Jerusalem Syndrome Research Articles

On heritage pharmacology: Rethinking ‘heritage pathologies’ as tropes of care

This article develops the concept of heritage pharmacology as an encompassing critical framework in order to radically recast the interactions and efficacies of heritage as a particularly potent pharmacology of care. I critically engage with Stiegler's philosophic reflections On Pharmacology, which builds on Derrida's work and recasts pharmacology – a term usually reserved for that branch of the biomedical sciences dealing with drugs and their interactions and efficacies – in order to draw out the ‘curative-toxic’ dimensions at play in wider care tropes. By placing core concepts and practices of heritage and pharmacology in critical dialogue, my aim as heritage critic is to gain mutual insights into ‘care’, as that which links together the two domains of heritage and health, as otherwise distinct discourses, concepts, technics, and practices. My specific intervention rethinks the crucial role of ‘heritage pathologies’ and the underpinning memory-work at play within these tropes while grounding these in a case study of Jerusalem Syndrome (JS). I argue that it is the dynamic of heritage pathologies, best crystallized in JS debates, that invests us in the wider Stieglerian quest/ion of ‘pharmacology’, as a concern with ‘what makes life worth living’. Such quests ultimately take this article into the realpolitik of Palestine.

Overwhelmed by beauty and faith: review on artistic and religious travelers' syndromes.

Traveling with the intention of encountering art or seeking purification of the spirit involves retribution of intangible nature and therefore can be expected to be a positive experience; nevertheless, among susceptible travelers, there is also a possibility of experiencing pathological conditions. Although it is colloquially known that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, it is necessary to mention that the appreciation of beauty, immensity, or mysticism contained in masterpieces is not perceived only through the eyes but through other sense organs as well. Additionally, this is understood within a cultural framework and through previous knowledge. The reaction triggers a series of somatosensory responses of diverse nature, with a wide range of responses that together constitute a pathological phenomenon that can be defined as syndromic by eliciting signs and symptoms of a physical, physiological, and psychotic nature. Both Stendhal and Jerusalem syndromes are travelers' syndromes that may occur in response to objectively aesthetic elements saturated with meaning linked to the cultural heritage of contemporary humanity. While Stendhal syndrome evokes physical and psychoemotional symptoms from the contemplation of art, Jerusalem syndrome goes beyond perception, adding delusions of being a religious or prophetic protagonist pursuing individual or collective salvation.

A Narrative Review on Jerusalem Syndrome: Exploring Diagnosis, Treatment and Cultural Impacts

Visitors to Jerusalem who are not religious may experience “Jerusalem Syndrome,” characterised by obsessive religious ideas and delusions that can lead to psychosis. There are three varieties of this disorder. However, it is not officially recognised: Type-I affects individuals who have already experienced psychosis; Type-II affects persons who held unusual ideas before travelling to Jerusalem; and Type-III affects people who were initially mentally stable but developed psychosis while in Jerusalem. The review explores the effects of Jerusalem Syndrome on mental health, drawing comparisons with “Paris Syndrome.” Notable similarities with schizophrenia point to different initiators related to Jerusalem’s significance. Jerusalem Syndrome is treated with individualised mental care that combines medication and psychotherapy.

Memory and History in Israeli Post-Apocalyptic Theatre Zahava Caspi

<em>Past catastrophes function as primary models for apocalyptic dystopias and as catalysts of imagined retrospection. Their function as paradigms of memory enables them to shed a sobering light on contemporary dangers as well as to trigger desirable change. The relation between memory, history, and post-apocalyptic theatre should therefore be examined with a view not only to the circumstances that give rise to such theatre, but also to the meanings that emerge from the catastrophic historical episodes which function as paradigms of memory. In the following article I shall discuss two Israeli dystopian plays, Joshua Sobol’s The Jerusalem Syndrome (1987) and Shimon Buzaglo’s Black Rain (2007), and their performances in Israeli theatre. I will examine the efficacy of apocalyptic theatre rooted in historical memory, by activating new forms of Theatre (Sobol: Polydrama; Buzaglo: Theatre as a Testimonial Medium) relative to other avenues of historical commemoration, in averting future dangers rooted in a deficient present. </em>

Jerusalem Syndrome: A Commentary on “If Infinite Worlds, Infinite Centers” by Margaret Cavendish

Jerusalem Syndrome: A Commentary on “If Infinite Worlds, Infinite Centers” by Margaret Cavendish

An explorative look at Jerusalem syndrome and its validity?

IntroductionThe aim of the explorative study poster is to look into the phenomenon of psychotic disorder/manifestations collectively termed as Jerusalem syndrome – a psychotheological condition characterized by temporary psychosis like symptoms upon visiting Jerusalem.AimThe primary aim is to explore the theories pertaining to the possible causes and psychopathology involved in Jerusalem syndrome with a view to contextualize their credibility and weightage against the extant evidence in neurological science. It would also look at the possible treatments used.MethodA detailed literature search has been undertaken to identify variety of case reviews and publications about Jerusalem syndrome and case interviews of psychiatrists in Jerusalem: dealing with neurological, psychological explanations of the condition; have been proposed by psychiatrist or psychologist and neurologists as a possible psychopathological manifestation.DiscussionThe results are synthesized and presented in a tabular form. The discussion expands on the various theories and their relevance with a view to establish the nosological validity of the condition and the viable treatment models available.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.

Psychotic episode during a travel to Saint-Petersburg. A variation of Stendhal Syndrome

IntroductionJourneys have been considered life-changing experiences since the first chronicles of humanity. Interest towards the relationship between travels and mental illness started off with the publication, in 1897, of Les aliénés voyageurs.Case reportWe report the case of a 52-year-old gentleman, married and without children, who works as a couch driver and has no past medical records. During a holiday trip, at his arrival to Saint Petersburg, he first experienced haze and cognitive and memory failures, along with malaise and sweating. The day after, while visiting the Hermitage museum, he underwent forthright auditive hallucinations, diffusion of thought phenomena and harm delusions. After ruling out diagnosable organic causes through CT scan, MRI and blood analyses including immunologic studies, he was put on olanzapine 10 mg/day with total symptomatic remission within 2 weeks.DiscussionStendhal syndrome, described back in 1989 by Dr. Magherini, refers to anxious, somatic and psychotic symptoms affecting tourists who visit Florence. The celebrated author, himself, experienced intense emotions due to an overdose of beauty at the Italian city. Further clinical pictures related to journeys include Jerusalem Syndrome and Way of Saint James Syndrome. Another entity, Paris Syndrome, differentially affects Japanese visitors, disappointed with the actual experience of visiting the French city.ConclusionDuring journeys, people often abandon everyday life in order to open up to unknown sights and feelings. These can eventually, lead to certain sorts of mental illness.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The Efficacies of Heritage: Syndromes, Magics, and Possessional Acts

In this paper I present critical insights into the efficacies of heritage. I take the phenomenon of the Jerusalem Syndrome (JS) as my point of departure and recast it as Heritage Syndrome (HS). I do this to better understand how such efficacies are experienced and materialized in ritual possessional acts. As a framework, the JS reveals the power and potency that reside in experiences of collapse. Such disembedding events activate subsequent ritual dramas (whether malign/benign or successful/failed) of world-making, redemption, repair, and renewal. Heritage quests as ritual ‘sacred dramas’ and ‘practical magics’ are I argue, similarly experienced in the collapse of known categories: imagined/real, extraordinary/mundane, possessing/being possessed, and crucially what heritage is versus what heritage does. Writ large, heritage efficacies are bound-up in the breakdown and blurring of boundaries — and thus the non-distinction — between heritage in the conventional sense and other dynamics such as magic, prophecy, and well-being/ill-being. These reveal alternative pathways, potentialities, and patterns of behaviour that demonstrate that dominant, elite, rationalized approaches to heritage banalize heritage efficacies and can thus be termed a failed project. I argue that conceiving of heritage as a syndrome — and critically as a movement away from medical pathologization and towards a recasting of heritages as diverse constellations of cultural-spiritual-magical-emotional experiences and engagements — better reflects the deeply felt complex and transformative practices at play. These heritage rites distinguished at points by those who wish their lives were more dramatic and those who wish their lives were less traumatic better describe how the vast majority of global actors engage with heritage, notably at popular, grass-roots level and in contexts of extremis, yet its significance goes largely unrecognized and unvalued.

Memory and History in Israeli Post-Apocalyptic Theater

The article discusses two dystopian plays in Hebrew, Joshua Sobol’s The Jerusalem Syndrome (1987) and Shimon Buzaglo’s Black Rain (2007), as well as their performances in Israeli theatre. I will examine the new forms used in these plays—polydrama in Sobol’s case, theater as a testimonial medium in Buzaglo’s—and analyze why apocalyptic drama rooted in the memory of past catastrophes is better suited than other avenues of historical commemoration to serve as a catalyst of imagined introspection that may help avert future dangers by shedding a sober light on the problems of the present.

975 – Art, religion and psychosis

Introduction Art and Religion have accompanied the history of human kind since primordial times, undergoing changes with evolution, being interconnected or separated in antithesis in some historical periods. Nevertheless both are eliciting the idea of “Sublime” affecting in a greater or lesser degree the life of individuals in our society. A curious interconnection with psychosis is seen in two peculiar conditions: Stendhal and Jerusalem syndromes. Objectives Starting from the consideration of Art and Religion in the Idealistic philosophy the relationship between Stendhal and Jerusalem syndromes, which lead to acute transient psychotic episodes in tourists with psychic and somatic symptoms, is examined. Aims This work aims to spread the knowledge about the two syndromes, to highlight analogies between them, and finally to summarize and show a possible connection between the modern findings in neuroaesthetics and Stendhal syndrome. Method The work is of qualitative type and mainly descriptive: all the existing evidence on the topic and with possible connections to it was brought together, summarised, and compared leading to new possible ideas for the future. Results A hypothetical psycho-pathophysiological mechanism is proposed, based on the psychoanalysis, psychology, genetic, and the new findings in neuroaesthetic (especially connected to Stendhal syndrome), but more research is needed. Conclusion The influence of Art and Religion culminating in Stendhal syndrome and Jerusalem syndrome, based on their comparison, could be regarded as “tourist syndromes” or as a “tourist's transient psychotic episode” differentiating the object of psychosis as Art in the first and Religion in the second.

Jerusalem Syndrome: The Palestinian‐Israeli Battle for the Holy City by Moshe Amirav

Jerusalem Syndrome: The Palestinian‐Israeli Battle for the Holy City by Moshe Amirav

“Spiritual Starvation” in a Holy Space—a Form of “Jerusalem Syndrome”

The purpose of this article is to study the narratives of two religious tourists who have chosen self-starvation on the streets of Jerusalem as their idiom of distress. Both were hospitalized involuntarily due to self-endangering behavior. It appears that in specific groups, restrictions of food intake are regarded as particularly holy, pure, and blessed. Extreme cases of self-starvation using religious explanatory models could be regarded as forms of “spiritual starvation”. Patients involved in these acts of fasting differ in both religious and cultural backgrounds, as well as the extent to which their families regard the importance of religiosity. Representing extreme forms of religious practice, both spiritual starvation and Jerusalem Syndrome are rare phenomena. The so-called “Jerusalem syndrome” is a rather dramatic, cultural–religious phenomenon, rarely displayed by pilgrims and tourists visiting the Holy City. Jerusalem, the “axis mundi” of faith, is perceived as the arena where great events are about to occur. This eschatological core element is at times exploited in a broader sense in the service of a public or an individual, to the extent where boundaries between reality and imagination are blurred. For some vulnerable individuals (mostly with previous recorded psychiatric history), the extraordinary and overwhelming mental experience of facing the holy space of Jerusalem might yield an emotional response that exceeds an adequate reaction. The narratives described display a unique form of the so-called syndrome. The current study examines spiritual and cultural aspects of delusion and shared beliefs and the complex relationship between normal religious belief and “pathological” religious delusions. I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.—Matthew 6:19. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?—Romans 8:30.

Jerusalem syndrome

Is faith the same as it used to be? If you ever find yourself in Jerusalem, think twice before putting on your hotel robe. <b>Christelle Evans</b> and <b>Jonathan Behar</b> describe a rare condition known as the Jerusalem syndrome

Liberating the Temple Mount: apocalyptic tendencies among Jewish temple activists

Every now and then instances of violence are played out at the Temple Mount area in Jerusalem, also known as the Haram-esh-sharif. Some of the cases are referred to as results of the so-called ‘Jerusalem syndrome’, incidents when individuals’ manifestations of pre-existing psychopathology culminate in violent actions. Israeli psychiatrists and others have treated such incidents as examples of when peoples’ expectations of a heavenly Jerusalem collide with the very earthly reality in the city. For some people, such encounters may create anxiety that may threaten the victim’s very sanity. In such situations, an apocalyptic mission may become the only way for them to cope with the situation at hand. But the Temple Mount does not only attract lone-acting individuals, it also attracts organized groups who refer to the very spot as an important identity marker. In this article, the author draws on her field research material and interviews with Jewish Third Temple activists in Jerusalem collected on and off between 1998 and 2004. Here Yehuda Etzion’s, Gershon Salomon’s and Yoel Lerner’s theology and activities are studied in light of apocalyptic representations, and how these are expressed in relation to religious longing for the Third Temple in the light of the Gaza withdrawal. Not all those who are engaged in endtime scenarios act upon their visions. In Jerusalem, there have been, and still are, several religious-political groups that more or less ritually perambulate the Temple Mount area.

Berusad av Jerusalem. Jerusalemsyndromet i religionsvetenskaplig belysning

In this study the characterization “drunken by Jerusalem” is used to illustrate people who become strongly emotionally affected during their visit to Jerusalem. Israeli psychiatrists gave their sufferings a name&&they call it the Jerusalem syndrome. In this article psychiatric analyses done by Yair Bar-El et al and Moshe Kalian and Eliezer Witztum are examined and supplemented with approaches from comparative religion, more precisely, from the perspective of psychology of religion and the study of symbols. The author argues that if intense experiences of Jerusalem are studied with reference to aspects of spatiality and temporality of the city expressed within millenarian religious representations, it becomes evident that the place might motivate individuals to become actors in a play where they themselves struggle to balance the emotional gap between environment and emotions which they experience powerfully. Religious role-play allows individuals to cope with the critical situation at hand, and hence manage through the crisis by taking upon themselves a role of some to the individuals themselves known biblical characters or by allowing moderating subconscious behavioral models to enter the stage.

Male Genital Self-Mutilation in the Context of Religious Belief: The Jerusalem Syndrome

Male Genital Self-Mutilation in the Context of Religious Belief: The Jerusalem Syndrome

Jerusalem Syndrome as reflected in the pilgrimage and biographies of four extraordinary women from the 14th century to the end of the second millennium

A previous presentation surveyed a selection of descriptive accounts of the so-called Jerusalem Syndrome, as observed and documented by six different writers, from the 19th century to the end of the second millennium (Witztum & Kalian, 1999). The current presentation focuses mainly on the subjective religious and psychological experience of specific visitors, as reflected in their biographies. This paper presents the cases of four extraordinary women who lived in different ages and came from different countries, acting on the common basis of profound religious experiences. Three of them documented their unique experiences in their own words and one was immortalized in the writings of a famous female writer. An attempt is made to reach a deeper understanding of the dynamics of their eccentric behaviour. The current presentation elaborates the view that similarities among narratives of these four extraordinary women who lived in different ages emerged from similarities in cultural and religious constructions and in the symbolic domains used to cope with deep personal distress. It is suggested that in the majority of the cases the religious atmosphere of the Holy City was not the primary cause of the so-called 'Jerusalem syndrome'.