Have you ever experienced a psychological state that has symptoms such as derealization, heart palpitations, excitement, and dizziness when looking at art? Or have you ever thought it was too beautiful to be real and been deeply affected by it? This is actually a psychosomatic condition called Stendhal Syndrome, also known as Florence Syndrome.
The French writer Stendhal, while visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, in 1817, wrote in his diary that his heart raced rapidly, his life energy drained, and he felt as if he would fall while walking upon seeing Giotto’s frescoes. In 1979, Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini observed hundreds of tourists exhibiting similar symptoms while viewing works of art in Florence and officially named this condition “Stendhal Syndrome.” The main symptoms of this syndrome are rapid heartbeat and chest tightness, sudden dizziness, loss of balance, derealization, depersonalization, confusion, excessive emotionality, a desire to cry, and fainting. This syndrome is more commonly seen in masterpieces from the Renaissance and Baroque periods that have intense religious/mythological themes, flawless depictions of human anatomy, or are of enormous size. In particular, people have often mentioned these symptoms when they see works such as Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus & Spring,” Caravaggio’s “Medusa,” Michelangelo’s “David,” and Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s “Apollo and Daphne.” Sometimes, it’s not just a single masterpiece but a place that can trigger this syndrome. For example, the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. The common characteristics of these works and places are their dimensions, which are much larger than human size, the traces of important people from centuries ago, and the divine, mythological, or profound suffering and enchantment they contain, creating a feeling of being in another world and causing this syndrome.
Freud also experienced this syndrome twice. Freud, who had been fascinated by ancient Greek culture, mythology, and art since childhood, experienced feelings of derealization and depersonalization when he climbed the Acropolis in Athens in 1904 and came face to face with the colossal temple ruins. He described his feelings at that moment with the sentence, “My senses tell me that I am standing on the Acropolis right now, but I can’t believe it.” Thirty-two years after this traumatic experience, in 1936, Freud analyzed it in his essay “A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis”: Freud had lived with the desire to come here since childhood, and when he actually arrived, he experienced a feeling of inner turmoil and mental confusion. His desire had become a reality, but his consciousness struggled to accept this fulfilled desire; repressed emotions were activated. His success posed a threat to him. According to Freud, there were two reasons for this. The first was the Oedipus complex and the guilt he felt towards his father. Freud’s father was a man of moderate means who had never seen Athens. When Freud was captivated by that magnificent historical monument, he unconsciously felt great guilt, thinking, “I have surpassed my father, gone further than him, and reached a beauty he could never see.” The second is the “too good to be true” thought. The unconscious mind, not believing it deserved to see this success and beauty, developed a defense mechanism; it created an illusion as if what it saw wasn’t real.
Another instance of experiencing this syndrome was when Freud saw Michelangelo’s Moses statue in Rome. To see this work, Freud went to church every day for three weeks and sat in front of it for hours. He tried to analyze both the statue, Moses, and himself. Freud was so affected by this analysis of the statue and so deeply connected with his own inner world that he published his famous essay “The Moses of Michelangelo” anonymously in 1914. He didn’t want to publish it under his own name because he felt the analysis was too personal and contained too many traces of his own unconscious.
There are many fascinating works of art in the world, and when we see them, they can subconsciously activate many things within us without us even realizing it. This is precisely why Stendhal Syndrome arises. This is not only the case when we see works of art, but it also causes cultural psychological conditions such as Jerusalem Syndrome, which occurs from being affected by a very sacred or historical place, or Paris Syndrome, which occurs from liking a city.
Kaynakça
- Kurt, Ö. (2024). Akropolis üzerinde bir hafıza rahatsızlığı (1936) [A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis (1936)]. Uzman Klinik Psikolog Ömer Kurt. https://www.psikologomerkurt.com/blog-detay/akropolis-uzerinde-bir-hafiza-rahatsizligi-1936-61.html