eating his paints
following women into their homes when he was clearly uninvited
pissing off anyone who could have helped his career
that cutting off his ear lobe thing
So Let's Try the Question Again
Why did Vincent Van Gogh become bug-fucking nuts? Because he died in 1890 (even before Sigmund Freud's publication of The Interpretation of Dreams for crying out loud) we really have no idea what spicy stew of mental and physical disorders that Vincent actually suffered from. It was known that around the time of his death he suffered from:
- syphilis
- impotence
- rotting teeth
- hallucinations, which may have been caused by temporal lobe epilepsy
- starvation due to extreme poverty
- paranoia
- alcoholism
What About the Hallucinations?
One theory is that he hallucinated because he was addicted to absinthe. The real absinthe was banned in France in 1915 but returned in 2012. America's ban on real absinthe was lifted about 2007. Until then, all anyone had to drink was weak substitutes. Why was the stuff banned? It was 110 to 144 proof. I'm surprised Vincent lived as long as he did while quaffing this brew. Rumor is that he drank it straight but absinthe was an expensive drink and so a bottle may have always been out of Vincent's price range. It was usually drunk with lots of water and a melted sugar cube.
Absinthe has never been proven to cause hallucinations more than any other alcoholic beverage. It could be that Vincent was especially sensitive to absinthe that it could have tipped him over the edge of sanity but Vincent was already teetering there. Epilepsy and mental illness appeared frequently in Vincent's family. Most of his siblings committed suicide. His beloved brother Theo died insane and incontinent because of advanced syphilis.
It wasn't just one factor that caused Vincent to go mad. It was a large combination of factors.
Have you see the film trailer for The Eyes of van Gogh? It’s on YouTube and the film is out on DVD.
ReplyDeleteThat's the film with Benedict Cumberbatch as Vincent? I'm afraid I don't like his interpretation and I'm not fond of him as an actor. Thanks for asking, though. I might try watching the film clips again on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteI share Rena’s response to the film in question; for me, “Lust for Life” is nearer my imagination’s recreation of Vincent.
ReplyDeleteAll the reasons above contributed to a great or lesser extent to Vincent’s illness and demise; of the six Van Gogh children, two committed suicide and two died in asylums. Absinthe or the liking for it were as much symptoms as causes. Even with all these piece of the jigsaw (and a few others), I feel we would still have some critical missing pieces, pieces which created a huge body of unique art from an unstable personality in a chaotic Van Gogh world. He was undoubtedly ill and his organic illness exacerbated his mental instability.
The simple answer to question posed is “no”.