There’s pretty much a syndrome for everything these days. We’ve become the generation where normal is the new abnormal, so you’re automatically considered boring if you can’t find an accurate description of yourself in the DSM.
Most of the names are pretty straightforward. You have things like “vertigo”, “depression”, “post traumatic stress disorder”, … You name it. It’s easy to see at a glance what the syndrome is all about. Then there’s this weird branch in psychology where they ran out of good ideas and just started giving syndromes names of geographical locations. Why? No one knows. Well, someone does, but no one cares.
If you live in one of the places named after these syndromes, you might be crazy without knowing it. Or the name just might be random. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
India Syndrome
This is apparently a thing where Westerners travel to India to find “spiritual enlightenment”, but they never come home. Most people suffering from India syndrome recover upon returning home, thankfully.
Stockholm Syndrome
You all know this one: it’s when someone starts feeling sympathy for their captors. This was first registered in 1973 where people taken hostage in a bank for six days refused to testify against their captor and even started raising money for his defense.
Uppgivenhetssyndrom
This is a pretty weird one. This is a phenomenon where children and adolescents from former Soviet and Yugoslav states go into a non-responsive state after being threatened by deportation in Sweden. Yes, only in Sweden. This specific enough yet? Reading the approved residency permit to the non-responsive child slowly wakes it up.
London Syndrome
This has nothing to do with hipsters. It’s actually the opposite of Stockholm Syndrome – it’s where the hostage refuses to cooperate with his captors in any way, shape or form. This usually leads to the hostage being very confrontational and arguing all the time. Naturally, they get shot most of the time.
Paris Syndrome
This is mostly exclusive to Japanese tourists. They arrive in Paris and fall into a delusional state due to the culture shock and the only real cure is to leave and never return.
Florence Syndrome
This syndrome describes when someone “overdoses” on art. It’s often associated with impressionable, single people between 26 and 40 years of age. Jet lag is a contributing factor.
Jerusalem Syndrome
This is pretty similar to Paris syndrome – it’s also a form of culture shock. Only that in this case, the person suffering from the syndrome thinks he’s a Biblical figure and/or a harbinger of the end times prophecy. As with Paris syndrome, the only cure is to leave and never return.
Lima Syndrome
This one is the third option in the list together with Stockholm and London syndromes. In the Lima syndrome, the captor actually feels sympathy towards the hostages. This usually leads to the hostages being set free very fast or in the case of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst back in 1974, she joined the gang that kidnapped her. She looked really silly in her Che Beret, toting an AK-47.
