Perhaps you have felt ecstatic or euphoric when seeing a work of art, but did you know that they can also cause delirium, dizziness, tachycardia? Yes, they can, as these are all effects of the so-called Stendhal Syndrome.
This article is to understand why a work of art can have such an impact on us, and at the same time see why this can promote inner growth through beauty, ecstasy, without you having to go through discomfort or suffering.
What is the Stendhal Syndrome
the Syndrome’s name was given in honor of the writer with the pseudonym Stendhal who lived in Milan in the early 1800s, when Milan was a capital of Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire.
So when Stendhal took a trip to Florence in 1817 he felt entranced by the sublime beauty of the Church of Santa Croce. After leaving the church he began feeling tachycardia and dizziness.
He wrote about this in one of his books, and in 1977 a doctor at the hospital in the center of Florence, the psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, noticed that more than 100 patients in one year had similar symptoms due to exposure to the city of Florence.
So she decided to call these disorders Stendhal Syndrome: literally feeling sick due to the exposure to works of art and their superb beauty.
Tourism of the Soul
Illustrious travelers such as Freud, Dostoyevski, Proust, Goethe, Carl Jung, Stendhal, Ruskin, and many others will talk about travel as SOUL tourism. And as Graziella Magherini herself explains in her book “Stendhal Syndrome”: “the long-awaited trip turns into a rich and fruitful internal dynamic”.
In the cases she analyzed, which were 106, the majority were women traveling alone from Western Europe.
According to the author, the disorder could be explained by a person’s low ability to rationally process emotions or elements, most often subconscious, that emerge without warning and catch the person off guard, which generates unpleasant psycho-somatic reactions.
Mr. Barry’s Case
Here I will report one of Magherini´s patient case, the story of Mister Barry.
He is an American who travels with his wife to Florence. He has a university education and a great economic position as a financial operator.
But he is an atypical businessman, because he gives more importance to things like literature, poetry and does not identify with money rituals.
So while walking through the streets of Florence he ended up having the experience of feeling like two at the same time: he felt this duplicity, a well-defined separation between his personality and himself.
He describes very precisely what happened to him:
“there were 2 MEs; one was safe, opened and fascinated by the deep sense of history, of the mixing of centuries. I felt the past enter the present every moment. The other ME was fearful, depressed, wanting to sleep.”
He ended up feeling ill and was taken to the hospital, treated and then able to continue his journey.
Travel as a Way to Forge Character
It is above all the impact on Italian art that triggers these exaggerated reactions.
Psychiatrist Graziella says that traveling, since ancient times, (especially in ancient Greece, Rome and the Renaissance, and Florence is the cradle of the Renaissance) was a way of improving character formation so that it could be refined.
In the Renaissance, for example, the humanist is encouraged to go through an experience of detaching himself from his own roots into the unknown, into the unexpected, into the contrast of different cultures. He sees the trip as a “wandering laboratory”.
Personal Growth through Travel that Explores Beauty
The humanist has a vivid desire to decode the art and knowledge of antiquity, and add to it a critical consciousness. He elaborates emotion with cognition, as he becomes aware of what comes to the surface and analyzes it critically, with a detached look.
The Renaissance man becomes emotional when he begins to understand, to have more awareness of what he is observing, learning through direct experience.
Classical art, from the ancient Greeks, Romans and the Renaissance (who revived the Greeks and Romans) was aimed at realizing the great ideals of the Socratic-Platonic philosophies of know thyself, and moving towards a human ideal that is very close to the idea of the divine: it is an art that seeks to elevate human beings to a condition as close as possible to the divine that exists within themselves.
The artists had a clear intention to provoke the viewer, and unlike medieval art which was made to honor the sacred, to God, in the Renaissance art is humanist, it wants to touch deeply within the human being to remind him to know himself, seek the truth, and discover the divine within.
Open Spirit to Explore your Most Intimate Parts
So while the Renaissance man is imbued with these ideals and prepared to travel with an open mind to explore, many tourists today do not set out with the same assumption.
So when they come across a city like Florence that is full of alchemical art, which is an art that touches our most intimate, true and deep parts, the parts that search for meaning, for the divine in itself, we question whether or not we are going in search of personal fulfillment.
That’s why they touch so deeply, especially on the parts of us we don’t want to see. That is why if the traveler does not have cognitive preparation for this, he goes through states of catharsis, he feels bad, as the body reacts physically, painfully bringing to the surface suffocated, latent or hidden aspects of himself, avoided at all costs. These are the elements because that need to be faced.
The Work of Art as a Channel for Raising Consciousness
The work of art becomes a channel that conveys something that has been neglected, left aside, or forgotten. It brings this awareness, but this is not always clear to those who experience discomfort.
Actually many do not realize that these aspects that flourish could help them overcome their difficulties and move towards personal improvement.
That’s why for me the Stendhal Syndrome is very real, and particularly interesting in making us realize that this art is alive and communicating.
And that’s why it’s so important to value these arts, because they remind us that we can reach our highest potentials.
And what about you? Have you ever had Stendhal syndrome?
Thank you!
Isa
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