Toponymic Medical Terms Based on Precedent Situations and Denoting Psychiatric Deviations
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Филологические науки Shalajeva A.V. The Chair of Foreign Languages, Higher State Educational Establishment of Ukraine „Bukovinian State Medical University“, Chernivtsi (Ukraine) TOPONYMIC MEDICAL TERMS BASED ON PRECEDENT SITUATIONS AND DENOTING PSYCHIATRIC DEVIATIONS. In the medical context the precedent situations containing toponyms in their name are well-known geographical names that are used in the text not so much to refer to concrete areas, cities or countries, but rather as a kind of symbol of certain qualities that are used to form medical terms, designating the syndromes of various mental abnormalities. In our unstable and volatile time, the time of local wars, political changes and new opportunities for obtaining all kinds of information and possibility to move from one country to another for both with political goals and for the purpose of travel, the social sphere is an inexhaustible source for the field of psychiatry. Mental disorders affect the lives of many people. At assessment of condition of persons with mental disorders, doctors rely on diagnoses that are generally accepted and are taken into account in the differential diagnostics of the patient. But there are a number of rare psychiatric syndromes that doctors rarely encounter in everyday practice. One of such syndromes is the Paris syndrome. People who study the language and culture of another country often feel an active interest in the population of this country, they pay attention to the external appearance of the native speakers, their habits, norms and manners of behavior, the system of values, and their mentality as a whole. On the other hand, they try to get acquainted with the new cultural environment as close as possible by comparing the phenomena of another country with the phenomena of their native or world culture. Every year, Paris is visited by millions of Japanese tourists. Many tourists come with a deeply romantic vision of Paris. They go to the notorious dreamland, wrapped in the aura of romance and luxury of street cafes, the country of love and chanson, refined manners and exquisite dishes. They expect to see the beauty of French women, well-bred people and masterpieces of high art in the Louvre. The image of Paris as the ultimate locus of style, taste, and sophistication portrayed in the Japanese media creates damagingly high expectations. But the objective reality of Paris does not coincide with their high expectations about this city, in which people are rude, aggressive and unfriendly. The city is filled with crowds of immigrants, and the streets are filled with thieves. The Parisians do not like tourists, especially those who do not speak French. Talking in English is unacceptable for the French, especially in a taxi or a cafe. The objective reality which calm, quiet and polite Japanese tourists face, causes an unusual mental disorder. About two dozen of them experience this condition every year and seek medical help from psychologists after visiting the capital of France. As a rule, these people never had mental illness in the past. Professor Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist working in France, was the first person to diagnose the condition in 1986. This condition is due to severe form of culture shock, which can be manifested by anxiety, depersonalization, derealization and other displays of mental disorder. The main symptoms of this phenomenon are characterized by psychosomatic manifestations like the acceleration of heart beats (tachycardia), causing dizziness and shortness of breath, which result in the obsession by delusions of persecution and suffering from hallucinations. They feel anxiety, experience disorientation in surrounding persons and feel cut off from reality or from their own personality and have other mental problems. These symptoms were described by Youcef Mahmoudia, a physician of the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris hospital . The only way to treat the Paris syndrome is to send an affected person back home to Japan. In layman’s terms, Paris syndrome can be thought of as a severe form of culture shock or homesickness. Significant changes in the way of life, political situation in the world gave an impetus to the emergence of one more toponymic syndrome, denoting mental disorder. It is the Stockholm syndrome, which is described as "friendship of hostages with the invader", i.e. such a psychological state that arises when hostages are captured, but for some reason the captives begin to sympathize with the invaders or even identify themselves with them. In 1973 four hostages were taken by Jan-Erik Olsson during a failed bank robbery in one of the largest banks in Stockholm, Sweden. He negotiated the release from prison of his friend Clark Olofsson who began to assist him. They held the hostages captive for six days in one of the bank’s vaults while torturing them with nooses and dynamite. The hostages became emotionally attached to the invaders, defended the criminals and were panic-stricken that the police would kill them when the assault began. The hostages defended their captors after being released and would not agree to testify in court against them. The state when the hostage begins to understand the invader, sympathize with him and even provide a variety of assistance, psychologists call “protective-subconscious traumatic connection”. This state can be regarded as a form of reaction due to severe physical or emotional stress. Researchers consider it a psychological paradox – a normal reaction to a highly traumatic event. The authorship of the term “Stockholm syndrome” belongs to forensic scientist Nils Beyerot who first introduced this phrase into speech during the analysis of this tragic situation. It is also called "common sense syndrome" or "hostage survival syndrome", “Hostage Identification Syndrome”, “Stockholm Factor”. The existence of this syndrome is confirmed by such well-known cases. The daughter of the American billionaire and newspaper magnate Patty Hurst can be called the owner of the Stockholm syndrome. Being captured she subsequently not only became a full-fledged member of the group of abductors S.L.A., but also started a stormy affair with several members of the gang. One more example can be Yvonne Ridley, who furiously condemned Islam for pejorative attitude towards women. In pursuit of the sensation, she illegally crossed the Afghan border and attempted to enter the ranks of the Taliban, where she was accused of espionage and was kept for several weeks in prison. After release, Yvonne Ridley not only accepted Islam herself, but also began actively propagating it, speaking on television. Mary McElroy, who was kidnapped by a gang of four criminals for the sake of a ransom, was so imbued with sympathy for her captors that in the literal sense of the word she could not survive their arrest. When Mary was released, the girl started a real fight for their release and could not reconcile herself with the fact that "she was guilty of such wonderful people being imprisoned" and soon committed suicide. The mechanism of psychological defense, underlying the Stockholm syndrome, was first described by Anna Freud in 1936, when it was called "identification with the aggressor." This is the psychological reaction of the victim, in which a person begins to experience signs of sympathy, loyalty, or even solidarity with her tormentor, despite the danger of being killed. This is a rather rare phenomenon, occurring in about 8% of hostage-taking cases. It is noteworthy that the Stockholm syndrome is not recognized as a real psychiatric disorder and it is not included in the list of any of the existing international classification systems of psychiatric diseases. Experts comment on this behavior as "quite natural reaction of the person to highly traumatic psyche events that are strongly injuring mentality". But perhaps these syndromes will be recognized officially in connection with the increased incidents of terrorism around the world. The Lima syndrome is the complete opposite of Stockholm one. In this case, the kidnappers are imbued with sympathy for their victims and their needs. The name of the syndrome was given by the case of the seizure of the Japanese Embassy in Lima (Peru) in 1997. 14 members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement have captured several hundreds of diplomats, officials, military and businessmen during a government ball at the official residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru. Revolutionaries demanded the release of their supporters from prisons. Within a few days they released most of the hostages, among whom were the future president of Peru and mother of the president acting at that time ( the rest of the hostages were released by the government special forces after several months of unsuccessful negotiations). It is quite difficult to explain the mechanism of the Lima syndrome: it may be the sense of guilt, or indecisiveness, prediction of consequences or lack of concentration. All of the above syndromes are named according to the place of the precedent situation, where it occurred. Some syndromes are only a specific form of general psychopathology. The fact that these unusual psychic phenomena bear the names of cities emphasizes their phenomenological originality. Precedent situations are not the source to which psychologists address especially often for the creation of terminological vocabulary in the field of psychology. There are quite a few of them, but they served as a source of syndromes, which designate various mental deviations. Literature: 1. Нахимова Е. А. Прецедентные имена в массовой коммуникации [Текст] : монография / Е. А. Нахимова ; ГОУ ВПО «Урал. гос. пед. ун-т» ; Ин-т социальногообразования.–Екатеринбург,2007.—207с.URL: http://politlinguist.ru /materials/mono/Нахимова%20Прецедентные%20имена-2007.pdf 2. Стокгольмский синдром. https://psyfactor.org/lib/pochebut2.htm 3. 10 самых странных психических расстройств. URL: http://kakzachem.ru/10- samyh-strannyh-psihicheskih-rasstrojstv/ 4. 18 синдромов, о которых вы не знали. URL: blog.aksimed.ua/18-синдромов-о- которых-вы-не-знали/ 5.