What Is Paris Syndrome?

Paris syndrome is a mental illness that has arisen in recent years. It was first discovered by Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychologist who traveled to France in the 1980s. The main patient is Japanese. The cause is a mental illness caused by the huge difference between the real Paris and the imagination that Japanese tourists find in Paris. Symptoms include nausea, insomnia, convulsions, inexplicable fear, inferiority, shame, persecution, and even suicidal tendency. With globalization, more and more Japanese tourists are coming to Paris, and the spread of this disease is worth paying attention to.

Paris Syndrome

Paris syndrome is a mental illness that has arisen in recent years. It was first discovered by Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychologist who traveled to France in the mid-1980s ^[1]

Paris syndrome is a state of mental disorder that occurs when Japanese work or vacation in Paris, France. In 2004, the first to notice was the French journal Psychiatry Nervure. The disease occurs in an estimated one million tourists per year, with a a dozen cases per year, and a few suffering people are repatriated to Japan.

French psychologist Huff Ben Ammer pointed out: "Psychologically fragile tourists may lose their ability to endure a crisis when their understanding of the country's introduction does not match what they have discovered."

A psychological journal called "Leaves" first described the phenomenon in detail in 2004, and the French "Sunday" called it "Paris syndrome", which is not the first time the word appeared. In December 2004, the French psychiatry journal "Neurology" first introduced the "Paris syndrome" in detail. This disease was mainly studied in Japan

The research mentioned above shows that more than 100 Japanese expatriates living in Paris suffer from the "Paris syndrome" every year. According to the consultation at the Paris hospital, the main symptoms are nausea, insomnia, convulsions, and inexplicable Feelings of fear, inferiority, shame, persecution, and even suicidality.

Paris Syndrome Views

Some French psychiatrists have said that these people's clinical depression is caused by their irreconcilable romantic views of Paris and reality.

The Japanese have a long love for Paris. Paris attracts Japanese people to Parisian elegant manners, exquisite French food and luxury items such as Louis Vuitton bags. Most of the 28,000 Japanese diasporas in France live in Paris, and millions of Japanese travel to Paris each year.

"The tourists I receive are often extremely disappointed with Paris. They think Paris should be clean and Parisians should be polite and friendly. The result is exactly the opposite ... they What I'm looking forward to is Old France-full of people like Jean Gabin and Alan Delon. "

Berna Draghi from the Youth Japan Association said: "In Japanese stores, the customer is God, and in Paris, the salespeople basically don't take them seriously. And you see them on the bus or subway The local people who arrived all looked grim, and at the same time, the presence of those who snatched the package also increased the negative emotions of tourists. "The association is a community organization that helps Japanese families settle in France.

Some media have pointed out that Parisians are not friendly enough to all those who do not speak French, not just for Japanese. The problem is simply that the Japanese have unrealistic fantasies about the way of life in the West. When they visit all over the world, they always get together with a large group of people and rarely contact the locals, so when they really come into close contact, the cultural shock is inevitable.

A member of "Our Japan," an organization where Japanese families settled in France, said: "The same thing happens no matter where the Japanese go. For them, other countries always mean cultural shock."

A Japanese psychologist believes that the Japanese concept of collectivism is a difficult obstacle for Japanese immigrants to overcome, and when they find themselves in a society based on individualism, they are a little overwhelmed and feel excluded from French culture.

International Online News: Every year about 12 Japanese tourists need a certain degree of psychotherapy after visiting Paris, and the reason is that the unfriendly locals and the dirty and shabby streets will make their hearts beautiful to the French capital. Illusions shattered.

According to a Reuters report on October 23, a psychologist said: "One-third of these patients will soon return to normal mentality, and another third will have recurrent mental problems. Phenomenon, and the rest become insane. "

Paris Syndrome Cases

To date, the Japanese embassy in France has repatriated at least four Japanese tourists-two of them women believe that their hotel room has been tapped, and some are plotting to persecute them.

An official at the Japanese embassy said that such cases in the past also included a man who believed he was the French king, Louis XIV, and a woman who believed that someone was using microwaves to attack himself.

Psychologist Elf Benamou said: "When the reality they witnessed conflicts with their original imagination of France, those with fragility can indeed behave in a certain way."