Stendhal syndrome

Overview
Stendhal Syndrome or Stendhal's Syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly 'beautiful' or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.

It is named after the famous 19th century French author Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri-Marie Beyle), who described his experience with the phenomenon during his 1817 visit to Florence, Italy in his book Naples and Florence: A Journey from Milan to Reggio.

Although there are many descriptions of people becoming dizzy and fainting while taking in Florentine art, especially at the Uffizi, dating from the early 19th century on, the syndrome was only named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini, who observed and described more than 100 similar cases among tourists and visitors in Florence. The syndrome was first diagnosed in 1982.

The term is often used when describing the reactions of audiences to music of the Romantic period.

Pop culture instances
An extreme, fictionalized variation of Stendhal syndrome figures in the plot of the 2003 novel Diary by American author Chuck Palahniuk. The syndrome was also mentioned in the episode "Longing" from season one of the Showtime series The L Word, character Bette Porter, played by Jennifer Beals, experiences Stendhal Syndrome when she witnesses the photograph, "The Last Time I and You" by fictional photographer Carla Marie Freed.

The Stendhal Syndrome is a 1996 Italian thriller, written and directed by Dario Argento and starring his daughter Asia Argento. Detective Anna Manni (Asia Argento) travels to Rome on the trail of a serial rapist / killer (Thomas Kretschmann), ending up as his victim due to her sensibility to art and being struck by the Stendhal Syndrome.

Stendhal Syndrome is an album by Rusty Eye. This title is an homage to film director Dario Argento and to the illness itself; a result to multiple variations in sound, style and speed that cause a bizarre confusion of the senses i.e. the Stendhal syndrome.