Alice syndrome The Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) causes a distortion of perception. It is not considered a disease itself, but a complex of symptoms as a consequence of a neurological or psychological illness. It can affect the perception of size and distance, making objects appear bigger or smaller, farther or closer. Vision is not the only sense which can be “distorted”: hearing, touch and sensation can be altered by hallucinations too, along with changed perception of time. Nausea, migraines, agitation and dizziness are common symptoms for AIWS. The syndrome often occurs during sleep onset and is often associated with sleep deprivation, but it can arise in conbination with several diseases, such as epilepsy, infections, stroke, intoxicants, high fevers, and brain damage or tumors. Another possible cause is the use of psychoactive substances.
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The Alice in Wonderland syndrome was first described as a clinical syndrome in migraine patients in the 1950s and is also called Todd’s Syndrome, after the psychiatrist John Todd who first described it. The syndrome is named after the book written by Lewis Carroll in 1865. Alice experiences a lot of distortions in perception during her voyage through the absurd Wonderland. At the beginning, for example, she shrinks after drinking a potion, and fits in the small door that leads to Wonderland, where nothing makes sense or functions like in real life, Time and space start to falter and clocks, for example, show days and not hours. At the end, instead, Alice becomes giant during the court case, before she wakes up. Alice meets several crazy characters like the insane hatter, the bad-tempered caterpillar, the grinning cat, the the bloodthirsty queen of hearts, and so on.
This creatures are mostly unfriendly, and she experiences an increasing insecurity and self-alienation, typical of the AIWS syndrome. This insecurity is fostered by the loss of her school knowledge: She can no longer remember, for example, poems learned by heart. The criticism against learning poetry by heart recalls the strict school system of the Victorian Age, which didn’t encourage the development of imagination at all. The craziness in the book stands against this oppressive society, and this happens in one of Carrol’s absurd poems too.
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The rabbit is the first hallucination during Alice’s journey. “Zoopsia” is a possible hallucination caused by the Alice in Wonderland syndrome. Zoopsias involve hallucinations swarms of small animals or single larger animals.
The syndrome can affect the perception of distances and time, making objects seem farther or closer and slowing down or accelerating the sense of time.
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Alice also exhibits worrying disturbances of core self-identity, leading to a fluid, inconsistent sense of self and a constant feeling of uncertainty about who she really is.
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People affected by AIWS often have a different perception of their body. As surrounding object could appear bigger or smaller, they can experience expansion (macrosomatognosia), reduction (microsomatognosia) or distortion of their own body image.
AIWS symptoms are related to the use of psychoactive substances too, which could be seen as an interesting parallelism with the mushrooms in the book.
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Episodes of Alice in Wonderland syndrome are not hallucinations; and although the experience is quite vivid, the individual recognizes that what they are seeing and feeling is not real.
When and how often these episodes happen is unpredictable, and the episodes themselves are usually relatively short.
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The creatures are unfriendly and get easily offended, and she experiences an increasing insecurity and self-alienation. Anxiety and occasionally even panic attacks are typical of the AIWS syndrome. This insecurity is fostered by the loss of her school knowledge, which is a critique to the Victorian Age’s oppressive school system.
At first, no one seems to notice her, but suddenly a table is in the middle of the room.
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She switches back and forth between the real world and Wonderland from episode to episode.
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Everything is “crazy� in the real sense of the word. This can also lead to great insecurity and anxiety - occasionally even to panic attacks. These symptoms are typical for the Alice in Wonderland syndrome: Temporarily disturbed body pattern: body parts are perceived as larger or smaller and sometimes lighter or heavier.
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Moritz Knopp Anton Wendel Luca Weste
Alice in Wonderland Prof. Christian Mariacher Typografie 2020 UNIBZ