When Van Gogh Cut His Own Ear: 

The Famous Van Gogh Syndrome

In the evening of Sunday, December 23rd, 1888, Van Gogh, the renowned Dutch artist, had a blazing row with his 

fellow artist, Paul Gaugin, at their home in Arles. Van Gogh’s mental instability had gotten to Gaugin’s nerves and, so, he stormed out. 

Van Gogh was then already hospitalized multiple times with severe psychosis and schizophrenia. The fight depressed him more and he had a blackout.  

What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Psychosis? Know more below!

Waking up, he took to heavy drinking and experienced hallucinations. Unconsciously, he picked up a knife and completely severed his entire left ear. 

How do the Hallucinations happen? Know more below!

He wrapped the ear in newspaper and headed to a nearby brothel. 

With his hat pulled over his wound, he handed a prostitute the very surprising package and remarked: “Guard this object carefully.” She fainted upon opening it. Presumably, Van Gogh blushed.  

This incident would, eventually, lay out the legacy of his “mental or nervous fever” and posthumously earn him a fanbase who saw him as a “crackpot celebrity” or a “one-eared madman who heard the world in mono”. 

It also heralded the naming of disorders related to self-mutilation as the “Van Gogh syndrome”. 

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