The Medical Mystery of Vincent van Gogh:

An Investigation of Life, Writings, and Art in Relation to Diagnoses

Ashley Hilton

Undoubtedly one of historys most prolific painters, Vincent van Gogh was an artistic
genius that suffered greatly from his undiagnosed medical ailments. At his peak, van Gogh was
producing a new work every day, but there were many points in his life where he struggled to
stay sane to complete his work.1 The difficulties that he encountered throughout his life led him
to voluntarily commit himself and eventually led to his suicidal death on July 29th, 1890.
Although medicine had at this point in time made various advances from ancient times, doctors
were still prescribing cod liver oil for all pectoral ailments, sarsaparilla for purifying of blood,
and Beechams Pills for almost every internal organ condition one could have. During this
period, doctors did not have the information or training necessary to treat, much less diagnose,
van Goghs diseases. To this end, modern doctors have attempted to diagnose van Gogh
posthumously based on his writings, family history, testimonies of those who interacted with
him, and the style and form of his artworks. As there is no general consensus on his health and
many competing hypotheses exist, the science behind this astounding and remarkable master is
studied and debated heavily in both the medical and art historical worlds. In this essay, I explore
the evidence available from van Goghs life as well as the research and theories that have been
put forth by modern doctors in order to investigate the medical mystery and various diagnoses of
Vincent van Gogh.

VAN GOGHS LIFE AND FAMILY HISTORY

During van Goghs childhood and adolescence, he was often described as moody,
unsocial, and difficult to deal with. His sister, Elizabeth, referred to him as, intensely serious
and uncommunicative, and walked around clumsily and in a daze, with his head hung low. Not

only were his little sisters and brothers like strangers to him, but he was a stranger to himself.2
In addition, one of the familys servants described him as, an odd, aloof child who had queer
manners.3 However, this is more than preteen moping, it is a foreshadowing of the trouble he
is to encounter later in life with his mental illness.4 At age 12, Vincent was sent away from the
family to a boarding school for four years because of his demeanor.5 In addition, a photograph
of Vincent as an adolescent and later self-portraits suggest a significant craniofacial
asymmetry.6 Gastaut argues that this facial deformity along with early behavioral problems
suggest that he had suffered a brain injury early in life.7
Throughout his life, Vincent tried his hand at various careers including an art dealer and a
preacher. However, during his time as an art dealer, he suffered a great disappointment in the
rejection of his first love and became extremely depressed. He isolated himself in the following
months and withdrew from society. During this time, he increasingly thought about religion and
was dismissed from his art firm. He then spent the next four years devoted to religion and
becoming a preacher, but failed to pass his tests in order to obtain a formal theology degree.
Instead he served as an evangelist in an extremely poor area of Belgium where he slept on a
straw bed and gave away all of his possessions. His superiors, who viewed his actions as
unworthy of the dignity of the church, looked down upon this. When he refused to change his
ways, the church dismissed him, thus sending him into another wave of depression.
His second unrequited love then occurred when his recently widowed cousin, Kee,
scorned him. Here we see another piece of evidence to support the hypothesis that van Gogh
suffered from some kind of mental disease as he threatened Kees father by placing his own hand
over a kerosene lamp until he could see Kee. His family was shocked at the thought of Vincent
having a relationship with his cousin, but was even more outraged when he decided to live with a

prostitute and her children for over a year. This action greatly alienated Vincent from the rest of
his family with the exception of Theo who provided him with money to pay for rent, food, and
artistic materials.
Although Vincent had a troublesome and albeit curious youth and adolescence, his
symptoms and condition [truly] began at the age of 27 and presented as its main clinical feature
the sudden onset of mental and physical symptoms lasting variably from days to weeks, followed
by complete recovery with intercritical periods of total lucidity.8 Vincents sickness really
became apparent and pronounced when he was staying with Theo in Paris between 1886 and
1888. Here he met many artists who were to become famous including Paul Gauguin.
During this time, he began to suffer from minor paroxysms consisting of episodes of
sudden terror, peculiar epigastric sensations, and lapses of consciousness.9 It was particularly
problematic for Theo because Vincent kept him up much of the night with endless disputes
and in many places became an undesirable because of his irascible temper.10 Theo wrote to
their younger sister that Vincent seems as if he were two persons: one, marvelously gifted,
tender and refined, the other, egotistic and hard hearted. They present themselves in turns, so
that one hears him talk first in one way, then in the other, and always with arguments on both
sides. It is a pity that he is his own enemy, for he makes life hard not only for others but also for
himself.11 It is true that his illness had always been problematic for Vincent and that during this
time it worsened especially due to his heavy drinking especially of the drink famous among
artists at the time, absinthe, however, when he left Paris for Arles in the summer of 1888 his
illness evolved and reached psychotic dimensions for the first time.12
For a short time in Arles Vincent gave up smoking and drinking, but this didnt last long
and he continued heavy usage of absinthe and cognac. He explained to Theo that he was coping

with his state of heightened emotionality and would throw himself completely into his work,
and if the storm within [got] too loud, [he would] take a glass more to stun [himself], which
only made him more disturbed.13 At this point, Vincent was thrown into episodes of mania and
intense artistic activity alternating with episodes of indescribable anguish and extreme
exhaustion.14 He writes to Theo, I am unable to describe exactly what is the matter with me;
now and then there are horrible fits of anxiety, apparently without cause, or otherwise a feeling
of emptiness and fatigue in the head.and at times I have attacks of melancholy and of atrocious
remorsethere are moments when I am twisted by enthusiasm or madness or prophecy, like a
Greek oracle on the tripod. And then I have a great readiness of speech.15 At this point he was
experiencing many symptoms including unprovoked violent rages, lack of sexual arousal, and a
weak stomach.
Vincents problems reached a highpoint when Gauguin came to stay with him. After two
months of visiting and quarreling, Gauguin announced that he would leave. On Christmas Eve
1888, after Gauguin already had announced he would leave, van Gogh suddenly threw a glass of
absinthe in Gauguins faceWhen Gauguin left their house, van Gogh followed and approached
him with an open razor, was repelled, went home, and cut off part of his left earlobe, which he
then presented to Rachel, his favorite prostitute. The police were alerted; he was found
unconscious at his home and was hospitalized. There he lapsed into an acute psychotic state
with agitation, hallucinations, and delusions that required 3 days of solitary confinement.16
After the incident, he retained no memory of anything past the attack on Gauguin. Blumer
argues that the attack on Gauguin was driven by hallucinatory command voices and that the
self-mutilation was part of self-punishment for his offensive voices.17 This he defends by

describing van Goghs knowledge of the bullfight ritual, in which the matador presents a cut-off
ear of the killed bull to a fair lady of his choice.18
While hospitalized, Vincent was diagnosed by the Chief Medical Officer at Arles
Hospital with acute mania with generalized delirium, while Dr. Felix Rey, a young intern,
suggested the diagnosis of epilepsy and prescribed potassium bromide.19 Vincent writes to
Wilhelmina, the intolerable hallucinations have ceased, in fact have diminished to a simple
nightmare, as a result of taking potassium bromide, I believe.20 However, after several
hospitalizations and humiliation of being taunted and confined to the hospital due to the demands
of concerned citizens, van Gogh volunteered himself to be cared for in a mental asylum. On the
date of admission to St. Rmy, Dr. T. Peyron writes, he tells us that his mothers sister was
Epileptic, and that there are several cases in his family.21 Dr. Peyron maintained Dr. Reys
diagnosis of epilepsy, but did not continue the treatment of potassium bromide, but instead
digitalis, which may have had an effect on the sorts of colors that he used in his paintings of the
time.
When Vincent requested to be discharged from St. Rmy he was planning to live in the
north of France, hoping that that climate [would] suit him better.22 Dr. Peyrons last entry into
Vincents medical chart described how there had been several attacks during his stay in the
home and that on several occasions he has attempted to poison himself, either by swallowing
colours that he used for painting, or by ingesting paraffin, which he had taken from the boy while
he was filling his lamps.23 The painter Signac who had taken van Gogh from the hospital in
Arles to his studio describes one such incident where van Gogh had been entirely rational until
after suffering a minor attack, at which point he put a bottle of turpentine to his mouth and had to
be brought back to the hospital.24

Upon discharge from the asylum, in the last 10 weeks of his life, Vincent was
recommended by Theo to live in Auvres-sur-Oise so that he could live near Paul Gachet, who
had written a thesis on neurosis in artists [and] seemed to be at least as neurotic as the afflicted
artist.25 It also caused van Gogh to question, Now when one blind man leads another blind
man, dont they both end up in the ditch?26 Johanna van Gogh writes of how the fear of the
illness that was threatening him once again, or an actual attack, drove him to his death.27
Vincent shot himself in the lower chest or upper belly in a field outside Auvres and told a
friend, I couldnt stick it any longer, so I shot myself.28 He ended up dying two days later in
his brothers arms.
In addition to his own symptoms apparent in his writings and testimonials from others,
there was a history in the van Gogh family of different diseases. Although some diagnoses are
speculative, there is strong evidence for several van Gogh family members having mental
illnesses. According to Zuckerbrot, manic depression runs in the family [and] Theo suffered
from recurrent depression and was psychotic towards the end of his life, his sister Wilhelmina
was institutionalized for many years, there is a strong suggestion that his younger brother
committed suicide.29 Wilhelmina was committed at age 35, a few years after Vincents death;
she was said to suffer from schizophrenia and died in the asylum at the age of 79.30
In the wake of Vincents death, Theos health began declining steadily and Bernard even
remarked that Theodorus van Gogh is broken with grief perhaps for not having been able to
prevent Vincents death.31 Two months later, Theo began to suffer from violent headaches and
giddy spells and his nights were plagued by hallucinations and nightmaresIn the middle of
October, Theo broke down completely and was admitted to a Paris clinic with signs of
paralysis.32

This family history, along with van Goghs self reported symptoms lead researchers and
investigators to consider a variety of different theories for what could have ailed Vincent. We
will now turn to an analysis of each diagnosis. Traditionally, five types of evidence have been
used to support these various hypotheses. A study of the available literature allows for a
classification of the evidence into the following categories: type I evidence (clinical opinion of
an attending physician), type II evidence (description of symptoms in written correspondence),
type III evidence (historical accounts from first-hand sources or direct observation), type IV
evidence (interpretation of the artwork), and type V evidence (family medical history).33
With each type of evidence, we evaluate the types of symptoms that van Gogh was faced
with such as psychiatric symptoms [which] consisted of visual and auditory hallucinations, at
least one paranoid episode, mood swings with depressive episodes and possible periods of
hypomania, and at least one episode of psychomotor agitation associated with self-destructive or
violent behavior.34 There is also evidence of abdominal pain, trouble with digestion, fever,
sexual impotence, hypergraphia (excessive need for writing), and aphasia (loss of ability to
express or understand speech).

EPILEPSY

The definition of epilepsy was first put forth in 1860 and described as such:
Under the term larvate epilepsy I have described a variant
of epilepsy which does not reveal itself by the actual minor
or major attacks, but on the contrary by all the other
symptoms which accompany or precede ordinary epilepsy
characterized by seizures, that is: periodic alternation of
excitement and depression; manifestations as it were of
sudden fury without sufficient grounds and for most trivial
reasons; a usually most irritable disposition; amnesia, as

usually occurs in epilepsy, of dangerous acts carried out

during momentary or transient rages. Some epileptics of
this type have even experienced genuine auditory and
visual hallucinations.35
The diagnosis of epilepsy was first proposed by Dr. Felix Rey, who also prescribed
potassium bromide to treat the condition. However, even though this therapy worked for van
Gogh, his new physician, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, probably treated his epilepsy with digitalis,
which was a common practice of the time. There is even a portrait of the physician painted by
van Gogh where he holds a stem of Digitalis purpurea, the purple foxglove from which the
drug is extracted (Fig. 1).36 According to studies, people receiving large and repeated doses
often see the world with a yellow-green tint. They complain of seeing yellow spots surrounded
by coronas, much like those in The Starry Night.37
Later in 1956 physician, Dr. Gastaut, reasoned that the artists psychiatric changes were
based on temporal lobe epilepsy produced by the use of absinthe in the presence of an early
limbic lesion.38 This was due to a series of investigations on carefully selected groups of
patients with different forms of epilepsy.39 In these trials, Gastaut found that there were certain
behavioral and emotional changes among patients with epilepsy: episodic irritability contrasting
with an otherwise hypersocial disposition, slow-adhesisive (viscous) personality traits, and a
global hyposexuality.40 All of these symptoms seem to have been present in van Gogh during
most of his life, so this diagnosis, perhaps in combination with another disease could explain
why van Gogh was the man he was.
Another contributing factor to the manifestation of van Goghs epilepsy was because oil
of wormwood (from the herb Artemisia absinthium) constitutes the toxicterpene compound
thujone, a structural isomer of camphor. Both thujone and camphor induce convulsions and were
used during the 1920s and 1930s in the study of models for epilepsy.In the early part of the

20th century, absinthe became outlawed in most countries because of its psychotoxic effects.41
During van Goghs stay in Paris, he was introduced to absinthe and developed partial seizures
with gradual accentuation of partially preexisting emotional and behavioral changes.42 While
most patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have psychiatric changes that develop gradually, in
van Gogh, perhaps because of an early temporal-limbic lesion, these changes became fully
evident soon, characterized by heightened emotionality with the opposite poles of irritability and
hyperethical or hyperreligious trends, by meticulous attention to detail and stubborn persistence
in speech and writing and by hyposexuality.43
Dr. Shahram Khoshbin suggests another reason for the epileptic theory, which is the
abundance of letters that van Gogh writes throughout his lifetime. This is called hypergraphia
and describes a desire to continuously write. Khoshbin says that this is a commonly known
symptom of complex partial seizures as well as an intense attraction to color and
complementary colors, which can easily be seen throughout van Goghs work.44

MANIC DEPRESSION / BIPOLAR DISORDER

Manic-depressive illness and bipolar disorder are characterized by extreme variances and
changes in mood, thinking, and behavior. Evidence suggests that van Gogh suffered from manic
depression or bipolar disorder because of his violent mood swings and unpredictable mood as
well as the age of onset of the disease. This rapid change between hyperactivity and rest can be
seen in several instances throughout the artists life. Far and away the most likely reason to
account for suicide is depression; perhaps Vincent was in a bout of depression when he
committed suicide as just two days before that he was known to have asked Theo to buy him

more paint. Once, over the summer of 1888, van Gogh tells Gauguin I am having an
extraordinary spell of feverish activity these days.45 After this bout of frantic activity van
Gogh was forced to take a rest for a few days.46 This episode foreshadows the crisis that
happened later that year with the disagreement that occurred between van Gogh and Gauguin.
Van Gogh experienced two prolonged episodes of reactive depression. Both episodes
were followed by a prolonged period of hypomanic or even manic behavior: first as evangelist to
the poor miners in Belgium and then as the quarrelsome and overly talkative artist in exciting
Paris.47 This obsessive behavior is characteristic of manic-depressive disorder and seen in
several patients of Dr. Kay Jameson, who says that some patients even have ideas that they are
Jesus or a Saint or Martin Luther. Although we have no evidence to support that Vincent
actually thought himself to be someone else, we do have evidence of his extreme ascetic
practices while serving as an evangelist. In addition, another symptom of this disease is the
alienation of oneself from their family and from society, which happens on and off throughout
Vincents life.
This was a fairly unknown disease during the time of van Gogh and not many had been
diagnosed or studied. Therefore there was very little evidence with which to diagnose him with.
In modern times, this disease is treated with lithium carbonate, which sometimes dampens an
artists creative abilities. However, had lithium carbonate therapy been available, van Gogh
might have defeated his manic depression, avoided his tragic fate, and grown further as an
artist.48 Van Gogh even remarks, If I could have worked without this accursed disease, what
things I might have done, in one of his last letters.

10

ACUTE INTERMITTENT PORPHYRIA

In 1991, Dr. Loretta Loftus and Dr. Wilfred Niels Arnold published their hypothesis that
van Gogh did not suffer from epilepsy or manic depressive disorder, but instead was afflicted
with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), which is one member of a class of metabolic
abnormalities, the porphyrias, which are characterized by the excessive production of porphyrins,
or related compounds.49 According to Loftus, the disease is a rare disorder due to a malfunction
in the metabolism that causes its victims to act like madmen.50 The word acute refers to the
rapid onset, and abrupt cessation, of expressed symptoms, such as cutaneous photosensitivity
(due to porphyrins) and neurological abnormalities (due to porphyrin precursors).51 Intermittent
is used in the sense of the diseases periodicity, and emphasizes distinct periods of normalcy
which intercede between the episodes of illness.52 The disease follows an autosomal recessive
inheritance pattern and is usually expressed between the ages of 20 and 29 in the presence of
precipitating factors such as substance abuse, smoking and malnutrition, both of which van
Gogh did during this time in his life.53 Evidence shows that half of the children of the marriage
between Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus suffered from a psychiatric
disorder, thus providing more evidence to the idea that the van Gogh illness was AIP due to the
hereditary nature and probabilistic distribution of the disease.54
According to Arnold, all of the hallmarks of Vincents illness can be accomplished
within this overview of AIP. The most important and well documented are the gastrointestinal
complaints, neurological disturbances, age of onset, jagged time course, and the exacerbations
caused by absinthe abuse and inadequate nutrition (Vincent was often known to have fasted or
forgotten to have eaten because he was so tied up in his work).55 It is also worth noting that

11

Vincents use of absinthe developed into a pica for terpenes, the documented examples being
thujone, camphor, and pinene. Cineole, a constituent of crude camphor and wormwood oils, is
a proven precipitating agent for AIP.56 This craving for terpenes most likely triggered porferia
attacks.
Because many of the symptoms of AIP are psychiatric in nature, the disease is often
misdiagnosed as a type of psychiatric pathology.

MNIRES DISEASE

Dr. I. Kaufman Arenberg made the theory that van Gogh had Mnires disease and not
epilepsy because his symptoms appeared epileptic in form, but not really epileptic. Although
there were several doctors in Paris who were aware of Mnires disease and its common
confusion with epilepsy, the fact that van Gogh was diagnosed as an epileptic reflects a lack of
dissemination of state-of-the-art medical knowledge.57
Arenberg argues that the onset of the disease was characterized by van Gogh in his letters
as attacks of dizziness and vertigo, which van Gogh says, In ParisI was always feeling
dizzyand at that time it was recurring to me rather regularly.58 He writes to Theo, an attack
of vertigo comes on in the long rung, and to Wilhelmina, vertigo was felt with me always.59
Mnires disease also has the symptom of positional exacerbation of vertigo and
disequilibrium, which is evidenced by van Goghs writing to Bernard, I am writing today, now
that my head has gotten a bit steadier. I was possible afraid to excite it before being cured.60
This vertigo described coupled with van Goghs weak stomach is just one symptom of Mnires
disease.

12

Another symptom is tinnitus and aural pressure, which may explain why Vincent cut off
part of his left ear and sent it to a prostitute. Some patients with Mnires disease experience
such overwhelming tinnitus that they would cut off their ear or poke a hole in it with an ice
pick to try to relieve it.61 Tinnitus was not a term used in France in 1888, so van Gogh never
described his symptom as such, instead he talked of the strange sounds and voices that he
perceived.62
In addition, characteristic of Mnires disease is a sort of fullness or pressure in the
head or centered on the ear, described by van Gogh that he had the profound feeling at times
that his mind was a turpid pool, but this was a disease. [He was] unable to describe exactly what
[was] that matter with [him]; now and then there [were] horrible fits of anxiety, apparently
without cause, or otherwise a feeling of emptiness or fatigue in the head.63 The intermittent
nature of van Goghs symptoms is consistent with the disease.
Mnires disease is characterized by several auditory aspects, one of which is
hyperacusis from loud noises with recruitment of loudness and distortion of sound, and is
described by van Gogh in his writing to Gauguin, as for myself, I am still afraid of the noise and
bustle of Paris.64 He had previously noted, I stayed in Paris only three days and the noise, etc.,
of Paris had such a bad effect on me that I thought it was wise for my heads sake to fly to the
country.65 In a longer entry about his disease, van Gogh remarks:
I am, again speaking of my own condition, so grateful for
another thing. I gather from others that during their attacks
they have also heard strange sounds and voices as I did, and
that in their eyes too things seemed to be changing. And
that lessens the horror that I retained at first of the attacks I
have had, and which when it comes to you unaware, cannot
but frighten you beyond measure. Once you know that it is
part of the disease, you can take it like anything else. If I
had not seen other lunatics close up, I should not have been
able to free myself from dwelling on it constantly. For the

13

anguish and suffering are no joke once you are caught by

an attack.66
Based on van Goghs written statements in letters, he suffered from frightening attacks
of disabling, recurrent vertigo, with nausea and auditory and visual disturbances that were
described as hallucinations.67 His own first hand account is more compelling of a story for
Mnires disease and not epilepsy according to Dr. I. Kaufman Arenberg. In addition, his
voluntary admission to the asylum at St. Rmy, hoping to find help for his attacks of vertigo that
everyone else thought was a form of epilepsy and his rational behavior at the asylum as well as
before and after attacks as described in his voluminous correspondence, should forever banish
the notion that he was an epileptic or mad.68
This does provide a possible theory, however, this doesnt provide answers for many of
his peculiar interactions with people and strange behaviors such as eating paint and ending his
life with suicide.

OTHER POSSIBLE DISEASES

There are several other diseases that van Gogh has been tentatively diagnosed with, some
in combination with others that have been previously described. It is possible that van Gogh was
both bipolar and epileptic. In contrast, it is also possible that he had mild forms of several
diseases in combination with others.
One separate disease from the ones previously mentioned is interictal dysphoric disorder,
which was well recognized by pre-modern psychiatrists from the German language area as the
most common psychiatric disorder associated with epilepsy.69 The symptoms of such a disease
vary and in his letters, van Gogh referred to his dysphoric symptoms as attacks of

14

melancholy, moments of enthusiasm of madness, fits of anxiety, or a transient feeling of

emptiness and fatigue, rendering a lucid picture of highly episodic mental states.70 Blumert
argues that these symptoms are clearly are more intermittent and pleomorphic than those
experienced by an individual with the more sustained mood changes of manic-depressive
illness.71
Lead poisoning is another theory put forth because van Gogh used lead based paints and
there are some who believe he suffered from lead poisoning from nibbling at paint chips.72
This was evidenced by Dr. Peyron who wrote that van Gogh often tried to poison himself by
swallowing paint or drinking kerosene. One of the symptoms of lead poisoning is swelling of
the retinas, which can cause one to see light in circles like halos around objects.73 Like other
explanations for his affinity for yellow and the bright halos, this can be seen in several of van
Goghs paintings including The Starry Night.
The affinity for the halo effect can be due to several different types of causes, one of
which is theorized to have been glaucoma for van Gogh. According to Dr. Frederick W. Maire,
glaucoma is a common disease of the eye characterized by an increase of the intraocular
pressure, usually greater than about 25mm Hg. There are two main types, that occurring without
antecedent ocular disease, and that which follows a preexisting disease of the eye.74 In either
case, the equilibrium is upset between the forces of fluids formed in the posterior chamber
which can lead to the intermittent appearance of rainbow-tinted halos around lights and dilation
of the pupil.75
A smaller theory, which may have been paired with other diseases, is sunstroke.
Because van Gogh strived for realism in his painting he was often painting outdoors especially
during his times in the South of France.76 Some of his symptoms may be due to sunstroke,

15

however, alternatively, sunstroke may have exacerbated other diseases symptoms, thereby just
compounding the problems that he faced.

CONCLUSION

Part of the difficulty in coming to a conclusion about the diagnoses and medical mystery
of Vincent van Gogh is that there are a variety of symptoms, most of which overlap with each
other between the diseases and can be explained by one or more theories put forth by the
hundreds of doctors who have studied and written on this issue. And without the man himself to
be put through a series of modern-day hospital tests, unfortunately we are left with theories about
what ailed van Gogh.
There can be no doubt in the great accomplishments of Vincent van Gogh, especially in
light of everything that he had to overcome in order to work and complete his paintings. It is
fascinating to discuss the illness of Vincent, which has perplexed twentieth-century physicians,
as is evident from the nearly 30 different diagnoses that have been offeredMany writers have
acknowledged the epilepsy but considered the psychiatric disorder an independent mental
illness.77 In light of the many combinations of possible diagnoses and lack of physical evidence
or ability to test the patient, the actual diagnosis (or diagnoses) of Vincent van Gogh may never
be known.

16

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
SECTION
Fig. 1 Vincents portrait of his physician, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet. Photo from Paul Wolf,
Creativity and Chronic Disease, Western Journal of Medicine. Nov 2001; 175(5).

17

Figure 1

18


1
Dir. Daniel Zuckerbrot. Van Gogh: Medical Secrets. 2003. DVD. Discovery Channel: Films for
the Humanities and Sciences.
2
Max Hunter Bay, The Illness of Vincent van Gogh Observations of Human Behavior, (2011).
3
Ibid.
4
Zuckerbrot , Van Gogh.
5
Dietrich Blumer, M.D., The Illness of Vincent van Gogh American Journal of Psychiatry 159
(2002), 519.
6
Ibid.
7
Gastaut H. La maladie de Vincent van Gogh envisage a la lumire des conceptions nouvelles
sur l pilepsie psychomotrice. Ann Md Psychol, (Paris, 1956) 114: 196-238.
8
R. Correa, Vincent van Gogh: A Pathographic Analysis, Medical Hypotheses 82 (2014); 142.
9
Blumer, The Illness, 520.
10
Ibid.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
Ibid, 521.
18
Ibid.
19
Concordance, lists, bibliography: Documentation, Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh
Museum.
20
Blumer, The Illness, 521.
21
Ibid.
22
Concordance, lists, bibliography: Documentation,
23
Ibid.
24
Blumer, The Illness, 521.
25
Vincent van Gogh, and Ronald De. Leeuw. The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh. London: Allen
Lane, Penguin, 1996. 488.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid, 509.
28
Blumer, The Illness, 522.
29
Zuckerbrot , Van Gogh.
30
Blumer, The Illness, 519.
31
Vincent van Gogh, and Ronald De. Leeuw. The Letters of Vincent, 509.
32
Ibid.
33
Correa, Vincent van Gogh, 141.
34
Ibid, 142.
35
Morel BA: Dune forme de dlire, suite dune surexcitation nerveuse se rattachant a une
varit non encore dcrite dpilepsie: lpilepsie larve. Gazette Hebdomadaire de Mdecine et
de Chirurgie 1860; 7:773-775
36
Paul Wolf, Creativity and Chronic Disease, Western Journal of Medicine. Nov 2001; 175(5):
348.
37
Ibid.

19


38
Blumer, The Illness, 522.
39
Ibid, 523.
40
Ibid.
41
Ibid.
42
Ibid.
43
Ibid.
44
Zuckerbrot , Van Gogh.
45
Vincent van Gogh, and Ronald De. Leeuw. The Letters of Vincent, 414.
46
Ibid.
47
Blumer, The Illness, 522.
48
Paul Wolf, Creativity, 348.
49
Wilfred Niels Arnold. The Illness of Vincent van Gogh, Journal of the History of the
Neurosciences 2004. Vol. 13, No. 1, 29.
50
Zuckerbrot , Van Gogh.
51
Ibid.
52
Ibid, 30.
53
Correa, Vincent van Gogh, 143.
54
Ibid.
55
Arnold. The Illness of Vincent van Gogh, 30.
56
Ibid.
57
I. Kaufman Arenberg. Van Gogh Had Menieres Disease and Not Epilepsy, Journal for the
American Medical Association July 25, 1990, Vol. 264, No. 4, 492.
58
Ibid.
59
Ibid.
60
Ibid.
61
Ibid.
62
Ibid, 493.
63
Ibid.
64
Ibid.
65
Ibid.
66
Ibid.
67
Ibid.
68
Ibid.
69
Blumer, The Illness, 523.
70
Ibid.
71
Ibid.
72
Van Goghs Mental and Physical Health, Van Gogh Gallery.
73
Ibid.
74
Frederick W. Maire, Van Goghs Suicide, Journal for the American Medical Association
Aug 16, 1971, Vol. 217, No. 7, 938.
75
Ibid.
76
Van Goghs Mental and Physical Health, Van Gogh Gallery.
77
Blumer, The Illness, 522.

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