"Paris Syndrome" leaves Japanese, This is how it would be for wageslaves? Options

[Warmaster Lah]

<<So this sort of caught my eye. Thought I would pass it along. We denizens of the shadows have seen their type before. Corp drones that are wide-eyed and scared when confronted with reality of life outside their arcologies. (~_^)
<< WL


"Paris Syndrome"


<<"PARIS (Reuters) - Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

"A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses," Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Already this year, Japan's embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors -- including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them.

Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French "Sun King", Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves, the paper cited Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi as saying.

"Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis," psychologist Herve Benhamou told the paper.

The phenomenon, which the newspaper dubbed "Paris Syndrome", was first detailed in the psychiatric journal Nervure in 2004.

Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France, said:

"In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them ... People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling."

A Japanese woman, Aimi, told the paper:

"For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant ... And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own."

[Kyoto Kid]

...then there was the time I was strolling down the beach in Wakiki for the first time and a Japanese man, not saying anything in English except "Picture" handed me a very expensive Minolta (pre Digital days). I turned to my buddy and said, "wow, this is really a friendly place, not only do they give you flowers and have a beautiful woman kiss you on the cheek when you land, but people walk up to you and give really nice cameras too."

Of course, I knew he obviously wanted me to take his and his family's picture which I of did and handed him the camera back. But the thought was there.

--a true story.

[knasser]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Bienvenu à la réalité!

Somehow though, I can't imagine corp drones suffering from that when they leave the arcology. I would think Renraku trid stations, or whatever, would portray the outside world (and life at other corps) as a dangerous nightmare.

I mean it is, but I don't see why they'd lead people to think any differently.

[hyzmarca]

[Ophis]

That can of course lead to some fun when a wageslave out it the hellish world, runs into someone actually altruistic and helpful (they might be rare in SR but do exist). Paris Syndrome due to people being nicer than expected... well i like the idea.

[Dog]

They might be overstating the case a little bit. About a dozen Japanese visitors represents what percentage of total Japanese visitors to Paris? Would that number reflect the number of people with undiagnosed schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder? It might. And travel, especially to a radically different culture would easily be the triggering stressor.

What I'm saying is that maybe it's more likely that visiting Paris was triggering the symptoms of an already present mental health issue than creating one.

Hmm... like RPG's, isn't it? The small number of young people who showed schizophrenic-like symptoms after playing a certain RPG is actually reflective of the number of young people showing similar symptoms if taken from the general population.

To put it another way, just 'cause two things happened at around the same time, doesn't mean one caused the other.

Funny story, though.

[nezumi]

[Pthgar]

[Wounded Ronin]

Personally, I think that article is a load of crap. For some reason there's a weird negative sterotype about Parisians, but every time I've been to Paris I've gotten along wonderfully with the people whom I've interacted with. Maybe it's because I actually spoke French to them instead of expecting them to magically understand English (or Japanese).

I also disagree that in Japan the consumer is king. Sure, the retail workers bow and scrape, but the prices suck. It's kind of like having an overweight Mexican woman in tight leather call you "my lord" while she grinds your face against the floor and inserts increasing numbers of frozen baby carrots into your rectum.

[fistandantilus4....]

*shudder*

[Inu]

[thewolf]

Correlation does not necessarily imply causation, would perhaps be more correct.

[hyzmarca]

All I know is that I have this rock and I've never been attacked by a tiger for as long as I have had it. It must be a magic rock that repels tigers.

[Dog]

hmmm.... I'd like to buy your rock.

[Pthgar]

Yeah, I pretty much stop any conversation, debate, or whatever when the either I or the other person starts a phrase with "All I know is..."

[Kyoto Kid]

[Fortune]

[emo samurai]

Fortune... am I talking to the Sun King right now?

[Kagetenshi]

[Fortune]

I've been to Boston a number of times. Funnily enough, it was one of my favorite (and one of the friendlier) cities in the States.

So, in short, you have failed miserably. ;)

[Fortune]

[Warmaster Lah]

Well I tend to think Parisian do get a harder rap than maybe they deserve.

But my primary interest in the article was the part dealing with how people's perceptions can clash with reality in such a huge way. Because of propaganga and the fantasy they have built in their own minds, among other reasons.

I like to think I have an idea of what is really going on in the world but I bet I dont really know anything all unless I see it myself.

Plus I figured that the cases of Paris Syndrome were probably sensationalized for the article. But it did paint an interested picture of what could happen to a person that had been sheltered from the "real" world. (I remember after 9-11 hearing people shockingly come to realize that a lot of people do not like the United States. Many still dont even believe or realize how many bad and untimately self-harming things the U.S. has done over the years.)

[Sandoval Smith]

That article is truely bizarre. Are we sure it's not actually a weekly world news story or something, because it sure reads like one. Out of all the Japanese tourists who grow abroad a year, 12 is a small enough number that's it's quite possible all of them are simply idiots. I bet each year you could find 12 Westerners of some stripe who go to Japan with big ideas that are going to make them manga superstars, but can't speak a word of Japanese, didn't get around to booking a hotel, and whose entire plan is:
Step 1: Go to Japan
Step 2: ???
Step 3: ???
Step 4: ???
STep 5: Profits!

[BishopMcQ]

From my experience, the Parisians have a different sense of life, style and politesse, than the rest of France. A similar pattern exists if you compare NYC and LA to Rochester and San Diego.

While I prefer the provincial lifestyle in France to the hustle and bustle in Paris, I don't think that having my view of the French crushed would drive me deep into psychoses.

[Fortune]