Did Van Gogh have Ménière's disease?

SummaryVery surprising diagnoses have sometimes been made of the illness from which Vincent van Gogh suffered. Most of them can be safely ignored; the diagnosis of Ménière's disease, however, put forward by K. I. Arenberg, deserves attention. This diagnosis was first criticized in a doctoral thesis in 1992 in the university of Saint-Etienne (France), and again in a book published by Henri André Martin in 1994, and the present study is based on these. Analyzing van Gogh's pathology presupposes awareness of the family context in which he lived, his eventful life, his artistic career and of his correspondence, which notably provides no support for a diagnosis of Ménière's disease. Analysis, indeed, enables Ménière's disease to be categorically eliminated in favor of temporal epilepsy, as confirmed in 1956 by Gastaut following the diagnosis initially made half a century earlier by Dr Rey. Van Gogh's illness is an example of the contradictory changes in affect, behavior and personality to be observed in epileptic patients. Absinth intoxication doubtless aggravated van Gogh's epilepsy and may account for certain prolonged episodes of confusion. It would be wrong, however, to speak of alcoholic dementia rather than of a probable epileptic psychosis or other pathology such as hallucinatory psychosis, or delirious attack, either isolated or related to late-onset schizophrenia. Apart from certain episodes of severe mental disorder, however, van Gogh's exceptional creativity was maintained up to the very end. Like any other artist, his temperament was expressed in his art, exalted rather than impaired by his illness.