What is Paris syndrome?

Paris, the capital of France, is awash with history; it’s home to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Louvre. Yet, despite the city’s wealth of cultural hotspots, architectural delights and superb restaurants (it currently has over eateries) some tourists find themselves unable to enjoy a trip to Paris. A small percentage of those who venture to The City of Light experience “Paris syndrome,” a psychological condition with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, hallucinations and increased heart rate.  But what, exactly, is Paris syndrome? Who tends to be affected by it, and why?  Though not indexed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Paris syndrome is recognized by many experts as a real, though rare, phenomenon. According to Mathieu Deflem, a professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina, Paris syndrome is “most common among Japanese” tourists. Why, then, are Japanese people so susceptible?

“We are talking about a culture that, historically, had a completely different belief system and development trajectory from places in Europe,” Rodanthi Tzanelli, a professor of cultural sociology at the University of Leeds in the U.K., told Live Science. These cultural differences, as well as likely unmet romantic expectations, may explain why Japanese visitors are at an elevated risk for Paris syndrome.

Paris syndrome should be regarded as an extreme form of culture shock, Deflem said. Culture shock can, in particularly severe cases, result in people feeling disorientated, depressed, irritable and physically ill, according to the University of the Pacific in California.

“Culture shock is an illness resulting from the loss of meaning brought about when people from one symbolic reality find themselves immersed in another,” Rachel Irwin, now a cultural sciences researcher at Lund University in Sweden, wrote in a 2007 article. In other words, people can become bewildered — sometimes to a significant degree — when surrounded by symbols (logos, names, signs, brands) that are different from those they would usually encounter.

The symptoms associated with culture shock are similar to those experienced by someone who is feeling anxious. According to Calm Clinic, a mental health resource website, when someone is experiencing anxiety, signals will be sent to the stomach that are “related to the fight or flight response.” As a result, the “signals alter the way that the stomach and gut process and digest food, causing nausea.» In particularly extreme cases of anxiety — as with culture shock — this nausea can lead to vomiting, disorientation and a host of other physical reactions.

While everybody experiences culture shock “in one form or another when visiting somewhere new,” some people feel it in more pronounced and visceral ways when presented with a culture that is “unexpected or nuanced,” according to Deflem. 

With regard to Paris syndrome specifically, “a number of factors are at work,” Deflem told Live Science. “It will be a combination of expectations from Japanese culture and the reality of Paris.”

Deflem noted that, generally speaking, Japanese culture has a somewhat romanticized view of the West, “especially Europe.” This, Deflem suggests, is largely down to how Paris is represented in films — such as “Amélie” (Miramax Films, 2001), “Before Sunset” (Warner Independent Pictures, 2004) and “An American in Paris” (Loew’s Inc., 1954) — and books — “A Night at the Majestic” (Faber and Faber, 2006), “The Ladies’ Delight” (1883) and “A Moveable Feast” (Scribner Classic, 1964) — which tend to focus on art, coffee culture, quaint restaurants and cordial, intelligent conversation. He suggested that these expectations are “not realistic, especially in Paris, which is not known for being hospitable.” 

livescience