India Syndrome
In 1985, Régis Airault arrived in India to work as the resident doctor of psychology at the French consulate in Mumbai. At the time, travelers from France, upon arriving in India, could visit the consulate to place their passport and return plane ticket into safe-keeping. Airault had the opportunity to speak to those travelers, often in their 20s or early 30s, soon after they landed in India. All were excited about their forthcoming travels. But soon, Airault began noticing a curious condition in some of the French travelers, particularly among those who had spent longer periods of time in the country: a spectrum of behavioral and psychological changes that later became known as “India syndrome”. The condition has cousins around the world: religious tourists to Jerusalem are struck with a spontaneous psychosis upon visiting the city, certain that they are hearing God or in the presence of saints; visitors to Florence are physically overcome, even hallucinate, upon viewing the beauty o