Paper short abstract:

Paper long abstract:

A strange illness called "Paris Syndrome" was recently identified in which Japanese tourists/expatriates in Paris develop a kind of exaggerated form of culture shock, requiring medical/psychological assistance and sometimes winding up repatriated. Apparently, the disillusionment that Japanese tourists experience upon arriving in Paris, stemming from the disappointment of their somewhat romanticized expectations, is enough to require in some cases medical assistance. What reasons lie behind this strange condition? To what extent doe the Japanese temperament contribute to this inability to adjust? To what extent the Parisian urban climate? Is it due to a particular incompatibility between these two radically opposed cultures? Is it the eternal clash between east and west? Or is it simply representative of the universal modern experience of mis-/dis-placed individuals?

Voluntary expatriation is becoming more and more commonplace in an increasingly mobile and transient world. What is interesting about the Paris Syndrome is not necessarily the stereotypes it may confirm about said tourists and said natives. What is more notable is the insistence on the part of the hospitalized visitors on staying put where they are. Serial relocation as a necessity for modern identity formation seems to be shedding new light on the motivation for mobility, on the need to become "citizens of the globe". As the endless search for our identities and our increasingly rootless backgrounds overlap, we are still seeking to define ourselves somehow by "choosing" our "homes", "paths", and "destinations", or at least insisting on our choice to let such terms remain open and fluid. The Paris Syndrome gives new meaning to the old saying: "Wherever you go, there you are," especially when the "wherever" and the "you" are no longer on the map.

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