60 minutes - Vincent Van Gogh

[BuckeyeFan]

Vincent Van Gogh is being featured on 60 Minutes starting now. It will be interesting how they treat the theory or fact that he had epilepsy.

[Wally]

I've been looking forward to that also.

[BuckeyeFan]

Seemed like a pretty decent treatment of E. It didn't link his sanity issues with E other than the fight against that might have caused the depression.

Interesting story.

[Endless]

If you missed it you can either read the transcript or see the video (tv story) here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...in;cbsCarousel

[SusaninCA]

I was watching this when I joined the forum. I am curious because there are so many variables to Epilepsy - but to pull your ear off during a seizure? Or is it true that he had Syphilis and it made him legitimately crazy? I worry that the segment made epilepsy seem like an illness that is derived from craziness vs. an illness that makes us crazy because it can be a rough path sometimes.

[Wally]

Very good coverage of the true story. Beautiful place too. We all get a different sense of the story I'm sure, versus someone that hasn't had to live with Epilepsy. Imagine what it was like to live with Epilepsy when the Dr's weren't certain how to diagnose you and had no way to treat you!

[Cint]

- but to pull your ear off during a seizure? Or is it true that he had Syphilis and it made him legitimately crazy? I worry that the segment made epilepsy seem like an illness that is derived from craziness vs. an illness that makes us crazy because it can be a rough path sometimes.

Regardless of whether this segment of 60 minutes gave people another insight of epilepsy, everyone will still have their opinion. There are many different types of seizures and during some, yes, people do crazy things. When I've had a few tonic clonic's, I've been told later that I attacked my father, tried to fight of a policeman, slapped a friend.... yet I don't remember any of these incidents. So depending on where the seizures originate from, one can do strange and weird things. It has been a very rough path for me.
Epilepsy makes people crazy!!!!!!!!!

I used to see a dr. who was from Switzerland and did intense research on VanGogh and here is what he had to say:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/...full/159/4/519

The Illness of Vincent van Gogh

Dietrich Blumer, M.D.

Vincent felt lonely in Arles and with Theo’s help persuaded Gauguin to join him in the fall of 1888 to establish together a "Studio of the South." The relationship of the two artists became increasingly quarrelsome, and Vincent wrote, "Our dispute is at times excessively animated like with electricity, at times we end up with tired and empty heads, like an electric battery after discharge" (5). Gauguin’s visit lasted only 2 months and ended in catastrophe. On Christmas Eve 1888, after Gauguin already had announced he would leave, van Gogh suddenly threw a glass of absinthe in Gauguin’s face, then was brought home and put to bed by his companion. A bizarre sequence of events ensued. When 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. He retained no memory of his attacks on Gauguin, the self-mutilation, or the early part of his stay at the hospital.

Beautiful place too. We all get a different sense of the story I'm sure, versus someone that hasn't had to live with Epilepsy. Imagine what it was like to live with Epilepsy when the Dr's weren't certain how to diagnose you and had no way to treat you!

A very beautiful place, indeed! Some docs still don't know how to make the correct diagnosis.

[Blythe]

I did not care for the way Temporal Lobe Epilepsy was made to look as though Crazy. They lacked the full knowledge perhaps due to never knowing an individual intimately with Complex Partial seizures.

[Cint]

I did not care for the way Temporal Lobe Epilepsy was made to look as though Crazy. They lacked the full knowledge perhaps due to never knowing an individual intimately with Complex Partial seizures.

Well, like I said before, when some folks have seizures, they do crazy things. Even in the U.S. until the 1970's in some places, people with epilepsy were still in the "asylum". Unfortunately, the stigma is going to take a long time to break. I think they did a good job of explaining epilepsy. With temporal lobe epilepsy, people do hear voices, see things and become violent and go into unconsciousness. Been there, done that. And no, I am not crazy! I have temporal lobe epilepsy.

[Endless]

Most people, when having a complex partial or a generalized seizure, do not feel pain. During complex partials people can do and say crazy stuff. It is not beyond my imagination that van gogh waved a razor around and cut his own ear, not feeling it as it happened and not remembering a thing about it afterwards. It's why I keep knives pushed towards the back, down on the bottom shelf in the kitchen. It's also why I mostly microwave cook these days, not use the burner or barbeque.