http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/arts/design/vincent-van-gogh-doctors-historians-weigh-in-amsterdam.html 2016-09-15 18:55:36 What Ailed van Gogh? Doctors Weigh In. Psychiatrists, other doctors and art historians discussed van Gogh’s medical case at a meeting here connected to the show “On the Verge of Insanity.” === AMSTERDAM — Medical professionals and art historians have concluded that Vincent van Gogh suffered from a form of psychosis, but they could not come to a consensus about the underlying cause of his mental illness. The diagnosis came out of a meeting of experts sponsored by the The debate was lively and sometimes “fierce,” said Louis van Tilborgh, a professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, who conducts research into the life and work of van Gogh at the Van Gogh Museum. “It’s difficult to make a diagnosis, so the real progress we’ve made is that specialists in the field are talking about it, and they’ve never done this before,” he said. Van Gogh’s illness has been subject of much speculation since he died of a gunshot wound in July 29, 1890, apparently a suicide. Over the years popular theories have been floated that the artist suffered from bipolar disorder, temporal lobe epilepsy, syphilis and schizophrenia. The Van Gogh Museum gathered all the medical evidence of his case, as well as his personal letters and some art-historical information, and provided it to a panel of experts to tackle the question once and for all. Arko Oderwald, a lecturer in philosophy and medical ethics at the Vrije University Medical Center in Amsterdam, presented the findings Thursday morning to the participants and journalists at the “Psychosis is a syndrome, a combination of symptoms,” said He specified that van Gogh suffered short psychotic episodes or intermittent psychosis, “because in psychosis, everyone thinks of schizophrenia, and schizophrenia is long-lasting, chronic disease without insight, without introspection, without the fear of relapse.” And that does not fit the profile of van Gogh’s illness, he said.