From: usenet@alma-services.abel.co.uk   
      
   "Paris Syndrome" leaves tourists in shock   
      
   CRIENGLISH.com   
   2006-10-24 16:07:24   
      
      
   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, 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, Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi said.   
      
   "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 said.   
      
   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."   
      
      
   http://english.cri.cn/3188/2006/10/24/193@154350.htm   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)