What is the Jerusalem syndrome?

The Jerusalem syndrome is a term used to describe a mental phenomenon in which visitors to Jerusalem develop religious delusions and believe that it can be a God or a famous Bible person. These individuals believed that they were famous Bible people like John Baptist, Apostle Paul, Virgin Mary or even Messiah. The syndrome only affects members of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, while Jews and Christians form most of the cases. Theory was developed by Dr. Yair Bar-El, former director of the Kfar Shaul mental health center in Jerusalem, claiming to treat on average one to two patients with Jerusalem syndrome per month.

A large number of patients with Jerusalem syndrome have the history of existing mental disorders, but not all. According to Bar-El and colleagues Kfar Shaul Psychiatrist Gregory Katz, many affected individuals had no mental disorders before visiting in Jerusalem. They arrived completely healthy, were the city of one hour and another roams the desert like John Baptist in search of converthere. Most of these individuals are treated in Kfar Shaulu and released within one week, then return to normal life without the remaining trace of their religious fantasies.

psychiatrists speculated that perhaps these former people - most of them Protestant Christians from the US - suffer from a certain shock of religious culture. The fact that Jerusalem resembles many other modern cities, with busy operation, entrepreneurs rushing and there on mobile phones and uncontrollable commercial commercials, forcibly conflicting with the idea of ​​an old -dreamed cobblestone city, rooted citizens in robes and sandals. In response to such irreconcilable thoughts, some say that their minds suffer from temporary collapse. Another factor could be that many individuals traveled Jerusalem on the holy pilgrimage and after arrival believe and feel that they are closer to God than ever. Such strong emotions can also lead to strangepsychological reactions.

Of course, there were many cases where patients developed Jerusalem syndrome not because of intensive religious experience, but because of an existing mental disorder. One man who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia developed the Jerusalem syndrome in the US and, as a result, traveled to Jerusalem. He was an American bodybuilder who believed he was Samson, the Biblical Silman. He traveled to Jerusalem on a deceptive holy mission to move part of the western wall. Some speculate that David Koresh, the fallen cult leader of the branch Davidians, had a Messianic complex caused partly by a trip to Jerusalem.

While many in the medical community are skeptical about the legitimacy of Jerusalem syndrome, many take it seriously, nowhere more than in Jerusalem. Tourist guides, security staff and doctors in Jerusalem are all watching the symptoms of Jerusalem syndrome. Once a person suffering from symptoms has reached a stage of wrapped in leaves of white beds and proselytization in the desert, many doctors are fooledLeno to play along with delusions so that the patient fails to further agitate. With the help of time, medical care and drugs, illusion often leaves.

The Jerusalem syndrome is not the only example of Voyager syndrome in which the traveler falls under the temporary and bizarre psychological charm in response to a specific location. Many people who traveled to Paris, especially Japanese tourists, have experienced upset mental states and experienced a hallucination as well as feelings of hostility of anxiety. This was called the Paris syndrome and is expected to be caused by a mixture of fatigue and cultural shock. There is also Florence Syndrome or Steendhal, where passengers become dizziness, disoriented and tackle hallucinations in response to viewing beautiful Florentine art.