What is Van Gogh syndrome? This is a mentally ill person inflicting crippling damage to himself (cutting off a part of the body, making deep cuts) or an insistent demand to perform surgical intervention on him, due to the presence of hypochondriacal delusions, hallucinations, impulsive drives.
Illness and art
The story from which this syndrome takes its name happened a long time ago. So long ago that only an experienced necromancer can verify it, and we have to be content with versions and guesses. Vincent Van Gogh, a 19th century Dutch artist, suffered from chronic mental illness. Which one exactly remains a mystery. According to one version, he had schizophrenia, according to another, more likely, epileptic psychosis, according to the third, the harmful effects of absinthe abuse, and according to the fourth, Meniere's disease.
Epileptic psychosis was the diagnosis given to Van Gogh by his doctor Felix Rey together with his colleague Dr. Théophile Peyron at the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence shelter at the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mousol. There the artist was treated from May 1889 to May 1890, when the symptoms of his illness became especially vivid: a depressed state with feelings of melancholy, anger and hopelessness, fits of rage and senseless impulsive actions - for example, he once tried to swallow the paints with which he was painting.
...The efforts of doctors were never able to save the artist from the painful experiences tormenting his soul. Having finished painting “Wheat Field with Crows,” on July 27, 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest, and 29 hours later he was dead.
One way or another, on the night of December 23-24, 1888, Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe. As his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin told the police, there was a quarrel between him and Van Gogh: Gauguin was going to leave Arles, where he had been staying with Van Gogh for some time, but the latter did not like this idea. Van Gogh threw a glass of absinthe at his friend, Gauguin went to spend the night at a nearby hotel, and Van Gogh, left alone at home and in the most deplorable state of mind, straight razor cut off his earlobe. Then he wrapped it in newspaper and went to a brothel to show a trophy to a prostitute he knew and seek consolation. At least that's what Gauguin told the police.
Causes of the syndrome
Why do patients with this disorder persistently and purposefully cause harm to themselves? And what are the causes of Van Gogh syndrome?
First of all, this is dysmorphomaniac delusion, that is, a firm conviction that one’s own body or some part of it is so ugly that it causes disgust and horror in others. The owner of this “deformity” himself experiences unbearable moral and physical suffering. And the only logical the right decision the patient considers getting rid of the hated defect in any way: destroying it, cutting it off, amputating it, cauterizing it, making plastic surgery. And this despite the fact that in fact there is no trace of any defect or deformity.
Hypochondriacal delusions can lead to similar conclusions and consequences. It seems to the patient that some organ, part of the body, or the entire body is seriously (perhaps even fatally or incurably) ill. And he really feels how exactly it all hurts, and these sensations are painful and unbearable, he wants to get rid of them at any cost, even through self-mutilation.
Impulsive drives, as the name suggests, are of the nature of a sudden push: it’s necessary, period! Neither criticism nor counter-arguments simply have time to connect: the person jumps up and acts. Chick - and you're done.
Hallucinations, especially imperative ones, that is, commanding ones, can also force the patient to deprive himself of a part of the body, inflict on himself deep wounds, beat yourself, or even come up with some more sophisticated self-torture. By the way, epileptic psychosis, which Van Gogh probably suffered from, can be accompanied by hallucinations, delusions, as well as impulsive desires and corresponding actions.
Case from practice
There is a guy on my site named, say, Alexander, and he just has Van Gogh dysmorphomaniac syndrome. It has been observed for quite a long time, about ten years, - the diagnosis is schizophrenia. The symptoms have been the same for many years: paranoid (that is, hallucinations and delusions) with suicidal and self-harm tendencies, repeated attempts to inflict bodily harm on oneself, including suicide attempts. And all this in the absence of criticism of one’s aspirations and experiences, with a meager and short-lived effect from drug treatment. With all this, the guy is calm, quiet, always polite, correct - well, just a good boy.
He distinguished himself several years ago. I ended up in the hospital after another such attempt - it seems that I swallowed azaleptin. Before that, he had undergone a course of treatment, and things were already getting better - or so it seemed to everyone. Shortly before his discharge, he was sent home on medical leave (again, it was Easter). Sasha returned late and accompanied by his mother, with a statement from the surgeon in his hands. It turns out that at home the patient locked himself in the bathroom and manicure Using scissors, opening the scrotum, he removed his testicle. Coming out of the bathroom, he asked his mother:
– Did I do everything right?
The wound healed quite quickly: help was provided in a timely manner, first by members of the line team, then by a surgeon, and then by psychiatrists. After a year of remission, the second testicle was removed at home using the same method. Then there were more suicide attempts, hospitalizations, persistent treatment without hope of an effect... Recently he came to the hospital to surrender himself:
“Otherwise I’ll do something to myself again, and I’m already tired of fighting with her,” the sufferer admitted.
- Well, with her. You do not understand? Who am I doing everything for? For her. She asked to cut it off - I cut it off. She asked me to jump from a height - I jumped (it happened, it took a long time for the bones to knit together). I do everything as she asks, but she doesn’t come to me.
Having never found out from Alexander the name of the beautiful and dangerous stranger who had been tormenting him for so many years with promises of unearthly bliss in exchange for inhuman suffering, I sat down to write a referral to the hospital.
Treatment of Van Gogh syndrome
How to treat dysmorphomania syndrome? First of all, it is necessary to establish what disease caused it in this particular case. And all efforts should be directed towards its elimination, as well as towards the subsequent rehabilitation of the patient. The prognosis for treatment of Van Gogh syndrome for various etiologies is ambiguous: for example, for paroxysmal-progressive schizophrenia, which caused the development of the syndrome, the prognosis is more favorable and predictable than for epilepsy with psychotic episodes. The easiest way to cope with hallucinations is that adequate drug therapy helps. It is much more difficult to work with delusions, and it does not matter whether it is dysmorphomanic or hypochondriacal: delusional constructions are always more persistent and resistant to medications and psychotherapy than hallucinations. Impulsive drives are not much more amenable to therapy, not least because of their unpredictability: trouble can happen suddenly, when it seems that the person has already achieved stable remission.
That is why patients with Van Gogh syndrome in psychiatry are always the object of the closest attention of specialists. Both due to the danger of manifestations of the syndrome itself, and due to the complexity of its treatment.
The essence of Van Gogh syndrome is the irresistible desire of a mentally ill person to perform operations on himself: to inflict extensive cuts, cut off various parts of the body. The syndrome can be observed in patients with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. The basis of this disorder is aggressive attitudes aimed at causing injury and causing damage to oneself.
The Life and Death of Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh, the world-famous post-impressionist artist, suffered from a mental illness, but modern doctors and historians can only guess what it was. There are several versions: Meniere's (this term did not yet exist, but the symptoms are similar to Van Gogh's behavior) or epileptic psychosis. The latter diagnosis was made to the artist by his attending physician and the latter’s colleague, who worked at the shelter. Perhaps they were talking about the negative consequences of alcohol abuse, namely absinthe.
Van Gogh started creative activity only at the age of 27, and died at 37. He could paint several paintings. The attending physician's notes indicate that during the intervals between attacks, Van Gogh was calm and passionately indulged in the creative process. He was the eldest child in the family and from childhood showed controversial nature: at home he was a rather difficult child, but outside the family he was quiet and modest. This duality continued in adult life.
Van Gogh's suicide
Obvious attacks of mental illness began in last years life. The artist either reasoned very soberly, or fell into complete confusion. According to the official version, intense physical and mental work, as well as a riotous lifestyle, led to death. Vincent Van Gogh, as mentioned earlier, abused absinthe.
In the summer of 1890, the artist went for a walk with materials for creativity. He also had a pistol with him to scare away flocks of birds while working. After finishing painting “Wheatfield with Crows,” Van Gogh shot himself in the heart with this pistol, and then made his way to the hospital on his own. After 29 hours, the artist died from blood loss. Shortly before the incident he was discharged from psychiatric clinic, concluding that Van Gogh was completely healthy and the mental crisis had passed.
Ear incident
In 1888, on the night of December 23-24, Van Gogh lost his ear. His friend and colleague Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin told the police that there was a quarrel between them. Gauguin wanted to leave the city, but Van Gogh did not want to part with his friend, he threw a glass of absinthe at the artist and went to spend the night at a nearby inn.
Van Gogh, left alone and depressed psychological state, cut off his earlobe with a straight razor. Van Gogh's self-portrait is even dedicated to this event. Then he wrapped the lobe in newspaper and went to a brothel to a prostitute he knew to show off the trophy and find solace. At least that's what the artist told the police. Officers found him unconscious the next day.
Other versions
Some believe that Paul Gauguin himself cut off his friend's ear in a fit of anger. He was a good swordsman, so it didn’t cost him anything to pounce on Van Gogh and cut off his left earlobe with a rapier. After this, Gauguin could throw the weapon into the river.
There is a version that the artist injured himself because of the news about the marriage of his brother Theo. According to biographer Martin Bailey, he received the letter on the very day he cut off his ear. Van Gogh's brother enclosed 100 francs with the letter. The biographer notes that Theo was not only a beloved relative for the artist, but also a significant sponsor.
The hospital where the victim was taken was diagnosed with “acute mania.” The notes of Felix Frey, a mental hospital intern who looked after the artist, indicate that Van Gogh cut off not only his earlobe, but his entire ear.
Mental illness
Van Gogh's mental illness is quite mysterious. It is known that during seizures he could eat his paints, rush around the room for hours and freeze in one position for a long time, he was overcome by melancholy and anger, and had terrible hallucinations. The artist said that during the period of darkness he saw images of future paintings. It is possible that Van Gogh first saw the self-portrait during an attack.
At the clinic, he was given another diagnosis - “temporal lobe epilepsy.” True, doctors’ opinions about the artist’s health differed. Felix Rey, for example, believed that Van Gogh had epilepsy, and the head of the clinic was of the opinion that the patient had brain damage - encephalopathy. The artist was prescribed hydrotherapy - staying in a bath for two hours twice a week, but this did not help.
Dr. Gachet, who observed Van Gogh for some time, believed that the patient was negatively affected by prolonged exposure to the heat and the turpentine that the artist drank during his work. But he used turpentine during the attack to relieve the symptoms.
The most common opinion regarding Van Gogh’s mental health today is the diagnosis of “epileptic psychosis.” This is a rare disease that affects only 3-5% of patients. The diagnosis is also supported by the fact that among the artist’s relatives there were epileptics. The predisposition might not have manifested itself if it were not for hard work, alcohol, stress and poor nutrition.
Van Gogh syndrome
The diagnosis is made when a mentally ill person inflicts self-mutilation. Van Gogh syndrome is self-operation or the patient’s insistence on the doctor to perform surgery. The condition occurs in dysmorphophobia, schizophrenia and body dysmorphomania, as well as some other mental disorders.
Van Gogh syndrome is caused by the presence of hallucinations, impulsive drives, and delusions. The patient is convinced that some part of the body is so ugly that it causes unbearable physical and moral suffering to the owner of the deformity and causes horror among others. The patient finds the only solution to get rid of his imaginary defect in absolutely any way. In this case, there is actually no defect.
It is believed that Van Gogh cut off his own ear, suffering severely from severe migraines, dizziness, pain and tinnitus, which drove him into a frenzy, nervous overstrain. Depression and chronic stress could lead to schizophrenia. Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Dumas the son, Nikolai Gogol and Ernest Hemingway suffered from the same pathology.
In modern psychiatry
Van Gogh syndrome is one of the most famous psychopathologies. Mental deviation is associated with an irresistible desire to perform operations on oneself with amputation of body parts or forcing medical personnel to carry out the same manipulations. As a rule, Van Gogh syndrome is not a separate disease, but accompanies another mental disorder. Most often, patients with dysmorphomania and schizophrenia are susceptible to pathology.
The cause of Van Gogh syndrome is auto-aggression and self-harming behavior as a result of depression, demonstrative behavior, various violations of self-control, the inability to withstand stress factors and adequately respond to everyday difficulties. According to statistics, men are more often susceptible to the syndrome, but women are more susceptible to auto-aggressive behavior. Female patients are more likely to inflict cuts and wounds on themselves, while men tend to injure themselves in the genital area.
Provoking factors
The development of Van Gogh syndrome can be influenced by a number of factors: genetic predisposition, drug and alcohol addiction, various diseases of internal organs, socio-psychological aspects. The genetic factor has a major influence. According to contemporaries, Van Gogh's sisters suffered from mental retardation and schizophrenia, and his aunt suffered from epilepsy.
The level of personal control decreases under the influence of alcoholic beverages and drugs. If the patient is prone to auto-aggressive behavior, then a decrease in self-control and strong-willed qualities may cause serious injury. The consequences of Van Gogh syndrome in this case are dire - a person may lose too much blood and die.
Social and psychological influence plays an important role. Most often, the patient hurts himself due to the inability to cope with everyday stress, stress, and conflicts. Patients often claim that they replace in this way heartache physical.
In some cases, the desire to perform surgery on your own is caused by the severe course of a disease. A person who suffers from a mental disorder and experiences constant pain is more likely to self-harm to relieve discomfort. It was stated above that Van Gogh’s amputation was an attempt by the artist to get rid of insurmountable pain and constant tinnitus.
Treatment of the syndrome
Treatment for Van Gogh syndrome involves identifying the underlying mental illness or the causes of the obsessive desire to self-mutilate. To relieve obsessive desire, antipsychotics, antidepressants and tranquilizers are used. Hospitalization is required. For Van Gogh syndrome, schizophrenia or other mental illness, this will help reduce the risk of damage.
Psychotherapy will be effective only if the syndrome manifests itself against the background of neurosis or depressive disorder. Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is more effective, which will establish not only the reasons for the patient’s behavior, but also appropriate ways to counter outbursts of aggression. The recovery process for Van Gogh syndrome with body dysmorphomania and the dominance of auto-aggressive attitudes is complicated because the patient is not able to achieve positive results.
Treatment is long and does not always end in success. Therapy may generally reach a dead end if the patient has a persistent state of delirium.
Why did Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear? What was the exact nature of his illness? And why did he commit suicide? The exhibition "On the Edge of Madness: Van Gogh and His Illnesses" at the artist's museum in Amsterdam will for the first time focus directly on his state of health. And during the accompanying symposium, both art historians and doctors will discuss the symptoms and diagnoses of the famous post-impressionist.
The story of Van Gogh's struggle with the disease will be told by approximately 25 paintings and drawings that the artist made in the last year and a half of his life, as well as many documents and letters from that period.
Vincent Van Gogh. Still life with plate and onions. 01.1889, 50×64 cm
The exhibits will include not only works owned by the Van Gogh Museum, but also several treasures on loan from other institutions. For example, these are two paintings painted after the “ear incident” in 1888 - “Still Life with Bulbs” from the Dutch Kröller-Muller Museum, as well as a portrait of Felix Rey, the artist’s doctor, from Pushkin Museum in Moscow. This film will be shown in Amsterdam for the first time.
Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait at the Easel (1887)
Visitors will be able to see original letters and unique documents that have not yet been exhibited to the public. Among them is a police report and a petition signed in 1889 by residents of Arles, where Van Gogh suffered several breakdowns in this city in southern France. The local population appealed to the mayor with a demand to forcibly place the artist in a psychiatric clinic.
Vincent Van Gogh. Portrait of Doctor Ray. 1889, 64×53 cm
Ultimately, Van Gogh decided to voluntarily move to a mental asylum in Saint-Rémy. Paintings and drawings from this period, such as the Refuge Garden from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, show his battle with illness and how work became his only lifeline.
Vincent Van Gogh. Shelter Garden. 1889, 71.5×90.5 cm
The final section of the exhibition contains an unfinished painting, Tree Roots, which the 37-year-old artist was apparently working on on July 27, 1890, the day he shot himself in the heart with a revolver.
Vincent Van Gogh. Wheat field with reaper and sun. 06.1889, 72×92 cm
Van Gogh had a number of symptoms recorded - hallucinations, memory loss, unpredictable behavior towards family, friends and strangers. “No one could live with him,” says Steven Naifeh, co-author of Van Gogh: A Life, published in 2011. Throughout his life, the artist also suffered from epilepsy, bipolar and borderline personality disorders.
Vincent van Gogh, "Poppies and Butterflies" (May 1889). Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
On September 14, the Van Gogh Museum will hold a meeting of experts, at which international medical luminaries and Van Gogh specialists will try to formulate a diagnosis of the painter. Their findings will be presented the next day. Scholars will also discuss the potential role that illness played in his work, comparing its history with that of other artists.
“Van Gogh certainly suffered from some mental illness, exacerbated by alcohol,” says Dr. Kramer, an exhibition consultant. — As for epilepsy, in France at that time it was a fashionable diagnosis. If you had hiccups, it could also be called epilepsy.”
Vincent Van Gogh. Landscape at dusk. 06.1890, 50.2×101 cm
Van Gogh's medical "fascination" can be traced back to his physician, Felix Rey, who claimed to have kept the famous patient's ear in a jar in his office.
Steven Knifle noted that many doctors tried to diagnose Van Gogh to satisfy their own ambitions. He cites some what he considers unlikely assumptions made over many decades. One of them is acute intermittent porphyria, which is a metabolic disorder that can cause hallucinogenic delusions. This disease was allegedly the cause of the bouts of madness of the British King George III.
Another example is Meniere's disease, a disease of the inner ear in which accumulated fluid affects the body's orientation in space and balance. Proponents of this diagnosis claim that Van Gogh cut off part of his ear in order to stop tinnitus, a hallmark of this disease.
Emil Schuffnecker, copy of Vincent van Gogh's painting “Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear” (1892 - 1900)
The biographer himself believes that Van Gogh suffered from a combination of temporal lobe epilepsy (a neurological disorder that causes debilitating seizures) and bipolar disorder. In addition, Steven Knifle is sure that this condition was aggravated by the absinthe that the artist drank, and mercury, which he may have used to treat syphilis.
The exhibition “On the Edge of Madness: Van Gogh and His Illnesses” in Amsterdam opens on July 15 and runs until September 25.
Writer and psychiatrist Maxim Malyavin talks about those who constantly want to cut off something for themselves, and not just their ear.
What is Van Gogh syndrome? This is the infliction of crippling damage on oneself by a mentally ill person (cutting off parts of the body, extensive incisions) or the presentation of persistent demands to the doctor to perform surgical intervention on the patient, which is due to the presence of hypochondriacal delusions, hallucinations, impulsive desires
The story from which this syndrome takes its name happened a long time ago. So long ago that only an experienced necromancer can verify it, and we have to be content with versions and guesses. Vincent Van Gogh, a 19th-century Dutch artist, suffered from chronic mental illness. Which one is also anyone's guess: according to one version, he had schizophrenia, according to another, more probable, based on the opinion of most psychiatrists, - epileptic psychosis (this is the diagnosis that Van Gogh was given by his doctor Ray and his colleague Dr. Peyron in the asylum Saint-Rémy-de-Provence), according to the third version, it was about the harmful consequences of absinthe abuse, according to the fourth - about Meniere's disease.
One way or another, on the night of December 23-24, 1888, Van Gogh lost his earlobe. As his friend and fellow artist Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin told the police, there was a quarrel between him and Van Gogh: Gauguin was about to leave Arles, Van Gogh did not want to part, they quarreled, Van Gogh threw a glass of absinthe at his friend. Gauguin went to spend the night at a nearby hotel, and Van Gogh, left at home alone and in the most deplorable state of mind, cut off his earlobe with a straight razor.
Then he wrapped it in newspaper and went to a brothel, to a familiar prostitute, to show the trophy and seek consolation. At least that's what he told the police.
The artist’s life was cut short by a pistol shot. Having finished painting “Wheat Field with Crows,” on July 27, 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest, and 29 hours later he was dead.
Why do patients with Van Gogh syndrome purposefully and persistently harm themselves? There are several reasons. First of all, this is dysmorphomanic delirium. That is, a firm conviction that one’s own body or some part of it is so ugly that it causes disgust and horror in others, and that the owner of this ugliness is subjected to unbearable moral and physical suffering. And the patient considers the only logically correct decision to get rid of the defect in any way: destroy, cut off, amputate, cauterize, or perform plastic surgery. And this despite the fact that in fact there is no trace of any defect or deformity.
Hypochondriacal delusions can lead to similar conclusions and consequences. It seems to the patient that some organ, part of the body, or the entire body is seriously (perhaps even fatally or incurably) ill. And the person really feels how exactly it all hurts, and these sensations are painful, unbearable, and you want to get rid of them at any cost.
Impulsive drives, as the name suggests, are of the nature of a sudden push: it’s necessary, period! Neither criticism nor counter-arguments simply have time to connect, the person simply jumps up and acts. Chick - and you're done.
Hallucinations, especially imperative (that is, commanding), can force the patient to deprive himself of a part of the body, inflict deep wounds on himself, beat himself, or even come up with some more sophisticated self-torture,
Maxim Malyavin, psychiatrist.
I would like to give an example of Van Gogh syndrome from my practice. There is a guy on my site named... let's say, Alexander. It has been observed for quite a long time, about ten years. Schizophrenia. The symptoms have been the same for many years: paranoid (that is, hallucinations and delusions) with suicidal and self-harm tendencies and repeated attempts to injure themselves, commit suicide, with virtually no criticism of their aspirations and experiences, with a paltry and short-lived effect from drug treatment. With all this, calm, quiet, always polite, correct - well, just a good boy. He distinguished himself several years ago. I ended up in the hospital after another such attempt - it seems that I swallowed azaleptin. Then I underwent a course of treatment, things were already getting better - at least that’s what it seemed to everyone.
Shortly before discharge, he was sent home on medical leave; again, it was Easter. Sasha returned from vacation late and accompanied by his mother, with an extract from the surgeon in his hands. It turns out that at home the patient locked himself in the bathroom and, using NAIL scissors, opened his scrotum and removed his testicle. Coming out of the bathroom, he asked his mother:
Did I do everything right?
The wound healed quite quickly. The second testicle was also soon removed in the same way. Then there were more suicide attempts, hospitalizations, persistent treatment without hope of effect...
Recently, Alexander came to the hospital to give himself up:
“Otherwise I’ll do something to myself again, and I’m already tired of fighting with her.”
- With whom?
- Well, with HER. You do not understand? Who am I doing everything for? For her. She asked to cut it off - I cut it off. She asked me to jump from a height - I jumped (it happened, it took a long time for the bones to knit together). I do everything as SHE asks, but she doesn’t come to me.
Having never found out from Alexander the name of the beautiful and dangerous stranger who had been tormenting him for so many years with promises of unearthly bliss in exchange for inhuman suffering, I sat down to write a referral to the hospital.
How to treat the syndrome? First of all, it is necessary to establish which disease caused it in this particular case. And all efforts should be directed towards her treatment and subsequent rehabilitation.
Among all the eponymous terms of mental psychopathologies, one of the most famous, perhaps, is Van Gogh syndrome.
The essence of the deviation lies in the irresistible desire to perform surgical operations on oneself: to cut off parts of the body, to inflict cuts. This syndrome can be observed in various mental illnesses, for example, schizophrenia.
The basis of the disorder is auto-aggressive attitudes aimed at causing injury and damage to one’s own body. This syndrome is often compared to dysmorphomania, which consists of pathological dissatisfaction with one's appearance. Persons suffering from this deviation are obsessed with the idea of correcting an imaginary physical defect in any way: on their own or with the help of surgery.
The concept of the syndrome and its signs
Van Gogh syndrome is a mental disorder associated with the desire to independently perform surgical operations on oneself with amputation of body parts. This syndrome also manifests itself in forcing medical staff to carry out such manipulations. Most famous person, who suffered from this psychopathology was Vincent Van Gogh, after whom the syndrome is named. The well-known act of the great genius shocked the public with its madness and cruelty. The famous artist amputated his ear and sent it in a letter to his beloved. There are many versions about what happened: some believe that Van Gogh was injured by his comrade, others say that the artist used opium and, under the influence of a narcotic substance, committed this insane act. And yet, many facts indicate that the genius suffered from a mental disorder, presumably manic-depressive psychosis, and during an exacerbation of the disease he cut off his ear. Be that as it may, today there are many people with Van Gogh syndrome.
The syndrome often accompanies some mental disorder. Sometimes such self-mutilation is of a demonstrative nature, for example, modern Russian artist, probably suffering from this deviation, constantly carries out actions, allegedly with political motives, in which he either cuts off part of his body or inflicts cuts and other injuries. This syndrome occurs in the following psychopathologies:
- schizophrenia;
- hypochondriacal delirium;
- pathomimia;
- hallucinosis;
- dysmorphomania;
- dysmorphophobia;
- affective insanity;
- eating disorders;
- epilepsy with psychotic seizures;
- impulsive drives.
People with body dysmorphomania, schizophrenia and hypochondriacal delirium are most often affected by the syndrome. By dysmorphomanic delusion we understand a person’s conviction of his non-existent imaginary physical deviation. Often such delusional ideas lead to the removal of body parts and self-operation. An impulsive act can also cause self-harm; such a loss of control has terrible consequences, since in a state of passion a person can do horrific things. Thus, a Chinese woman suffering from shopping addiction responded to her husband’s latest dissatisfaction by amputating her own finger. The woman was taken to the hospital on time, and her finger was saved. The psychiatrists’ conclusion sounded like “impulsive attraction against the background of addictive behavior.”
The basis of the syndrome is self-harming behavior and auto-aggression. Self-harm behavior refers to a series of actions aimed at causing harm to one’s own body. Among the main causes of auto-aggression are:
- inability to adequately respond to life difficulties and resist stress factors;
- demonstrative behavior;
- depression;
- impulsive behavior, impaired self-control.
Self-harmful behavior most often affects accessible areas of the body: arms, legs, chest and abdomen, and genitals. According to statistics, women are most susceptible to self-aggressive behavior, and men are most susceptible to famous artist syndrome. The female sex is more prone to inflicting cuts and deep wounds than to amputating body parts. Men with this syndrome often self-mutilate in the genital area.
The development of the syndrome can be influenced by many factors:
- genetic predisposition;
- alcohol and drug addiction;
- socio-psychological aspect;
- diseases of internal organs.
The genetic factor fundamentally influences the development of mental disorders and syndromes. According to historical facts, Van Gogh’s mother’s sister suffered from epilepsy, and the artist’s siblings suffered from psychopathologies: from mental retardation to schizophrenia.
The use of alcohol and drugs affects the level of personal control. If a person is prone to self-aggressive behavior, a decrease in volitional qualities and self-control can lead to self-mutilation. Famous French artist, who amputated his own ear, drank alcohol, absinthe and smoked opium, which probably served as a trigger for the development of self-harmful behavior.
Social and psychological influence plays an important role in the formation of auto-aggressive behavior. Often a person causes damage to himself due to the inability to survive psycho-emotional stress, daily conflicts and stress. A patient suffering from outbursts of self-injurious behavior claimed that by self-harming he “eclipsed the mental pain with the physical pain.”
Sometimes the desire to undergo surgery on one’s own body may be caused by the painful course of a disease. A person suffering from a mental disorder, constantly experiencing painful sensations in any organ or part of the body with high probability may self-harm in order to get rid of pain. One of the versions of Van Gogh’s sensational amputation is the assumption that the artist was tormented by unbearable pain after suffering from otitis media.
Treatment of the syndrome
Therapy of the syndrome involves treatment of the underlying mental illness, against the background of which outbreaks of auto-aggression occur. In order to reduce irresistible desire and obsessive thoughts of mutilation, various antipsychotics, tranquilizers and antidepressants are used. In the presence of Van Gogh syndrome, mandatory hospitalization is indicated in order to reduce the risk of damage.
Psychotherapy is effective only when the syndrome is a manifestation of self-harmful behavior against the background of a depressive disorder or neurosis. The most effective is cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, which establishes not only the causes of the client’s self-harm, but also ways to counter outbursts of auto-aggression. The psychotherapist studies in detail the degree of auto-aggressive attitudes; if they predominate, then the cognitive-behavioral approach is not always effective. When self-aggressive beliefs dominate, the process of personal recovery is hampered due to the client’s inability to achieve the desired results.
Treatment of the disease is a rather complex and lengthy process and is not always successful. For example, this syndrome is much easier to treat in schizophrenia than in dysmorphomania and epilepsy. If the patient has persistent delirium, treatment may completely come to a standstill due to the complexity of pharmacotherapy.
Shocking facts
American artist A. Fielding was so obsessed with the idea of achieving spiritual enlightenment that she drilled a hole in her skull. Before the operation, the woman repeatedly turned to surgeons with persistent requests to perform trepanation, which supposedly would help her look at the world differently.
Has a huge impact on some people fantasy world computer games, movies and books. The fantastic elven theme has driven many fans of this genre crazy. There are several known cases of self-operation of the ears to resemble the pointed ears of elves.
Today, amputation of fingers as a sign of protest (political, social) or devotion is considered a common occurrence. This pathological manifestation of emotions is mainly demonstrative in nature and indicates mental disorders. This phenomenon most common in eastern countries such as Japan, China due to the inheritance of the ancient technique “yubitsume”, which was used in criminal communities. The procedure involved amputating part of a finger as a sign of non-compliance with the rules of the mafia community.
van gogh syndrome
Van Gogh syndrome (symptom) (Abram H.S., 1966) manifests itself when the patient either operates on himself or insists on a certain operation. Occurs in schizophrenia, dysmorphophobia, body dysmorphomania. Named after the world famous Dutch and French post-impressionist artist, who allegedly suffered from this mental disorder and, during an exacerbation of the disease, amputated his ear.
In fact, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear at a moment of confusion after a quarrel with Gauguin (according to another version, Gauguin did this during a quarrel (duel) with Van Gogh over a woman), but be that as it may, the legend gave the usual name of the syndrome.
What is Van Gogh syndrome?
It is known for certain that absinthe was consumed in large quantities by Picasso and Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Verlaine... Poets sang his praises, and artists left us portraits of his lovers. For example, Picasso wrote famous painting"The Absinthe Lover", Edgar Degas - the painting "Absinthe", which today can be seen in the Louvre, etc. "The Green Fairy", " emerald wizard", "the blood of poets" - this is how writers and artists called absinthe, assuring that this potion expands consciousness and promotes flight creative imagination.. . It seemed to stimulate creative process. However, in the 50s years XIX century, concern began to appear regarding the results of its chronic consumption. It was believed that chronic consumption of absinthe led to a syndrome called absintheism, which was characterized by addiction, hyperexcitability and hallucinations. This concern about the health effects of absinthe was reinforced by the widespread belief in Lamarck's theory of heredity. In other words, it was believed that any traits acquired by absinthe drinkers would be passed on to their children. The association of absinthe with the bohemian lifestyle also added to fears about its effects, as happened with marijuana in America. Absinthe was subsequently banned in many countries at the beginning of this century. So we cannot now enjoy this mysterious amorphism of consciousness. Why is everything so bad and why was it banned?
Definitely one of the main components is alcohol. However, another candidate is monoterpene, thujone, which is considered a convulsant. The mechanism of action of thujone (alpha-thujone) is unknown, although the structural similarity between thujone and tetrahydrocannabinol (the active component of marijuana) has led to speculation that both substances have similar areas of action in the brain. The essence from which absinthe is produced contains from 40 to 90% thujone. Thus, thujone is the best candidate for the second active component of absinthe. Indeed, thujone has long been believed to be a neurotoxic cause of absintheism.
True, the symptoms of absintheism seem similar to alcoholism. Hallucinations, insomnia, tremors, paralysis and convulsions can also be seen in cases of alcoholism. This suggests that absintheism syndrome could be caused by alcohol.
Suicides, murders, personal destruction - many of these tragedies involved the “green fairy,” as absinthe was called for its color and the strange state that occurs during intoxication. The basis of the drink is wormwood, which grows throughout the northern hemisphere. Van Gogh consumed absinthe in such quantities that by the end of his life his body was completely destroyed: hallucinations, impaired consciousness, convulsions, kidney and digestive problems - what doctors today call “Van Gogh syndrome”. The end of the artist is known: first he cut off his ear, and later he shot himself. He was 37 years old.
Van Gogh Syndrome, or What ails the brilliant artist?
"AiF" talks about the life and mysteries of the great artist.
The world famous Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853. But he became an artist only at the age of 27, and died at 37. His productivity was incredible - he could paint several paintings in a day: landscapes, still lifes, portraits. From the notes of his attending physician: “In the intervals between attacks, the patient is completely calm and passionately indulges in painting.”
Illness and death
In the subsequent years of his life, duality manifested itself - he dreamed of a family hearth and children, considering this “ real life", but devoted himself entirely to art. Obvious seizures mental illness began in the last years of his life, when Van Gogh either had severe attacks of insanity, or he thought very soberly.
The artist died on July 29, 1890. Two days earlier, in Auvers-sur-Oise, he went for a walk with drawing materials. He had a pistol with him, which Van Gogh bought to scare away flocks of birds while working in the open air. It was from this pistol that the artist shot himself in the heart area, after which he independently reached the hospital. 29 hours after being wounded, he died from loss of blood.
It is worth noting that Van Gogh shot himself after his mental crisis seemed to have been overcome. Shortly before his death, he was discharged from the clinic with the conclusion: “Recovered.”
Versions
There is a lot of mystery in Van Gogh's mental illness. It is known that during seizures he was visited by nightmarish hallucinations, melancholy and anger; he could eat his paints, rush around the room for hours and freeze in one position for a long time. According to the artist himself, in these moments of confusion he saw images of future paintings.
At a mental health clinic in Arles, he was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. But doctors had differing opinions about what was happening to the artist. Dr. Felix Rey believed that Van Gogh suffered from epilepsy, and the head of the psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rémy, Dr. Peyron, believed that the artist suffered from acute encephalopathy (brain damage). He included hydrotherapy in the course of treatment - a two-hour stay in the bath twice a week. But hydrotherapy did not alleviate Van Gogh's illness.
At the same time, Dr. Gachet, who observed the artist in Auvers, argued that Van Gogh was affected by long exposure to the sun and the turpentine that he drank while working. But Van Gogh drank turpentine when the attack had already begun to relieve its symptoms.
Today, the most accurate diagnosis is considered to be epileptic psychosis - this is a rather rare manifestation of the disease, which occurs in 3-5% of patients.
Van Gogh's relatives on his mother's side included epileptics. One of his aunts suffered from falling illness. The hereditary predisposition might not have manifested itself if not for the constant overstrain of mental and emotional strength, overwork, poor nutrition, alcohol and severe shocks.
Among the doctors’ notes there are the following lines: “His seizures were cyclical, recurring every three months. In hypomanic phases, Van Gogh again began to work from sunrise to sunset, painting rapturously and with inspiration, two or three paintings a day.” Based on these words, many diagnosed the artist’s illness as manic-depressive psychosis.
Symptoms of manic-depressive psychosis include thoughts of suicide, unmotivated good mood, increased motor and speech activity, periods of mania and depressive states.
The reason for the development of psychosis in Van Gogh could be absinthe, which, according to experts, contained an extract of wormwood alpha-thujone. This substance, entering the human body, penetrates the nervous tissue and brain, which leads to disruption of the process of normal inhibition of nerve impulses. As a result, the person experiences seizures, hallucinations, and other signs of psychopathic behavior.
"Epilepsy plus madness"
Van Gogh was considered crazy by Dr. Peyron, a French doctor, who in May 1889 stated: “Van Gogh is an epileptic and a sleepwalker.”
Note that until the 20th century, the diagnosis of epilepsy also meant Meniere's disease.
The discovered letters of Van Gogh show severe attacks of dizziness, typical of the pathology of the auricular labyrinth (inner ear). They were accompanied by nausea, uncontrollable vomiting, tinnitus and alternated with periods during which he was completely healthy.
According to one version, the story of the cut off ear (the painting “Self-portrait with a cut off ear”) is a consequence of an unbearable ringing.
The diagnosis of “Van Gogh syndrome” is used when a mentally ill person inflicts crippling damage on himself (cutting off a part of the body, extensive incisions) or presents persistent demands to the doctor to perform surgical intervention. This disease occurs in schizophrenia, dysmorphophobia, dysmorphomania, and is caused by the presence of delusions, hallucinations, and impulsive drives.
It is believed that, severely suffering from frequent attacks of dizziness, accompanied by unbearable noise in the ears, which drove him to frenzy, Van Gogh cut off his ear.
However, this story has several versions. According to one of them, Vincent van Gogh's earlobe was cut off by his friend Paul Gauguin. On the night of December 23-24, 1888, a quarrel occurred between them and, in a fit of rage, Van Gogh attacked Gauguin, who, being a good swordsman, cut off Van Gogh’s left earlobe with a rapier, after which he threw the weapon into the river.
But the main versions of art historians are based on the study of police reports. According to the interrogation report and according to Gauguin, after a quarrel with a friend, Gauguin left home and went to spend the night at a hotel.
Frustrated, Van Gogh, left alone, cut off his earlobe with a razor, after which he went to a brothel to show a piece of his ear wrapped in newspaper to a prostitute he knew.
It is this episode from the artist’s life that is considered a sign of mental illness, which led him to suicide.
By the way, some experts argue that an excessive passion for green, red and white paints indicates Van Gogh’s color blindness. The analysis of the painting “Starry Night” led to the emergence of this hypothesis.
In general, researchers agree that the great artist suffered from depression, which, combined with ringing in the ears, nervous tension and absinthe abuse, could lead to schizophrenia.
It is believed that Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas fils, Ernest Hemingway, Albrecht Durer and Sergei Rachmaninov suffered from the same disease.
Van Gogh syndrome
What is Van Gogh syndrome? This is a mentally ill person inflicting crippling damage to himself (cutting off a part of the body, making deep cuts) or an insistent demand to perform surgical intervention on him, due to the presence of hypochondriacal delusions, hallucinations, impulsive drives.
Illness and art
The story from which this syndrome takes its name happened a long time ago. So long ago that only an experienced necromancer can verify it, and we have to be content with versions and guesses. Vincent Van Gogh, a 19th century Dutch artist, suffered from chronic mental illness. Which one exactly remains a mystery. According to one version, he had schizophrenia, according to another, more likely, epileptic psychosis, according to the third, the harmful effects of absinthe abuse, and according to the fourth, Meniere's disease.
Epileptic psychosis was the diagnosis given to Van Gogh by his doctor Felix Rey together with his colleague Dr. Théophile Peyron at the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence shelter at the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mousol. There the artist was treated from May 1889 to May 1890, when the symptoms of his illness became especially vivid: a depressed state with feelings of melancholy, anger and hopelessness, fits of rage and senseless impulsive actions - for example, he once tried to swallow the paints with which he was painting.
...The efforts of doctors were never able to save the artist from the painful experiences tormenting his soul. Having finished painting “Wheat Field with Crows,” on July 27, 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest, and 29 hours later he was dead.
One way or another, on the night of December 23-24, 1888, Van Gogh cut off his left earlobe. As his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin told the police, there was a quarrel between him and Van Gogh: Gauguin was going to leave Arles, where he had been staying with Van Gogh for some time, but the latter did not like this idea. Van Gogh threw a glass of absinthe at his friend, Gauguin went to spend the night at a nearby hotel, and Van Gogh, left alone at home and in the most deplorable state of mind, cut off his earlobe with a straight razor. Then he wrapped it in newspaper and went to a brothel to show a trophy to a prostitute he knew and seek consolation. At least that's what Gauguin told the police.
Causes of the syndrome
Why do patients with Van Gogh syndrome persistently and purposefully harm themselves? There are several reasons for this.
First of all, this is dysmorphomaniac delusion, that is, a firm conviction that one’s own body or some part of it is so ugly that it causes disgust and horror in others. The owner of this “deformity” himself experiences unbearable moral and physical suffering. And the patient considers the only logically correct decision to get rid of the hated defect in any way: destroy it, cut it off, amputate it, cauterize it, do plastic surgery. And this despite the fact that in fact there is no trace of any defect or deformity.
Hypochondriacal delusions can lead to similar conclusions and consequences. It seems to the patient that some organ, part of the body, or the entire body is seriously (perhaps even fatally or incurably) ill. And he really feels how exactly it all hurts, and these sensations are painful and unbearable, he wants to get rid of them at any cost.
Impulsive drives, as the name suggests, are of the nature of a sudden push: it’s necessary, period! Neither criticism nor counter-arguments simply have time to connect: the person jumps up and acts. Chick - and you're done.
Hallucinations, especially imperative ones, that is, commanding ones, can also force the patient to deprive himself of a part of the body, inflict deep wounds on himself, beat himself, or even come up with some more sophisticated self-torture. By the way, epileptic psychosis, which Van Gogh probably suffered from, can be accompanied by hallucinations, delusions, as well as impulsive desires and corresponding actions.
Case from practice
There is a guy on my site named, say, Alexander, and he just has Van Gogh syndrome. It has been observed for quite a long time, about ten years, - schizophrenia. The symptoms have been the same for many years: paranoid (that is, hallucinations and delusions) with suicidal and self-harm tendencies, repeated attempts to injure themselves and commit suicide. And all this in the absence of criticism of one’s aspirations and experiences, with a meager and short-lived effect from drug treatment. With all this, the guy is calm, quiet, always polite, correct - well, just a good boy.
He distinguished himself several years ago. I ended up in the hospital after another such attempt - it seems that I swallowed azaleptin. Before that, he had undergone a course of treatment, and things were already getting better - or so it seemed to everyone. Shortly before his discharge, he was sent home on medical leave (again, it was Easter). Sasha returned late and accompanied by his mother, with a statement from the surgeon in his hands. It turns out that at home the patient locked himself in the bathroom and nail scissors, having opened the scrotum, he removed his testicle. Coming out of the bathroom, he asked his mother:
– Did I do everything right?
The wound healed quite quickly: help was provided in a timely manner, first by members of the line team, then by a surgeon, and then by psychiatrists. After a year of remission, the second testicle was removed at home using the same method. Then there were more suicide attempts, hospitalizations, persistent treatment without hope of effect. Recently he came to the hospital to give himself up:
“Otherwise I’ll do something to myself again, and I’m already tired of fighting with her,” the sufferer admitted.
- Well, with her. You do not understand? Who am I doing everything for? For her. She asked to cut it off - I cut it off. She asked me to jump from a height - I jumped (it happened, it took a long time for the bones to knit together). I do everything as she asks, but she doesn’t come to me.
Having never found out from Alexander the name of the beautiful and dangerous stranger who had been tormenting him for so many years with promises of unearthly bliss in exchange for inhuman suffering, I sat down to write a referral to the hospital.
Treatment of Van Gogh syndrome
How to treat the syndrome? First of all, it is necessary to establish what disease caused it in this particular case. And all efforts should be directed towards her treatment, as well as the subsequent rehabilitation of the patient. The prognosis for treatment for different etiologies of the syndrome is ambiguous: for example, for paroxysmal-progressive schizophrenia, which caused the development of the syndrome, the prognosis is more favorable and predictable than for epilepsy with psychotic episodes. The easiest way to cope with hallucinations is that adequate drug therapy helps. It is much more difficult to work with delusions, and it does not matter whether it is dysmorphomanic or hypochondriacal: delusional constructions are always more persistent and resistant to medications and psychotherapy than hallucinations. Impulsive drives are not much more amenable to therapy, not least because of their unpredictability: trouble can happen suddenly, when it seems that the person has already achieved stable remission.
That is why patients with Van Gogh syndrome are always the object of the closest attention of psychiatrists. Both due to the danger of manifestations of the syndrome itself, and due to the complexity of its treatment.
van gogh syndrome
Van Gogh syndrome The van Gogh Syndrome) manifests itself when the patient either operates on himself or insists on a certain operation.
The syndrome is named after the world famous Dutch and French post-impressionist artist, who allegedly suffered from this mental disorder and, during an exacerbation of the disease, amputated his ear.
According to one version, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear during an exacerbation of mental illness (in an Arles hospital he was diagnosed with “hysterical stupefaction against a background of general delirium”), according to another, Paul Gauguin did this during a quarrel (duel) with Van Gog because of the prostitute Rachel), but be that as it may, the legend gave the usual name to the syndrome.
In the psychiatric literature, addiction to self-operation was first described by Menninger, who described the obsessive desire of some neurotic and psychotic patients to undergo surgery.
Van Gogh syndrome occurs in schizophrenia, dysmorphophobia, and dysmorphomania.
Van Gogh syndrome
Van Gogh syndrome (symptom) (Abram H.S., 1966) manifests itself when the patient either operates on himself or insists on a certain operation. Occurs in schizophrenia, dysmorphophobia, body dysmorphomania. Named after the world famous Dutch and French post-impressionist artist, who suffered from this mental disorder and, during an exacerbation of the disease, amputated his ear.
In fact, Van Gogh simply cut off part of his ear at a moment of confusion after a quarrel with Gauguin (according to another version, Gauguin did this during a quarrel (duel) with Van Gogh over a woman), but be that as it may, the legend gave the usual name of the syndrome.
Links
Notes
- Abraham H.S. "The van Gogh Syndrome: an unusual case of polysurgical addiction". PMID.
- Who cut off Van Gogh's ear? // KP.RU
- Labor: Van Gogh lost his ear in a duel
- Who cut off Van Gogh's ear?
- Add to the article (the article is too short or contains only a dictionary definition).
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
See what “Van Gogh Syndrome” is in other dictionaries:
Van Gogh syndrome - (named after the sick 19th century Dutch artist Van Gogh) inflicting crippling damage on oneself by a mentally ill person (cutting off a part of the body, extensive incisions) or presenting insistent demands to a doctor to perform surgery on him... ... Big Medical Dictionary
VAN GOGH SYNDROME is a psychopathological symptom complex in which patients with an imaginary illness or without any motivation operate on themselves or insist on having various operations performed on them. More often observed in schizophrenia. Described by the American psychiatrist H... encyclopedic Dictionary in psychology and pedagogy
Syndrome - This term has other meanings, see Syndrome (meanings). Syndrome (Greek: σύνδρομον, σύνδρομο concomitance; δρομο road) is a set of symptoms with a common pathogenesis. In medicine and psychology, the term syndrome refers to the association... ... Wikipedia
Application. Some problems of streamlining modern medical terminology - The centuries-old history of the emergence and development of medical terminology, which has many multilingual sources, as outlined above, as well as the examples of complex relationships between the etymology, structure and semantics of terms, are probably ... ... Medical Encyclopedia
dysmorphophobia - A morbid belief in the presence of physical changes or illness, often bizarre in nature, and based on somatic sensations, which leads to hypochondriacal preoccupation. This syndrome is most often observed in schizophrenia,... ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia
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Van Gogh syndrome
Vincent Van Gogh is a famous post-impressionist who was famous not only for his art, but also for the self-amputation of his ear. He cut off the lower half of his left ear with a razor and took it to a brothel to be watched. He suffered severe blood loss and was found unconscious in his bed by police the next morning. This case gave rise to what is today sometimes called Van Gogh syndrome, which has now become an all-encompassing term for self-harm, especially in relation to self-amputation of body parts.
Intentional self-harm is defined as the deliberate and direct infliction of injury to body tissue without suicidal intent. Exist different kinds deliberate self-harm: self-cutting, bloodletting, bites, burns, self-amputation, etc. In most cases, acts of self-harm are recorded among people suffering from schizophrenia. Very often this occurs due to a delusional belief (for example, a person believes that his hand is evil, so it must be cut off) or in response to a command from auditory hallucinations (voices commanding a person to harm himself). Also, many patients with schizophrenia are often insensitive (to varying degrees) to pain and less susceptible to physical discomfort, unlike normal people.
This behavior (self-harm) occurs in 10-15% of healthy children, especially between the ages of 9 and 18 months. But if such behavior persists after the age of 3 years, then it is already considered a pathological condition requiring the intervention of specialists. This behavior is common in adolescents, mentally ill people, and women. Self-harm is also often associated with addictive behavior, suicide attempts, and metabolic syndromes (Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and Munchausen syndrome). The most severe acts of self-harm officially recorded in the medical literature are unilateral and bilateral eye enucleations (eye removal), self-amputation of various parts of the body, including the arms, chest, ear, penis and testicles, and the most severe case recorded to date is the removal of almost of his entire face by a person suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Some researchers have also noted that during the act of self-harm, these people were in a state called “psychotic anesthesia.” Research suggests that this lack of pain may be due to the blunted affect that characterizes schizophrenia.
Van Gogh syndrome. Happening
Damaged right ear on the 1st day
Right ear after 2 weeks
Left ear after 2 weeks
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Van Gogh syndrome
Van Gogh syndrome (named after the patient - the Dutch artist of the 19th century Van Gogh) - inflicting crippling damage on oneself by a mentally ill person (cutting off a part of the body, extensive incisions) or presenting insistent demands to the doctor to perform surgical intervention on him, due to the presence of hypochondriacal delusions, hallucinations, impulsive drives.
Vincent's love for painting began when he began working as a dealer in his uncle's art and trading company.
Soon he failed in love. Disappointment affected his work - he lost interest in it and turned to the Bible. Life has changed dramatically. Van Gogh was a bookseller and, from 1869 to 1876, served as a commission agent for an art trading company in The Hague, Brussels, London and Paris. And in 1876 he worked as a teacher in England.
Afterwards he became interested in theological issues and from 1878 he was a preacher in the Borinage mining region (in Belgium)
By the way, according to another version: Vincent van Gogh’s earlobe was cut off by his friend Paul Gauguin - this is what Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans think.
This is exactly what Gauguin told the police.
According to the interrogation report, after a quarrel with a friend, Gauguin left home and went to spend the night at a nearby hotel. Left alone, upset Van Gogh cut off his earlobe with a razor, after which he went to a brothel to show a piece of his ear wrapped in newspaper to a prostitute he knew. Subsequently, this episode from the artist’s life was considered a sign of mental illness, which led him to suicide. One day, after making the last stroke of the painting “Crows in a Wheat Field,” he shot himself in the head. According to another version, the shot was in the stomach, after which he painted another picture Link
Psychiatrists trying to reconstruct the clinical picture now recognize as correct the diagnosis made by Dr. Rey and confirmed by Dr. Peyron in the Saint-Paul asylum: epileptic psychosis (we used to call it: other conditions that satisfy the criterion of organic psychosis, but do not take the form of confusion consciousness, non-alcoholic Korsakoff psychosis or dementia; now called: unspecified psychotic disorder due to epilepsy).
Van Gogh's relatives on his mother's side included epileptics; One of his aunts suffered from epilepsy.
Mental illness later befell both Theo and Willemina - apparently, the roots lay in heredity.
But, of course, a hereditary predisposition is not something fatal - it might never have led to the disease if not for stimulating conditions. A colossal constant overstrain of mental and spiritual strength, chronic overwork, poor nutrition, alcohol combined with severe moral shocks that Van Gogh suffered in abundance - all this was more than enough for a potential predisposition to the disease to be realized.
Fatal duality haunted the artist throughout his short life. It really seemed like two people were living in it. He dreamed of a family home and children, calling it “real life.” However, he devoted himself entirely to art. He wanted to become a priest, like his father, and he himself, breaking all the rules, began to live with “one of those women whom priests curse from the pulpit.” He suffered from severe attacks of insanity, especially in recent years, but the rest of the time he reasoned very soberly.
Van Gogh was examined by three doctors, and they all came to different opinions.
Dr. Rey believed that Van Gogh suffered from epilepsy.
The head of the psychiatric clinic in Saint-Rémy, Dr. Peyron, believed that Van Gogh suffered from acute encephalopathy (brain damage). He included hydrotherapy in the course of treatment, that is, a two-hour stay in the bath twice a week. However, hydrotherapy did not alleviate Van Gogh's illness.
Dr. Gachet, who observed Van Gogh in Auvers, was not a sufficiently qualified doctor. He claimed that Van Gogh was allegedly affected by long exposure to the sun and the turpentine that he drank while working. But Van Gogh drank turpentine when the attack had already begun, in order to relieve its symptoms.
Van Gogh's paintings themselves serve as material for hypotheses. Special attention researchers are attracted by the painting “Starry Night”
Gog knew exactly what he was doing. Sketches made while working on the painting show that the artist very carefully calculated the ratio of colors on the canvas, trying to achieve the effect he wanted. Vincent was well aware of the uniqueness of his writing style, which was ahead of its time and therefore inaccessible to the understanding of many people.
In a letter to Emile Bernard from Arles, he wrote: “An artist who has in advance a complete and final idea in his head of what he is going to paint cannot be proud of his work.”
“His seizures were cyclical, recurring every three months. In hypomanic phases, Van Gogh again began to work from sunrise to sunset, painting rapturously and with inspiration, two or three paintings a day,” the doctor wrote. Therefore, many diagnosed the artist’s illness as manic-depressive psychosis.
According to one version, the cause of the artist’s death was the harmful effects of absinthe, to which he was partial, like many other creative people. This absinthe, according to experts, contained wormwood extract alpha-thujone.
This substance, entering the human body, penetrates the nervous tissue, including the brain, which leads to disruption of the process of normal inhibition of nerve impulses, in other words, nervous system“getting off the brakes.” As a result, the person experiences seizures, hallucinations, and other signs of psychopathic behavior. It should be noted that the alkaloid thujone is found not only in wormwood, but also in thuja, which gave the name to this alkaloid, and in many other plants. Ironically, on the grave of Vincent van Gogh, it is precisely these ill-fated thujas that grow on the grave, whose intoxication finally destroyed the artist.
Among other versions about Van Gogh's illness in Lately another one appeared. It is known that the artist often experienced a condition accompanied by ringing in the ears. So, experts have found that this phenomenon is accompanied by severe depression. Only professional help psychotherapist. Presumably, it was the ringing in the ears due to Meniere's disease, and even in combination with depression, that drove Van Gogh to madness and suicide.
Similar version: Cyclic schizophrenia - it is believed that Nikolai Gogol, Mikalojus Ciurlionis, Alexandre Dumas fils, Ernest Hemingway, Albrecht Durer, Sergei Rachmaninov suffered from the same disease. In general, a schizophrenic creates a world different from the one where most people live. What an ordinary person laughs at can cause anger in a schizophrenic. Incompatible things coexist in his head, the antagonism of which he is not aware of. Often he endows everything that happens with an unusual, often sinister meaning and believes that comprehension of this meaning is available only to him.
Van Gogh syndrome
Scientists first described Van Gogh syndrome in 1966. As you might guess, with such a mental disorder, a person operates on himself or wants to do it, and also inflicts mutilation on himself not only in the form of severed body parts, but also in the form of incisions. The syndrome also manifests itself in the fact that the patient insists on performing a certain surgical operation, although in fact it is not required.
The syndrome, named after the famous artist, occurs primarily in schizophrenia, dysmorphomania and dysmorphophobia. Body dysmorphomania manifests itself in the fact that the patient is convinced of the presence of an imaginary physical defect. This disease is a serious consequence of dysmorphophobia, manifested at the level of delirium. This disease often begins in adolescence when a person pays too much attention to some minor defect in his appearance and physique.
There are several reasons for the development of Van Gogh syndrome. This is the aforementioned dysmorphomanic delusion, when a person is sure that his own body or part of it causes disgust or horror among others. The patient experiences unbearable suffering and the only solution sees getting rid of the defect in any way. Another cause is hypochondriacal delusion, during which a person feels that part of his body is seriously ill and requires emergency surgery. In this case, the person physically feels pain.
It is worth noting that there are still many mysteries about Van Gogh’s mental illness. It is known that he committed suicide after he was discharged from the clinic with a report of recovery. Modern psychiatrists agree that the artist suffered from an unspecified mental disorder due to epilepsy. According to another version, the artist suffered from cyclic schizophrenia, from which many also suffered famous people(Nikolai Gogol, Albrecht Durer, Ernest Hemingway, Sergei Rachmaninov, etc.).
