Vincent Van Gogh’s Mental Health Still a Mystery to Experts

“We’ve come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to draw a final conclusion about his illness”, an expert said.

A mirror-image self portrait of Vincent Van Vogh with bandaged ear. (Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia)

Dutch post-impressionist artist, Vincent van Gogh was possibly bi-polar or had a borderline personality, but a combination of factors likely drove him to cut off his ear and commit suicide, a researcher said on Friday.

Louis van Tilborgh, a senior researcher at Amsterdam’s renowned Van Gogh Museum, said:

We’ve come to the conclusion that it’s impossible to draw a final conclusion about his illness. Before the episode with his ear, he possibly suffered from a borderline or bipolar personality.

Van Tilborgh this week led a two-day panel discussion with researchers and medical experts – particularly psychiatrists – on the fringes of the museum’s latest exhibition called On the Verge of Insanity which delves into the Dutch master’s mental state, to find a medical explanation for Van Gogh cutting his ear off and eventually committing suicide at the age of 37.

It was more likely a combination of factors that set off a psychosis: his excessive drinking, particularly of absinthe liquor and bad eating habits; and his deteriorating relationship with the post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, whom Van Gogh adored.

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After Van Gogh sliced off his ear in December 1888, which also marked the end of his friendship with Gauguin, his psychotic episodes became increasingly frequent, Van Tilborgh said.

He went back to work, but developed a fear that these episodes would return, and this fear increased after every episode. This fear eventually led to his suicide two years later.

Louis van Tilborgh, Senior Researcher at Van Gogh Museum

The museum’s exhibition focuses on the artist’s final 18 months and features a number of interesting exhibits including the suspected gun used in his suicide.

It also for the first time reveals that the tortured artist cut off his whole left ear and not just a part of it, as many people had previously believed.