Paris syndrome

I am part Parisian. (I used to live there and my family is from the city and nice banlieue). I love Paris, but what shocks me every time I go back is the quantity of dog poop (and also trash) in the streets and the inability of city officials to do anything about it. Here are a few tips for visitors: - When interacting with locals, always start off by saying Bonjour Monsieur, Bonjour Madame. That will help disarm cranky…

Seems like a variant of culture shock[1] which has similar characteristics. The difference being the degree of anxiety experienced seems to be particularly acute for a minority of Japanese tourists in Paris. Anthropologists and ethnographers are trained in, and can experience severe culture shock since their goal is often immersion to learn more about a culture. Panic attacks in severe cases of culture shock are not uncommon, one of my professors did a stint in Spain and lost it when…

> Japanese tourists in Paris And it works in reverse. _Tokyo on Foot_ is a funny book along those lines. I also remember commiserating about this with friends after arriving to my living quarters in Japan. Far from my anticipations of tall skyscrapers, huge sidewalks, and cool tech everywhere, it was 1) this looks like the boring Seattle suburb I just came from, 2) that olden-times smell and all the smoke wafting into your apartment is actually burning rice fields…

I call BS. When you're talking about a little more than a dozen diagnoses a year out of millions of tourists, a charitable interpretation comporting to this so-called syndrome is simply the statistical extreme of culture shock. But much more likely would be individuals with pre-existing, perhaps even undiagnosed sensitivity to various forms of mental illness thay happen to be triggered during their trip. Perhaps in some it's even triggered because of the trip, as disruptions from normal routines and…