JOHN MENICK received support for Paris Syndrome, a short, experimental, cinematic essay analyzing the cultural implications of travel-related mental illness. In the fall of 2006, several U.S. and U.K. newspapers ran stories concerning psychological breakdowns experienced by Japanese citizens traveling in Paris, France. In an average of a dozen cases a year, Japanese travelers would undergo extreme depression and cultural rejection, sometimes culminating in hallucinations and traumatic shock. According to these articles, it was Professor Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist living in France, who was the first to identify this condition as Paris Syndrome. Journalists located the syndrome's origins in the cultural differences between France and Japan. Japanese travelers often held idealistic views of Paris, mostly concerning culturally specific expectations of service industry customs, societal manners, and urban hygiene. When Paris did not live up to these expectations, a small group of travelers would descend into depression, then into psychosis, requiring medical treatment. The cultural shock has been so regular that, as reported by the BBC, the Japanese embassy created a 24-hour hotline for those suffering from the syndrome. Paris Syndrome places the disorder within an ongoing history of cross-cultural relations; the emergence of a global tourist industry; and the creation of psychiatric schools of thought devoted to inter-cultural relations. This and related syndromes are subject to critical debates concerning cultural stereotyping.
