Clinical and Psychological Characteristics and Existential Essence of the “Florence Syndrome”

Abstract

We consider a wide range of emotional disorders that occur as a result of meeting with works of art in places of significant cultural value, denominated as Florence syndrome. The analysis of the syndrome is conducted in two directions stemming from the psychotherapeutic approach developed by F.E. Vasiluk: the analysis of events’ sense (clinical and psychological nature of the syndrome), and the analysis of the existential content of experiences as a process of giving meaning to events. We analyze the descriptions of the Florence syndrome in the works of G. Magherini. Different versions of the syndrome are interpreted from the point of view of M. Klein’s theory of object relations. It is shown that the existential essence of this syndrome consists in the difficulty of accepting the social situation of adult development and challenges of uncertainty and complexity. We suggest that the existential nature of this syndrome is associated with the expectation of meeting with the beautiful, with an aesthetic situation that will change the person’s life for the better without an effort of will, without difficult preliminary work on learning the language of art and without further understanding of the aesthetic experience received. In conclusion, we analyze the most important theme of A. Tarkovsky’s film “Solaris”, that is, returning to childhood, to the origins, to the foundations of being, to a spiritual rebirth.