Jerusalem syndrome

The Jerusalem Syndrome refers to a mental disorder, about 100 visitors and inhabitants of Jerusalem are affected by the year. In this case, it is not a recognized diagnosis. The symptoms fall in the international diagnostic key under " Acute and transient psychotic disorder ".

The disorder has the character of psychosis and manifests itself among other things in delusions: The person concerned or the identified themselves completely with a holy person from the Old or New Testament, and pretends to be this.

Very prominent and important biblical characters are particularly often the object of such an identification, such as Moses and King David from the Old Testament or Paul and John the Baptist in the New Testament. Basically choose men male people from the Bible and women females. Also, the choice depends on the religion: Jews choose people from the Old Testament, Christians, those of the New Testament.

The identification as biblical person is accompanied by a corresponding self- representation and is often accompanied by public sermons or prayers of the sufferers. Also frequently place them their clothes and wrap yourself instead in long robes or bed sheets.

The name Jerusalem Syndrome comes from the Israeli doctor Yair Bar El, who first diagnosed in the early 1980s this disease and since then over 400 affected in a psychiatric hospital " Kfar Shaul " has treated. Basically, the disease is not dangerous and the victims are usually recover completely within a few days. However, the vast majority of affected individuals before the Jerusalem syndrome already demonstrated psychological abnormalities, so that a certain disposition can be provided. An extreme example of an act that was assigned to the Jerusalem syndrome because of their religious motivation, however, was the arson attack on the Al -Aqsa Mosque by the Australian tourist Michael Rohan in 1969.

Related to the Jerusalem Syndrome Stendhal Syndrome, which has been observed in numerous tourists in the cultural metropolis of Florence, as well as the Paris syndrome, which affects Japanese tourists in Paris.

Medical sources ( in English)

  • Kalian M, Witztum E: Comments on Jerusalem syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 176, 2000, 492 full-text
  • Kalian M, Witztum E: " The Jerusalem syndrome" -fantasy and reality a survey of accounts from the 19th century to the end of the second millennium. Isr J Psychiatry Relat Sci., 1999, 36 ( 4) :260 - 71st Abstract
  • Fastovsky N, Teitelbaum A, Zislin J, Katz G, Durst R: Jerusalem syndrome or paranoid schizophrenia? Psychiatric Services, 2000, 51 (11 ), 1454th full text
  • Tannock C, Turner T: Psychiatric tourism is overloading London beds. BMJ 1995, 311:806 full text
  • Van der Haven A: The holy fool speaks quietly. The Jerusalem Syndrome as a religious subculture. Mayer T, Mourad SA Eds. Jerusalem. Idea and Reality. Routledge, 2008, 103-122.

Cultural works

Israeli author Joshua Sobol wrote in 1988 a play of the same name.

In the ARD film The Jerusalem Syndrome, the sister of the lead actress is concerned. It was broadcast on 11 December 2013.

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