# Stendhal syndrome

Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, confusion, hallucinations, and even fainting, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty.
The affliction is named after the 19th-century French author Stendhal (pseudonym of Marie-Henri 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. When he visited the Basilica of Santa Croce, where Niccolò Machiavelli, Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei are buried, he was overcome with profound emotion. Stendhal wrote:
   I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty . . . I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations . . . Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves'. Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.
Although psychologists have long debated whether Stendhal syndrome exists, the apparent effects on some individuals are severe enough to warrant medical attention. The staff at Florence's Santa Maria Nuova hospital are accustomed to tourists suffering from dizzy spells or disorientation after viewing the statue of David, the artworks of the Uffizi Gallery, and other historic treasures of the Tuscan city.
Though there are numerous accounts dating from the early 19th century, the phenomenon of people fainting while taking in Florentine art was first named in 1979, when it was described by Italian psychiatrist Graziella Magherini; who observed over a hundred similar cases among tourists. There exists no evidence to define Stendhal syndrome as a specific psychiatric disorder, and it is not listed as a recognised condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, however there is scientific evidence that the same cerebral areas involved in emotional responses are stimulated during exposure to art.
A more recent account of the Stendhal syndrome was in 2018, when a visitor to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence suffered a heart attack while admiring Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

## The Scientific Stendhal Syndrome

The Scientific Stendhal Syndrome is a transient psychosomatic response characterized by intense physiological and emotional reactions (tachycardia, vertigo, hyperventilation, or crying) triggered by exposure to scientific concepts, discoveries, or representations that challenge cognitive paradigms or evoke a perception of intellectual sublimity. Although not formally recognized in diagnostic manuals such as the DSM-5, the term is used by analogy with the classic Stendhal Syndrome (associated with art), extrapolating its framework to contexts of epistemological astonishment. Clinical manifestations include activation of the autonomic nervous system (15-20% increase in cortisol according to Schurtz studies, 2014) and activation of the anterior insula (related to interoceptive awareness) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (linked to self-reflection), detected through fMRI. The release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (mesolimbic pathway) suggests a reward mechanism associated with resolving cognitive dissonance when faced with revolutionary ideas. Triggering factors range from unification theories (e.g., Einstein's field equation) to visualizations of cosmic scales (e.g., Hubble images), with higher prevalence in individuals with high openness to experience (Big Five) and training in STEM disciplines. Keltner's studies (2023) propose that this phenomenon emerges from the dissonance between the finite (individual) and the infinite (cosmos), activating evolutionary responses of "tonic immobility" to stimuli that exceed adaptive processing capacity. Implications: Unlike "moral elevation," it lacks a prosocial component, focusing on the confrontation between the known and the unfathomable. Its study provides insights into the interaction between emotion and cognition in the construction of knowledge. Case study: In 2017, a group of MIT researchers documented that 18% of planetarium visitors experienced "extreme emotion" when viewing representations of the Big Bang or black holes. The Scientific Stendhal Syndrome is not a pathology, but a manifestation of the human capacity to marvel at the beauty and complexity of the world.