The modern asylum and mental institutions not only opened up the art canon to this marginalized community, but also started a medical and scientific exploration into mental illness, behavioral sciences, the psychology of the brain, and if there’s really proof of the link between creativity and insanity. As Thomas Szaz explains in his article,Intentionality and Insanity, while the sciences have one singular lens for explaining their findings, mental health professionals have two: “one for sane people and their normal behavior, another for so-called insane people and their abnormal behavior.” While the work of the mentally competent person is seen as intentional and goal-oriented, the work of the abnormal brain is seen as casual and non-intentional,
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While he gained little to not notoriety during his life, only selling one painting while he was alive, after his death his works became more and more famous and we come to know him as the artistic legend he is portrayed as today. But while Van Gogh did showcase incredible talent and skill, his life was not without hardship. Van Gogh struggled with his love life, self mutilation, and debilitating mental anguish. Wilfred Arnold explains his troubled life in his article, The Illness of Vincent Van Gogh. Arnold has done extensive research on Van Gogh’s life, attempting to diagnose and understand his illness based on his journals, letters, and artwork, finding key points of deterioration and illness. Based on this research, Arnold shows how Van Gogh’s illness was “made up of episodes of acute mental derangement and disability which were separated by intervals of lucidity and creativity.” Van Gogh developed these issues into his thirties, and records show that family members were always shocked at how quickly he would recover or return to “normal” after each episode or trauma. Van Gogh’s condition worsened as he grew older, with an instance of severe gastrointestinal pain which resulted in auditory and visual hallucinations, seizures, paired with spouts of extreme depression making him unable to move. Van Gogh also self-mutilated during this time, the most notable case being him cutting of his ear, and then painting a self portrait with a bandage over the wound. This self mutilation progressed to Van Gogh’s eventual suicide in 1890. While some of his periods of illness may be associated with fever, substance abuse and malnutrition, his mental state was clearly not one of complete competence or full awareness of reality. There are many debates on specifically what illness Van Gogh had, from bipolar disorder, to schizophrenia, temporal lobe epilepsy, and the list goes on. Van
While he gained little to not notoriety during his life, only selling one painting while he was alive, after his death his works became more and more famous and we come to know him as the artistic legend he is portrayed as today. But while Van Gogh did showcase incredible talent and skill, his life was not without hardship. Van Gogh struggled with his love life, self mutilation, and debilitating mental anguish. Wilfred Arnold explains his troubled life in his article, The Illness of Vincent Van Gogh. Arnold has done extensive research on Van Gogh’s life, attempting to diagnose and understand his illness based on his journals, letters, and artwork, finding key points of deterioration and illness. Based on this research, Arnold shows how Van Gogh’s illness was “made up of episodes of acute mental derangement and disability which were separated by intervals of lucidity and creativity.” Van Gogh developed these issues into his thirties, and records show that family members were always shocked at how quickly he would recover or return to “normal” after each episode or trauma. Van Gogh’s condition worsened as he grew older, with an instance of severe gastrointestinal pain which resulted in auditory and visual hallucinations, seizures, paired with spouts of extreme depression making him unable to move. Van Gogh also self-mutilated during this time, the most notable case being him cutting of his ear, and then painting a self portrait with a bandage over the wound. This self mutilation progressed to Van Gogh’s eventual suicide in 1890. While some of his periods of illness may be associated with fever, substance abuse and malnutrition, his mental state was clearly not one of complete competence or full awareness of reality. There are many debates on specifically what illness Van Gogh had, from bipolar disorder, to schizophrenia, temporal lobe epilepsy, and the list goes on. Van