It is named after Frigyes Karinthy, a Hungarian author, playwright, poet, journalist, and translator of the 19th and 20th centuries.
He describes this experience in his autobiographical novel, Journey Round my Skull, (Utazás a koponyám körül), originally published in 1939; a reissue appeared as a NYRB Classic in 2008 with an introduction by neurologist Oliver Sacks.