20 - Wednesday, January 23, 1991 - Book chronicles bizarre cases “AS emerged trom the parch of Santa Croce. Iwas seized with a fierce palpitation ot the heart (that same symptom which. in Berlin, is rererred (0 as an attack of nerves); the well-spring of lite was dried up within me, and 1 walked in cons- tant fear of falling to the ground.” — an exerpt tram Stendhal’s diary F THE above account by the French novelist sounds as if he has been struck ill in Florence, you're right. But Stendhal wasn't overcome with vertigo and heart palpitations as a result of jet lag or sour milk in his cappuccino. Rather, his is the first well-documented account of a tourist being physically struck down by the magnificence of art. Over the years, Stendhal!’s ex- treme reaction proved to be a verifiable physical syndrome. At least that’s the theory proposed by Italian psychiatrist, Dr. Graziella Magherini. Magherini has studied the effects of Florence's great art on 107 disoriented tourists, many of whom have suffered a range of physiological reactions, from overwhelming feelings of diz- ziness, grief, rapid heartbeat to memory loss and even loss of identity. She called the mysterious disorder the Stendhal Syndrome. The idea that art has the power to move is nothing new; to be “touched” by art can simply represent a moment of growth in an individual or an intellectual in- sight. But what Magherini’s pa- tients experienced went far beyond that. After much work Magherini concluded that the syndrome af- fected only a small group of susceptible people — in other words, it was a psychological condition. But North Vancouver writer Terry Loychuk has come to a dif- ferent conclusion. Loychuk, who OVER 4000 PATTERNS TO CHOOSE 2x2 Egyptian cotton direct from England, 100% cotton & polycotton °38-585 [Cieenficates en] ONLY 7 STORE IN TOWN 2531 Granville St. at Broadway FREE parking at rear 731-9190 from North Shore News EVELYN JACOB spotlight feature describes himseli as an ‘‘art theorist,” began testing Magherini’s claims two years ago. By measuring the heart rate of a random group exposed to different works of art, Loychuck discovered that every person experienced _ some physiological reaction to the artwork. Thus he concluded that the Stendhal Syndrome was not a psychological disorder but a response by the viewer to a force contained within the object itself. A couple of weeks ago Loychuk and artist Ed Varney tested 150 visitors to the foyer of Emily Carr College. It was Loychuk’s second experiment and the first in Canada (the next one will be this spring in Victoria, he says). | must confess that | wasn’t one of those 150, but | was intrigued by Loychuk’s work, especially since my boyfriend may have ex- perienced the Stendhal Syndrome. Two years ago while we were watching the John Frankenheimer movie, Seconds, at a Vancouver B-film festival, | turned to whisper something to him only to find him immobile and catatonic in the seat next to me. COMMODORE BALLROOM Vancouver, BC 870 Granville Street . FEBRUARY 7, 1991 SHOWTIME 7:00 PM TICKETS 23.60 & 34.09 CAN 7% Tax Included TICKETS AVAILABLE AT TICKETMASTER Locations Including LOWER MAINLAND EATON'S INFOCENTERS (Major Malls) : mage Call 604-280-4444 To Charge By Phone The dactors diagnosed his state as a seizute. but try as they might, they were unable to find any physiological cause tor it. Layehuk says dthough my boytriend’s reacuon was stronver than most people’s, # qualities as the Sten- dhal Syndrome. He heard similiar reports of disorientation from participants in the experiment. Subjects were exposed to four works of art and had their pulses taken at three intervals by Loychuk and Varney, who were outfitted in dactors’ garb. hey were then asked to answer questions like, which piece they felt had the strangest effect on them, which they liked the best, and so on. The results, says Loychuk, con- firmed his previous findings — that no one was physiologically im- mune to the works. That, once again, led him to conclude that the object itself projects an energy that people react to. tn Loychuk’s interpretation, the findings revealed that most people were out of touch with their feel- ings — their emotional response did rot match their intellectual response. “That makes us believe that most of these people are leading themselves with their minds,”’ he says. ‘‘They came in with cultural biases and forces and ignore their feelings.” Loychuk believes that if people were more in touch with their emotions they could invest in art that would produce such desirable See Loychuck page 23 | 1990 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN Ye TON 4X4 Equipped with automatic trans., free wheeling front hubs, V-8 engine, AM/FM cassette, 6 {picture not exact) T_T PRICE FOR THIS PREF ERRED FRANK STIRLING 293-1311 ot (RIGS AVE & BOUNDARY RD. passenger, etc. SPECIAL LEASE ae Based upon $2,000 down, 36 months closed end lease. 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