[Trait-aggression and suicide of Vincent van Gogh]. / Vincent van Gogh vonás-agressziója és öngyilkossága.

Although in recent decades the literature has paid special attention to Vincent van Gogh's life, work and illness, there has still not been an examination of the connections between his trait aggression and his suicide. The present study traces, in the light of this trait aggression, the predictive factors that can be observed on the path leading to the artist's suicide. Biographical documents, case history data, as well as letters and the findings of earlier research have been used in the course of the analysis. Among the distal suicide risk factors we find a positive family anamnesis, childhood traumas (emotional deprivation, identity problems associated with the name Vincent), a vagrant, homeless way of life, failures in relationships with women, and psychotic episodes appearing in rushes. The proximal factors include the tragic friendship with Gauguin (frustrated love), his brother Theo's marriage (experienced as a loss), and a tendency to self-destruction. Both factor groups on the one hand determined the course of development of the trait aggression and on the other can also be regarded as a manifestation of that trait aggression. It can be said that the trait aggression played an important role in Van Gogh's suicide.

Vincent van Gogh: a pathographic analysis.

The life and artistic legacy of Vincent van Gogh has generated great interest among physicians from different areas of specialization in proposing a retrospective differential diagnosis. The aim of the present study is to present a systematic pathographic analysis of the artist and to suggest a diagnosis consistent with the extant evidence. To this end, the available evidence is classified into five types: type I evidence (clinical opinion of an attending physician), type II evidence (description of symptoms in correspondence), type III evidence (historical accounts from first-hand sources or direct observation), type IV evidence (interpretation of the artist's work) and type V evidence (family medical history). Three basic prerequisites for a successful analysis are: (1) consideration of type II, III and V evidence as carrying the greatest pathographic weight, (2) consideration of the course of symptoms over time as a key element in the analysis, and (3) consideration of a single diagnostic hypothesis as the most probable explanation. After reviewing the available evidence in the light of these criteria, the author supports the diagnosis of acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) as the most likely cause of van Gogh's ailment.

King George III, bipolar disorder, porphyria and lessons for historians.

In the 1960s, Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter, mother and son psychiatrists, stated that George III's medical records showed that he suffered from acute porphyria. In spite of well-argued criticisms by Geoffrey Dean and Charles Dent based on their extensive clinical experience of the acute porphyrias, Macalpine and Hunter were able to garnish extensive support for their claims from historians, psychiatrists, physicians and the media circus and their view is now surprisingly widely accepted. Recent research of George III's extensive medical records has shown that Macalpine and Hunter were highly selective in their reporting and interpretation of his signs and symptoms and that the diagnosis of the acute porphyria cannot be sustained. The basis for the false claims and the consequences for historians are considered and indicate that there is now an opportunity to reassess George III's contributions to events in his reign.

The illness of Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a wonderfully accomplished artist whose work is now widely appreciated. He created a great number of masterpiece paintings and drawings in just one decade devoted to art. His productivity is even more remarkable when considered in the context of his debilitating illness. He suffered from medical crises that were devastating, but in the intervening periods he was both lucid and creative. He left a profound, soul-searching description of his jagged life in his correspondence, which provides the basis for the present analysis. An inherited metabolic disease, acute intermittent porphyria, accounts for all of the signs and symptoms of van Gogh's underlying illness. On this 150th anniversary of the birth of Vincent van Gogh it is appropriate to revisit the subject and to analyze the lack of organized skepticism in the popular media about other diagnoses.

Uroporphyria: some notes on its ancient historical background.

Black urine is recorded in all ancient urology as a negative prognostic sign, often linked with the presence of blood; its presence can also be considered as a sign of massive hemolytic crisis, especially if associated with specific nosological patterns. The Hippocratic case of Epidemics III, 11 has recently been diagnosed as an intermittent acute porphyria. Despite the difficult 'retrospective' diagnosis of an ancient case, it seems likely that the Hippocratic physicians empirically knew clinical associations of symptoms that modern medicine could consider as the first descriptions of porphyria.