlin, Declan, 3027955, 21686859, File:Stendhal.jpg|thumb|upright|Stendhal syndrome was named after Marie-Henri Beyle (1783–1842), better known by his pen name, StendhalStendhalThe affliction is named after the 19th-century French author Stendhal (pseudonym of Marie-Henri Beyle), who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence in his book (Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio). When he visited the Basilica of Santa Croce, where Niccolò Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei are buried, he was overcome with profound emotion. Stendhal wrote: I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations {{nowrap|. . .}} Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call ‘nerves’. Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=OxyNfsmXfYEC&pg=PA196, Interfaces of Performance, Maria, Chatzichristodoulou, Janis, Jefferies, Rachel, Zerihan, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009, 196, 9781409486145, }}Although psychologists have long debated whether Stendhal syndrome exists, the apparent effects on some individuals are severe enough to warrant medical attention.NEWS, Clyde Haberman,www.nytimes.com/1989/05/15/world/florence-s-art-makes-some-go-to-pieces.html, Florence’s Art Makes Some Go to Pieces, The New York Times, 15 May 1989, 1 October 2019, Clyde Haberman, The staff at Florence’s Santa Maria Nuova hospital are accustomed to tourists suffering from dizzy spells or disorientation after viewing the statue of David, the artworks of the Uffizi Gallery, and other historic treasures of the Tuscan city.NEWS, Nick Squires,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7914746/Scientists-investigate-Stendhal-Syndrome-fainting-caused-by-great-art.html, Scientists investigate Stendhal Syndrome – fainting caused by great art, The Daily Telegraph, London, 28 July 2010, 1 October 2019, Though there are numerous accounts of people fainting while taking in Florentine art, dating from the early 19th century, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed over a hundred similar cases among tourists in Florence. There exists no scientific evidence to define Stendhal syndrome as a specific psychiatric disorder; however, there is evidence that the same cerebral areas involved in emotional responses are activated during exposure to art.JOURNAL, Innocenti, Claudia, Fioravanti, Giulia, Spiti, Raffaello, Faravelli, Carlo, La sindrome di Stendhal fra psicoanalisi e neuroscienze, Rivista di Psichiatria, 1 March 2014, 49, 2, 61–66, 10.1708/1461.16139, 24770571, 2038-2502, The Stendhal syndrome between psychoanalysis and neuroscience, it, The syndrome is not listed as a recognised condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.A more recent account of the Stendhal syndrome was in 2018, when a visitor to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence suffered a heart attack while admiring Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.NEWS, Jonathan, Jones, Jonathan Jones (journalist),www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2018/dec/18/stendhal-syndrome-botticelli-the-birth-of-venus, Stendhal syndrome: can art really be so beautiful it makes you ill?, The Guardian, 18 December 2018, 27 November 2019,

See also

• Jerusalem syndrome
• Lisztomania
• Paris syndrome
• The Stendhal Syndrome, a 1996 psychological thriller film on the subject

References

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External links

• Word Spy definition
• Graziella Magherini. www.auxologia.it/stendhalsyndrome/" title="web.archive.org/web/20090505112209www.auxologia.it/stendhalsyndrome/">La Sindrome di Stendhal. Firenze, Ponte Alle Grazie, 1989. {{in lang|it}}