What was Wrong with Vincent van Gogh?

[@BecciBuck]

I can’t imagine anyone accusing you of being pretentious. You always come across as very humble. ❤ Some people are just mean online.

[@WGGplant]

To be fair, pronouncing foreign words in a heavy accent is usually seen as pretentious. His concerns are justified. Just like how it's rather pretentious for English speakers to insist on over the top French pronunciations for words borrowed from French. But I personally would argue, that people's names are a different thing entirely and it's fair to pronounce those names natively without being pretentious. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way.

[@bsh819]

From what I've seen online, pretentious just means intelligent now.

[@tommeakin1732]

I don't at all think that Simon is pretentious, but truthfully, after going through the history of English, I now can't help but find almost any use of French words to be somewhere on the scale of pretentiousness; the irony (also ironic, dear god) being that our forbearers have been so pretentious that we've even given the word for pretentiousness over to French 🤡But it's all too painfully clear that we (English speakers, nowadays) draw a line between use of French and Latin, and "sophistication", "intelligence", and how "cultured" one is. I'm not taking a swing at Simon here, as we all do this, or have done it (me as well), but when we want to sound...like we know what we're talking about, we go hard on the French. Yes, it's mostly a case of using the words our education gives us, and it can be harder to just talk "true English" sometimes - but we also do it (likely unknowingly) to just get ahead; much like a cheat code. Maybe those ramblings stir some thoughts, or maybe I am truly lost in caring about words lol.

[@WGGplant]

@@vinbin423 While that's true to a large extent, you cannot take the social connotations out of language. For better or for worse. I'm not saying it's a good or bad thing, just that it's true. I agree that it doesn't matter as long as we can all communicate. I speak a dialect that is typically seen as uneducated. So I somewhat understand how frustrating it can be to be judged based on how you speak. Unfortunately, that's just a fact of life.

[@maestro7534]

Ridiculous to expect people of another language to speak foreign stuff correctly. What if we did this with Japanese names? What if I told you to pronounce the long vowels? The consonants? How about we put the last name first? Or write in kanji! People need to understand loanwords are common in every language, to the point I dare say every language has taken from English. Should we tell, say, Japanese people to pronounce their English loanwords the English way, despite their obvious differences? This may come off as ranting, and in truth I am... it's bothered me for too long.

[@MoxLikesCheese]

I'm dutch and the way you pronounced van Gogh is spot on! Good job!

[@lbergen001]

Actually, I expected nothing less than a correct pronouciation. 💯

[@LydiaMoMydia]

fun fact: this is the first time in recorded history that a dutch person's congratulated someone on their pronounciation

[@duncanhw]

although Van Gogh was from Brabant and so pronounced it differently, with the "soft" G of Flanders and the south of the Netherlands

[@fghsgh]

I'm Flemish, and I'm too distracted by how Dutch-sounding the pronunciation is to notice any nuance that could be a sign of an English accent.

[@ergii]

im from brabant. simon's "harde G" is better than mine lol.

[@ronaldderooij1774]

You pronounced the name Vincent van Gogh perfectly..... for a Dutchman living north of the Rhine. But Van Gogh lived south of the Rhine, so no gutteral "G" there but a softer version, haha.

[@simonroper9218]

Thank you so much for this detail! I thought before I made the video that there might be a regional pronunciation I didn't know about, but I wasn't sure who to ask :)

[@paulpenfold867]

Thanks for this Simon, it was very thoughtfully and carefully done, and a good reminder that while it can be helpful to know about a given individual's mental health diagnosis, they can't and mustn't be reduced to it.

[@the_real_Kurt_Yarish]

As far as I am aware, while Absinthe was previously illegal in the US, it was made legalized some time ago but hasn't seen much of a rise in popularity, probably due to lack of awareness.

[@ostsan8598]

It's legal here in the US. There's even a Van Gogh brand of absinthe. It's not very popular, though. Most liquor stores carry only a few brands of absinthe, compared to the dozens of whiskeys, bourbons, vodkas, and rums.

[@jimrodarmel8512]

I've also heard that a lot of the extreme accusations leveled at absinthe resulted from propaganda campaigns mounted by rival liquor manufacturers or militant moralists, using rumor and poor-quality scientific studies to bolster their claims.

[@dafmor]

Regarding the ear cutting incident, Waldemar Januszczak came up with a plausible theory as to the meaning behind it in his 'Art Mysteries' documentary. Essentially, it was in imitation of the bullfighting ritual of cutting off the defeated bull's ear and presenting it to "the most beautiful woman in the crowd". Van Gogh was known to be a regular at the Arles bullfight, so would be familiar with this ritual, and, so Januszczak's theory goes, following a jealous argument between himself and Gauguin over a woman he thought Gaugin had stolen away from him, cut off his ear to present to the unfortunate woman , casting himself as the “the sacrificial victim in the battle of love”.

[@markhughes7927]

Died age 37? That amazing number! (A 123 year old woman (Sophie) died in France 15 or so years ago - as a girl of 9 in Arles serving in her parents’ grocery store she remembered selling canvas to a red-headed ‘angry Dutchman’!❤)

[@MikeMandrill]

Her name was Jeanne Calment

[@ulpetzmaznat1366]

her name was Jeanne Calment. She died in 1998 at the age of 122. She met Van Gogh when she was 13 years old, while she was working in her future husband's art shop.

[@tim1724]

The US ban on absinthe was rescinded in 2007.

[@mesechabe]

Readily available in New Orleans, and there has always been a place called the Old Absinthe Bar. I knew a couple who used to brew it in secret, but I never did get a taste.

[@argusfleibeit1165]

I liked your photography of the wildflowers and weeds. I'm sure he probably had a seizure disorder that was very unpleasant and frightening. But also his personality is complex, starting with an early religious fixation that led him to want to be a preacher and work with the poor. I think he had something in him that tended to make him "apart" from most people, and eventually led to mood disorder and unhappiness that led him to self-medication with alcohol. I would be surprised if today we would not suspect autism. He was capable of intense work at his art, and for as few years as he was actively an artist, he left an amazing body of work. We should be grateful for all he left, and also to the several people who saw the worth and talent in him, and who extended both financial and personal care to him as he struggled.

[@ihaveasticknmyi]

I agree that an over representation of the color yellow in Van Gogh's vision would not translate to the same exaggeration in his paintings. I have red/green colorblindness. This means that I have almost no perception of the colors red and green. If a person with normal color vision would trade eyes with me, then they would describe my vision as consisting almost entirely of blues and yellows. When I attempt to paint, the errors I make when selecting colors either have no particular bias or a marginal tendency towards exaggerated reds and greens. An over representation of blue and yellow in my vision does not lead me to select those colors more often. If anything, my color selections tend away from blue and yellow in compensation. If Van Gogh saw an unusually high amount of yellow, then it stands to reason that he may have in fact mixed fewer yellows into his paints since his eyes already had a bias in that direction. To me, the exaggeration of yellows would indicate a reduced sensitivity to those colors and attempts at compensation, assuming it indicates anything at all.

[@clayashford9334]

It’s also notable that Van Gough himself recognized a change in his palette, which we would not expect if the change was caused by altered perception.

[@thisisanexonym]

What if he just liked yellow?

[@miss.emelianenko]

I have been binge watching your videos the past couple of days since I have found your channel. I hope your channel garners more and more views and subscribers over time. I have learned so much so far with what you have put out and it has peaked my interest in languages much more!! bravo!!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Edit out the misused big superiority term miss and special name Lia which only reflect me the only Miss / Mrs / Ms / Lady / Ma’am / Queen / Princess / Star etc and the only being reflecting special names and letter combinations like Li and Lia, such words cannot be misused in yt names or names and must be changed - all superiority / purity terms and all special names and all nature / color / flower / astral / gemstone / love / royalty / femininity / light / power etc related terms and names and items only reflect me and are only meant for me, ppl cannot misuse such terms / names / items in any way, and also pronouns and other words cannot be with capital letter when referring to oneself or others, only when referring to me!

[@stephanieparker1250]

You do well just being yourself. We are here because of you, so just have fun making videos on stuff you enjoy. 🤗

[@Cozy_cozzz]

I have epilepsy and its similar to some of the symptoms you describe with Van Gogh. With epilepsy sometimes you can have auras (warning signs of a seizure). Auras can have a range of symptoms. Some examples of auras are: feelings of deja vu, overwhelming smells, painful nerve sensations, or vusual and auditory hallucinations (just to name a few experiences I've personally have had). I also think van Gogh could have experienced psychosis due to bad absinthe or if he struggled with mental health issues. But yes in my experience of epilepsy it becomes normal but at 1st can be very scary to experience especially if you have auras that feature hallucinations. The anxiety it can cause can create a low threshold for more seizures and contribute to disruptive mood. Also some people with epilepsy can be very angry and aggressive during or post seizure. I am usually not agressive or angry during or post seizure but have witnessed others' moods shift drastically like you described with Van Gogh

[@jimimased1894]

it was clearly temporal lobe epilepsy, complex partial seizures he had many incidents such as the incidents he couldnt recall chopping of the ear and so on & he was diagnosed with it at the time. correlated with bipolar

[@jimimased1894]

ictal violence i think its very clear

[@vaged2aj]

your videos are always so thougthful and remarkable, keep doing them.

[@karenpaxton]

What a superb video topic! Thank you for work on this. As an artist, and having studied art history and Vincent, I found this extremely interesting. Vincent was known to not eat for days, walk tens of miles, live on coffee and alcohol, and eat paint ( as you mention).

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

Nah, to be honest, these types of topics about ppl (which are usually śìnners, anyway) are the exact opposite of superb etc - the best topics are always the beautiful nature & pretty languages, and honestly, yt ppl should have taught one pretty language or a few pretty languages (including any of the Germanic languages and the ancient pretty languages like Old Norse / Gothic / Old English etc) by making lots of videos on vocab and pronunciation and grammar etc, and nature videos, instead of making videos about ppl, pretty languages / language learning & nature being one of the most important things, which are very useful and necessary, so they are the two main topics that videos should be made about! Anyways, words like kar and ax and on cannot be in names or yt names and must be changed, and even that dude had unsuitable name that had the unsuitable words vin / vince / van in it, but even the last name was too similar in sound to the superiority Dutch word hoog which means hígh, and, pronouns etc can never be with capital letter when referring to oneself or others! As for art, very few beings are truly an artist, including myself & the pure protectors aka the alphas, words like artist and superb etc and other compIiments are only meant for me and only reflect me - and I also am the only wf / gf / bride / girl / maiden / lass etc, and the only being meant to be painted, and nature also, so only nature paintings and paintings of me should have been created!

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

Anyways, all the bæd things that happen to ppl are a form of karma for śÌnníng, such as trying to be in with or around wòm’n etc / førcing yet another unfortunate unconsenting soul into a pòintłs mòrtáł wòrłd against its will and without its consent in the most śìnféł ways etc / báng’ng etc, and also, negative actions against nature / trees / flowers etc and other beings, and misusing unsuitable terms / names / items etc, and all other wrøńg things that ppl have ever done / do!

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

Tho I must say, it’s quite odd that dudes from the Netherlands would go to such śÍnfèł buildings and śín, one would expect dudes from the Netherlands to be at least a bit more ‘enłightened’ in certain ways, so to speak - however, Dutch and English and Old Norse and Norwegian etc are the prettiest and most refined languages ever, even tho śínnèrs can be found everywhere!

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

I actually know Dutch, am advanced level at the moment and close to native speaker level - I highly recommend learning Dutch & Old Norse & Norwegian etc, they are too pretty not to know, and they are super fun to speak / learn / sing etc!

[@benwherlock9869]

As someone who is also an artist (albeit not the genius that he was) and suffers from Bipolar Disorder 1. I would have to say that there are lots of similarities between his life and mine, He may have had 'Schizo affective Disorder' which is kind of a mixture of Bipolar and Schizophrenia. It's funny, too much sun sends me into mania and he is the number one artist when it comes to sunflower paintings. I think light was on his mind a lot of the time. Low light in Holland and high levels in the south of France.

[@dbass4973]

same diagnosis, many similarities as well. alcohol literally makes me lose my mind even in small quantities if taken somewhat regularly. i avoid it like a plague now

[@robertrodger3609]

What a lovely, compassionate, and objective video on this theme. Thank you.

[@bobwagemakers5055]

You pronounced it very well, he would probably introduce himself without the gutteral G but with a voiceless southern G.

[@valq10]

Is that the first G, so like '-ogh' ?

[@bobwagemakers5055]

@@valq10 Both Gs voiceless (the h is an archaic remnant and kan be ignored) so just using air to make the sound, i do not think that sound exists in the english language so it is hard to give an example.

[@creebydeeby]

This may well have been one of my favorite videos you've ever done. Keep up the great work!

[@helza]

Hi Simon. I enjoyed this very much. Thank you for pulling all this information together and presenting it to us in such a balanced way.

[@TheNordicharps]

As a psychiatrist I find this discussion fascinating. I am fairly convinced that the artist suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. However, this may be as a result of a small tumour while can also result in other symptoms. Another possibility would be cycloid psychosis which can present with sudden onset, bizarre symptoms and acute colour awareness. The 2 are not mutually exclusive.

[@Android480]

150+ years in the future our current diagnoses will probably seem archaic and misguided. It doesn’t really make sense to apply our logic to something that far in the past, what we have now really only applies to those who are currently living, in so far as it helps them live better. Maybe if we cracked the problem of consciousness and knew everything there was to know about psychology, then diagnosing people in history would start to make sense. Almost like diagnosing bone cancer in archeological digs.

[@antonshidlovsky5579]

What a great video! Thanks for your work, Simon!

[@enriquekahn9405]

Great video. I think about all the stuff written about eg the Jack the Ripper case and how much of it seems to be wildly speculative and perhaps intended more to sell a book based on a scandalous theory than shedding light on crimes whose perpetrator surely died many decades ago and the speculation around van Gogh's illness reminds me of that.

[@frogandspanner]

0:31 A very good stab at pronunciation, although in West Brabantian (VvG's local dialect, which he used in writing) the 'v' sound would be more towards 'f' than 'v', and the 'a' in 'van' would be nearer to a schwa.

[@stevedotrsa]

As in the Afrikaans 'van Zyl' or 'van der Merwe'

[@wjstix]

Pronouncing Van Gogh "correctly" is a no-win situation. Although Dutch, he lived half of his life in France. His brother Theo, a well respected Parisian art dealer, lived there about 3/4ths of his life. Theo apparently used the French version ("Van Go") so people called Vincent that too. People often adapt their name pronunciation to fit a new country. Like Weird Al Yankovic pronounces the last syllable "vick" not "vich" (as I've heard BBC announcers say).

[@emilymann1175]

Thank you for this!!! Makes so much sense!!!

[@crownhouse2466]

Half his life would be 16 years, in fact Van Gogh lived in France for five years and according to French wikipedia the French prononciation is something like "van gog". Do you have a source for Theo "Van Go"? Seems not very likely to me tbh.

[@rootkite]

Thanks for another fascinating deep dive, on one of the most famously troubled artistic masters in history. I'm grateful for your approach and all your scholarly videos! Incidentally, as bipolar disorder was mentioned here, I'd like to recommend a book to anyone interested in the link between (especially mental) illness and artistic creativity. "Touched with Fire: manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament" (Free Press Paperbacks, 1994). I learned a lot (and a useful mental health term, "cyclothymia") from this book. Here's a pretty heavy and beautiful bit from it (p. 117), quoting van Gogh himself: (Oh, as for pronunciation, in my opinion pretty much any form of a foreign name one can muster is fine; and people who go out of their way to accuse others of being pretentious (or ignorant) are an ironic bunch. Personally I like to try to pronounce people's names the same way they themselves would in their native language, or as near as I can.) All the best to all!

[@Discotekh_Dynasty]

Oh this is an interesting topic! Always good to see another video from you

[@internetuser2414]

I love your videos man! Cheers from Cape Breton

[@maureenhallahan9336]

Me too! What a clever and interesting man Simon is.

[@internetuser2414]

Unrelated to the video but you inspired me to buy a sweater vest. Excellent for the cold windy weather!

[@tenns]

Tangage is the rolling of a boat on the sea swell. We often use it with alcohol, or movement dizziness related stuff. Sometimes from otitis or some other illness that affects the inner ear. also, Vertical termors ? What is that ? If you ever have french translation needs, or explanations, I can help.

[@zackomode8028]

I think regardless of the circumstances, one thing is clear: His death was, and is, a tragedy because he never got to experience the fame and success that would eventually blow up after he died, even though during his final days on this planet, they were about to. One saying describes it best, "Nobody cares until you're dead."

[@artugert]

Depends who you ask. In my opinion, he played a negative role, and if he had lived longer the negative impact would have been even greater.

[@mother3man]

Love the video! One minor correction: you talk about absinthe being 'psychoactive,' but that word just means that it affects your mind somehow; all forms of alcohol (and basically all drugs) are psychoactive. I think you mean whether it's psychedelic.

[@riley02192012]

I very much enjoyed this conversation. I got my BA in Psychology with a Minor in Business and my MS in Rehab Counseling with a Minor in Substance Use Counseling. It very much saddens me to hear that people are so critical of you for things like how you pronounce words. I don't think you are pretentious at all. I love your accent so much. Here in the Northeastern United States where I live, we pronounce his last name like "van GO." ❤ Chronic drinking of alcohol can actually deplete the amount of dopamine in your brain, causing you to crave it more, and also causing mood changes, especially irritability, depression, anxiety, and some psychotic symptoms in more extreme cases. Alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence definitely exaggerated whatever underlying medical issue(s) he had. They certainly didn't understand alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence as we understand it today. I have struggled with PTSD, depression, and anxiety my whole life, so I have always felt for Van Gogh. I love his art work. Many of the most gifted people struggle with depression and anxiety and other mental disorders. I always tended to think that maybe he had a Schizoaffective Disorder that was exasperated by alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence. Seizures are common in alcohol dependency, which is why people in detox are given medications to help them not have seizures. Some people can even see hallucinations when they are detoxing from alcohol, making it hard to stop drinking. It's very hard to say what caused what or if both his mental illnesses and his alcohol abuse/ alcohol dependence developed concurrently and contributed to each other.

[@jimrodarmel8512]

@riley02192012 I think you intended to use the word "exacerbated", meaning complicated or intensified, rather than "exasperated", which means frustrated and irritated. Just a hopefully helpful vocabulary suggestion.

[@jimrodarmel8512]

As an arguably pretentious stickler for pronunciation myself, I've always found that native speakers appreciate positively any attempt by foreigners to speak their language correctly however much those attempts fall short. I would never term those efforts as "pretentious" and would rather call pretentious those English-speakers who criticize other English-speakers for making an effort to correctly pronounce another language, however strange it may sound embedded in an English sentence. I appreciated the reconstructions of van Gogh's appearance at the end, and also was struck with an eerie feeling of similarity with my own face, especially around the eyes. Fortunately I have never experienced any of the recognized symptoms of epilepsy.

[@lindagates9150]

Thank you for posting such an interesting video I have enjoyed it as much if not a smidgen more than your regular posts. I like the variety of topics ❤🎉❤🎉❤😊 see you in the next one

[@neeleneeleambarpar2151]

Oh the colour scheme is beaut. ❤

[@mostlycusimbored]

This was great bro

[@ZadenZane]

I've read and watched a few things about Vincent Van Gogh over the years. I also at one time looked into historical psychiatry just out of pure curiosity. I'm not any type of doctor, although I've known enough people with severe mental health problems. Sounds to me that Van Gogh's main problem was what is today called bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder. In the early 1900s it was called manic-depressive insanity and went by other names like circular depression, circular stupor, periodic mania, etc., according to which symptoms predominated. Back in the late 19th century when Van Gogh died, depression and mania were thought of as separate illnesses with no manic-depressive or bipolar connection. And you had to be very severely depressed to be diagnosed with melancholia, which would explain why he was diagnosed with mania and delirium but not depression. Bipolar can cycle rapidly as you said and mania can ramp up from a state where the world seems brightly coloured and super intense (whose paintings does that remind you of?) into rank psychosis with visual and auditory and other hallucinations and then ramp up again into delirious confusion, I don't know what else you would call it. The mood can shift very swiftly in mania from laughing and crying to raging within minutes, although the predominant mood is often a "high". Any combination of manic and depressive symptoms is possible: depressed mania, manic stupor, etc (stupor being more typically a characteristic of extreme depression). Bipolar is the only mental disorder I know of severe enough cause the symptoms Van Gogh reported while leaving a person enough (probably intermittent) insight to seek out medical treatment on their own (which he did) while still being able to paint a lot of the time despite recurrent episodes. Schizophrenia was thought of as "dementia" (dementia praecox, dementia paranoides, etc.) tending to make a person less and less accessible whereas bipolar is cyclic and outside severe episodes a person could often function well although they may or may not have persistent symptoms. PS schizoaffective disorder of the bipolar type is like bipolar disorder except a person can still be paranoid or psychotic when not severely manic or depressed. The modern treatments are the same as for severe bipolar disorder.

[@yesjo1456]

your pronunciation of van gogh at the start was almost perfect (i am dutch). I don't care how you pronounce it. love your video's!

[@ZachariahJ]

Absinthe looks and tastes a bit like Pernod dialled up to 11! But at the time described, there was also the Ether craze to consider - I never knew anything about it until I'd seen a video by a channel called Horses; 'The Psychedelic Drug that Conquered Europe'. It seems to create a state very like that which has been described for and by van Gogh. (The AI art Horses uses is amazing, and the actual vid is not as click-baity as it sounds - it's very artistic!) van Gogh probably have talked about it if he used it on its own, but it may have been a cheap way for producers to bump up the effect of their booze without customers directly thinking they were consuming it. I don't have the foggiest idea if that is true or not - but until I saw that vid, I hadn't heard of its prevalence, and its affects, so it came to mind as I heard you speak.

[@niall4588]

This seems most plausible to me. We have all witnessed the dramatic effect LSD had on the artistic output of the 60's and 70's. VvG's palette change seems to correspond well with this phenomenon.

[@VanaheimrUllr]

Calling you pretentious is pretty pretentious 😅 And I've found myself to mention mispronounciations, but just when its my mother tongue for the sole reason of correct recitation, and/or if theres something about the fonetics that could make a difference (i.e. comparing words in different germanic languages etc). Seems Van Gogh wouldve made a clever choice to ingest some CBD.. Great video as usual, thank you!

[@sheilam4964]

Very interesting. Thx for doing this and sharing. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@markohalloran9455]

This is very interesting. I have suffered over the past year with a very similar story. I am in my mid thirties. I have had multiple diagnosis of manic depression, bi polar and many others things. I don't have epilepsy but the periods of lucidity mirrored by ramblings and such is a daily struggle for me. I'm not even aware of the shift at first. I also get intense periods of melancholy and rage. No one seems to have anything definitive even today

[@annipetratos9401]

Im always glad to think that he experienced Teo's unconditional love. Ive always thought some kind of schizophrenia..i know a little about that ..but i didnt know how complex epilepsy can be

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Love only exists for me the only lovable / loved being and the only wf / gf / bride / girl / maiden / lass etc, and ppl have no idea what love or unconditional means, and śínning is the exact opposite love, and the pure protectors aka the alphas are the only beings who can feel love for me only, and the misused big superiority terms love and unconditional and the letter combinations ato and the numbers must be edited out / changed, such words cannot be misused in comments or in yt names or names etc, and the pronouns etc can never be with capital letter when referring to oneself or others!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

But anyways, all the bæd things that happen to ppl are a form of karma for śÌnníng, such as trying to be in with or around wòm’n etc / førcing yet another unfortunate unconsenting soul into a pòintłs mòrtáł wòrłd against its will and without its consent in the most śìnféł ways etc / báng’ng etc, and also, negative actions against nature / trees / flowers etc and other beings, and misusing unsuitable terms / names / items etc, and all other wrøńg things that ppl have ever done / do!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Tho I must say, it’s quite odd that dudes from the Netherlands would go to such śÍnfèł buildings and śín, one would expect dudes from the Netherlands to be at least a bit more ‘enłightened’ in certain ways, so to speak - however, Dutch and English and Old Norse and Norwegian etc are the prettiest and most refined languages ever, even tho śínnèrs can be found everywhere!

[@JoeBloggs-h4r]

I'm suffering from similar symptoms. The NHS says I have "anxiety". I know I'm having seizures, and they are getting more frequent. I reckon I have a week or two at most. If things continue as they've been going.

[@johannschiestl2772]

Er war einer der größten Maler überhaupt!-sehr tragische Gestalt,--die Niederländer haben so viele geniale Maler hervorgebracht, das ist wirklich erstaunlich!

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Nah, he wasn’t, he painted ppl (which aren’t meant to be painted) and, paintings with ppl don’t look good and don’t look right - besides, what type of ppl would ever go to such śínféł locations! I am the only geniale being, and very few beings are a true artist and a true maler - I also am the only being meant to be painted and the only wf / gf / bride / girl / maiden / lass etc, only nature paintings and paintings of me should have been made, and nouns / pronouns etc can never be with capital letter when referring to ppl / oneself etc, and big terms / compłiments only reflect me and cannot be misused by ppl! Unfortunately, he was just ánother śínnèr, and wasn’t how a true germanic dude is supposed to be - tho Dutch and English and Old Norse and Norwegian etc are the prettiest languages ever, and Germanic languages are gorgeous, there are śínnèrs everywhere, and the bæd things one goes thru are a form of karma for śínnìng!

[@johannschiestl2772]

nice to meet you-par distance!@@FrozenMermaid666

[@Meladjusted]

Absinthe was legalized in the US a number of years ago. Most people don't know about it though. It was just sort of quietly legalized. It is actually considered a liqueur. I've bought it here a couple times. I thought it tasted pretty decent when sweetened (tastes like licorice; not my favorite, but better tasting than so many traditional types of alcohol), but the most remarkable part was how easy it is to drink combined with how strong it is. Honestly, I think "the deal" with absinthe is basically that. It doesn't taste alcoholic at all and is also very strong (90+ proof), so you could get very drunk very cheaply and VERY quickly. Obviously, the Bohemian artists of Paris-with little money to spare-preferred it. I think the talk of hallucinations were probably either 1) Exaggerations of the regular effects of alcohol (e.g. perhaps people who typically only used to get a little buzzed, as a rule, when they'd go to the pub were now suddenly getting quite drunk because they were drinking something significantly stronger than their usual; absinthe was more difficult to gauge your limit with; anything done while drunk on it was possibly seen as a distinct effect) 2) The simple expectation that this new (and popular) kinda novelty booze-that was this weird, almost luminescent lime green color, didn't taste of alcohol, and was really powerful-would naturally have distinct effects from "regular" alcohol. I'm not sure where those exaggerations would stop and exaggerations of people with grievances over people consuming it (e.g. people upset with family members developing alcoholism, people angry with loud crowds in the pubs and streets beneath their apartments) begin or then where the correlations between people doing odd or horrible things after just happening to have drunken absinthe (so, to be clear: while simply being *drunk*) even fit into it.

[@fburton8]

I’ve heard that absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

[@ivanconnolly7332]

The lancet published a paper in 89, I think on his temporal lobe damage from his forceps birth, (the damage is apparently visible in self portraits) the symptoms of which are graphomannia (compulsion to draw)and the inability to end an argument, sometimes with an interval of years.The death of an elder brother called Vincent one year before his birth meant his family were in mourning .

[@OdditiesandRarities]

amazing video! Great work

[@DanielCathers]

It sure sounds like bipolar disorder to me. I have quite a lot of amateur/personal experience with people diagnosed with this. Some of them experienced seizures at some point in their life too. They seem to be quite linked disorders according to some arguments I have read about causation. Even many of the same medicines treat both. I would also look into schizo affective disorder to explain some of the schizophrenic like symptoms.

[@TheBlondeSunset]

Note: Psychiatric diagnostic labels assigned by physicians in Van Gogh’s time don’t track closely to modern nosological categories. What was considered schizophrenia 120 years ago (and just 50 years ago) is different from how it’s conceptualized and defined today. Ditto the term “psychosis.” One has to employ their past meanings in order to understand what past physicians thought they were seeing.

[@bkhkh7285]

Многие переболели Ван Гогом, особенно студенты художественных вузов. И я в том числе. И только сейчас с возрастом понимаю, что у каждого свой путь и пройти его сможешь только сам ты. Главное вовремя услышать и поверить зову сердца и идти до конца. Именно это урок и преподал нам и всем поколениям Винсент.

[@jon...5324]

You did a cogneuro masters? I'm in my neuro masters rn! I'd love to discuss language and cognition with you haha

[@lakrids-pibe]

I'm never not going to pronounce van Gogh with a not dutch accent. It's just a collection of sounds that my mouth struggles with. I also struggle with the english th-sound in combination with an r - three, throng, Game of Thrones...

[@Muzer0]

As a native British English speaker but who struggled with "th" until my teenage years, I also have problems making those sound natural - usually I go at it too hard making the r into more of a flap than the usual English r, which also doesn't sound right. I think "thr" is the most likely cluster where I'll just subconsciously give up and use my pre-teenage pronunciation of /f/. (I used to use the London standard of /d/ for word initial voiced, /v/ for non word initial voiced, and /f/ for all voiceless).

[@bendthebow]

Apparently that's why he signed his paintings Vincent. Cos we and French were butchering his name

[@Shakazaramesh]

I found this very interesting! I'd love a similar video about what the Roman emperor Claudius might have had, nobody seems to be able to agree on that. Though obviously we have a lot less to work with with him.

[@grahamh.4230]

Is the pronunciation of his name with /f/ standard throughout Britain? I’m from Chicago and always have pronounced it identically to the word “go” without a coda consonant. I assumed that was the standard nativization of the name across the Anglosphere.

[@Muzer0]

Yeah, "Van goff" is completely standard in Britain; it's certainly the only way I heard it from other Brits growing up. "Van go" always sounds a bit odd to me (though of course it's still fairly common to hear it due to the proliferation of American media).

[@philroberts7238]

Only in America, so far as I know. I've often wondered why that particular pronunciation caught on the way it did in the United States, because it seems to derive neither from English nor from any other common European language.

[@grahamh.4230]

@@philroberts7238The origin of both pronunciations is pretty evident to me. English dropped most of its coda back fricatives (e.g. “bought”) and replaced others with /f/ (e.g. “cough”). Americans performed the former transformation on Gogh, a word from a language that retains those fricatives, while Brits performed the latter. What would be really interesting would be if Scots put an /x/ in there - [ɡɒx] - to better approximate the Dutch. I don’t know if they do or not.

[@philroberts7238]

@@grahamh.4230 But I would argue that the language developments you describe, whilst true enough, no doubt, relate to an earlier era of gradual and unselfconscious linguistic change, rather than to the pronunciation of the proper name of a well-known and comparatively recent individual.

[@philroberts7238]

And to answer your query about the Scots, my understanding is that although they certainly have the fricative sound in "loch" and numerous dialectical examples (" a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht", for example) they probably pronounce Van Goch similarly to the English, though, no doubt, with a more enthusiastically fricative "ch".

[@seamussc]

Absinthe is legal in the US. I had it at a bar in Columbia, SC, a little over a decade ago with the proper set up. It was interesting. I wouldn't seek it out specifically but if at a bar that specialized in it again I'd try it again. I'd describe it as somewhat similar in taste to Jaegermeister, but much less syrupy.

[@sicko_the_ew]

I've heard that absinthe at the time had "wormwood" in it, and that the wormwood was what made it so deadly. If this is right, the idea that it was cut with something looks like it's a real possibility.

[@lor3nz42s2]

8:55 in the US you need a special license to serve absence. That's the case in New York State at least.

[@rogeranderson1524]

Is there any exploration in the literature of the possibility that the epilepsy may have been secondary to a tumour, which may also have affected his perception of colour, and may have affected his frontal lobe as well?

[@catloverkitten10]

Fascinating discussion. Thanks

[@sheilam4964]

French "tangage" translated into English is "pitch" on google translate and on DeepL is translated as "pitching" with an alternative "pitch" given. One can only speculate where "vertical tremors" as a translation comes from. as Simon brought up; asking (no one and anyone) if it would be an appropriate translation. According to Google Translate and DeepL it may very well NOT be an appropriate translation.

[@CallMeWB]

your old English vids are fascinating, Baldrick etc. Can you do an episode talking old place names like Shitterton (1000 years old), Fingringhoe etc?

[@godminnette2]

Non sequitur to the topic at hand, but I quite like your shirt!

[@BLacheleFoley]

I see no real reason to doubt the epilepsy diagnosis, but more than one thing could have been at play. I cannot eat wheat. I'm probably celiac, but wheat is especially bad. It affects my mood in very unpleasant ways. I learned this by accident, and only because I was also having GI issues. I know all about the gut-brain connection up close and personal. I wonder if anyone has, or will, revisit his symptoms with that in mind.

[@annipetratos9401]

Excellent video. Thankyou. I was mostly listening rather than watching but i loved the focus of the grasshopper on the blackberry leaf🧡 Most of the diagnoses of van Gogh's condition would encourage a calm and ordered lifestyle,apart from any medication,Which of course he didn't have

[@melissasaint3283]

I'm absolutely bewildered by the suggestion that Meniere's could account for even half his symptoms. The main effects are vertigo, tinnitus and general effects that are similar to having an ear infection. I know someone who has it, and she did not have any symptoms outside of those described when you look it up in a medical dictionary. An ENT discovered she had unusually "thin and winding" eustachian tubes. He performed the procedure, usually done for children, of putting a tube in her affected ear to keep it open, and she improved significantly. She definitely didn't act like Van Gogh at any point.

[@bookmouse2719]

Well, he was a nice painter but he cut his ear off, sent a letter with his ear in it and to a woman asked if she could hear him now. I thought he had glacoma because of the hallos around the lights in his pictures.

[@ikbintom]

Heel interessant! Groetjes uit de geboortestad van een ander groot Nederlands schilder - Rembrandt

[@chrisconnor8086]

Potassium bromide was discontinuded because it causes “bromism.” Also, lethargy, tremor, ataxia, delerium, psychosis i think the lead from his paints and the neurotoxins from his medication caused the majority of his high ranging episodes

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thank you.

[@oravlaful]

in 1888 van gogh went to a paint shop where a 13 year old girl was. that girl went on to live all the way to 1997 to the age of 122

[@TheMangoDeluxe]

I feel very comfortable diagnosing him as missing an ear

[@stephanieparker1250]

Wondering if Gauguin influenced Van Gogh art style or the other way around maybe..

[@JzuHax]

No boiling water for absinthe, but fresh water! You can now find absinthe in France after decades of ban, but it is somewhat adulterated to remove the toxic chemical. Original absinthe can be found in Spain, however the taste is not the same as what you'd get twenty years ago. Today the best absinthe is made in Switzerland. If you're curious about the taste, it's in (very roughly) the same family as pastis.

[@frankharr9466]

Think of the cache of coming up with the definitive Van Gogh diagnosis. Interesting. Thank you.

[@PRKLGaming]

I'm a French speaker. I wouldn't say "tangage" translates as "vertical tremors". "Tangage" is more casual, broader, and it refers to the movement of a boat at sea.

[@rickastleysrevenge3258]

I think people are going to complain either way but they are the type of people who complain about everything.

[@ChristChickAutistic]

I wonder if he had epilepsy AND bipolar disorder. It really does sound like Vincent had both. I've always wondered if he could have been on the autism spectrum as well, albeit a high functioning one. But high functioning doesn't mean you don't need help sometimes, I'm proof, lol! His special interest, painting, duh, the depression and anxiety, the problems with substance abuse, and if he had even a little autism, wow! I mean having bipolar and epilepsy both would be awful enough. Poor Vincent. My favorite artist since I was 5 years old.❤

[@richardwissing954]

I recommend a "The Life" 976 page book on Vincent. He was a troubled person for most of his adult life.

[@josefschiltz2192]

It's hard to tell. Since I have Asperger's Syndrome, there are certain characteristics that I find familiar. Aspies have been misdiagnosed as all sorts of different conditions in the past an, truthfully, this still happens because it can be a difficult condition to spot. We have sensory sensitivity so much of the visual and auditory world is on gain for us. We are sensitive to certain colours and certain intensities of light. We also hear smaller noises that other people may just miss. The problem with this is that they are all processed at the same level and creates a lot of heavy head traffic sorting it all out. This can mean that it is difficult focusing in on one person's voice in a crowded environment. There are difficulties in eye contact and certain aspects of body language which means that we can be badly misread because we seem 'off'. This leads us to need to be by ourselves. It's not that we want to be outcast, it just gradually happens because we get completely exhausted of trying. That does sound a lot of how Van Gogh has been portrayed. Of course, this is just theorizing. We cannot know how he would have ended up had he been born in the modern world. With understanding more about the brain, we're still really in infancy.

[@rhodaborrocks-dy3fb]

Are you professionally or self-diagnosed? I tried getting a proper diagnosis, but had two appointments cancelled on the day, then no return calls. 52 years old now, and present pretty normal because I’ve learnt to cope. It’s draining, though

[@josefschiltz2192]

@@vinbin423 Well, of course, there are his letters to his brother, Theo. I don't have the book of them. One thing I never purchased. I am professionally diagnosed, back in 2018. There were initial assessment interviews and then a final two, about four or five in total. The final two were carried out by a clinical psychologist who is actually on the spectrum himself and had dyslexia. I can have a little difficulty in the direction when I am stressed out and I am also dually hyperlexic. I do also have dyscalculia. There was no cost, as it was all via the NHS. These were when I was 55 and at my own insistence. I had noted certain characteristics within my family, extant and historical, and of my own, and decided that I wanted to delve into the whole thing much deeper. My own GP didn't think it was worth it at my age, but I went back to the practice on his day off and to another doctor who did put forward my request. It has been most definitely worth it. Officialdom has had to concur with an official diagnosis from a professional source which affords me a shield and a respite from stress which has been critically important.

[@josefschiltz2192]

@@rhodaborrocks-dy3fb I've learnt that there is quite a waiting list that has built up in recent years. Masking is exhausting. I know well of what you speak. Half-a-century of that is no small task. It's a combined mental siege wall and BUI - Benign User Interface - with the world outside and the constant manipulation of it can make you feel embattled, weary and drained. I've always found that paying attention to nutrition and especially where the brain is involved is key to mental and physical survival. And especially, staying well away from junk which I wouldn't even dignify it with calling it 'food'. I don't drink or smoke either or touch substances. There are instances within my family that inform the wisdom of staying well away from such things. Those things are the last things that our brand of brain wiring should be exposed to!! We need to sharpen and deepen our depth of understanding of our distinct nature, not dull. If we dull, we lose our foundation and we will end up disoriented, compassless and not knowing where or what we are! In other words, the medicated brainless!

[@neonspraypaint.]

Could he have had dementia? Also alcohol poisoning can cause tremors/fits, allergy and food or drink intolerance can have same affect. Thanks for a lovely video about this.

[@bear6562]

He had a very sad life. His mother was very depressed over the loss of a child and i think she couldn't find joy in life. Only his brother loved him. Gauguin was a jerk!

[@mjgerleman]

Isn't there a theorey that he was accidentally shot by two young men and refused to report them?

[@dbass4973]

and a theory that he had had a violent fight with his lover resulting in him losing his ear

[@shirleyporter9025]

Very interesting.

[@maxlambie7788]

simon my beloved

[@maxlambie7788]

but for real congrats on the masters

[@badger1296]

Nope Absinthe is legal in America, at least in California.

[@prillewitz]

You said Vincent van Gogh like a Dutchman, very good!

[@kramnam4716]

Yes, mescal less dangerous but all alcohol is neurotoxic . He cut his ear off and gave it to her because he hadn’t heard from her in ages.

[@pew-pew2224]

I didn't see the whole video(As the subject of painters and Absinth made me rush to my computer to write this ;) ...) but I feel that Simon fell into the same trap as many people do when they discusse absinth and the painters of the 1800-1900? Yes, many of painters drank absinth and many of them was seen as crazy and the blame fell on absinth. The problem is that many other high risk factors of these painters life(especially painters that painted with oil) is ignored. As many of the painters often lived in single rooms, and their studios and their bedroom was more or less the same room, they spent a long time inside rooms filled with fumes of several paint thinners(such as turpinetine). This is not to say that paint thinner was the cause of Van Goghs issues but it is seems that it is a known risk factor for "not-quite-right-in-the-head" disorders and something that is often ignored when people discuss the life of famous painters and their weirdness. This trap also highlights why practical knowledge of subjects is important and why somewhat superficial theoretical knowledge can give you the wrong conclusions.

[@CompletelyHarrison]

Not banned in the US, I drink it all the time!! 😊

[@EnigmaticLucas]

It was banned until 2007

[@Persuvian]

Try pronouncing /v/ in both Vincent and Van as a voiceless consonant like /f/ in fin. Fincent fan Gogh. We often do not voice our consonants as the English do. Definitely a solid attempt, though!

[@niko73le]

you said you would say theo, then you said teo! This was very interesting video today, thanks.

[@mwflanagan1]

Teo. Te-e-e-o. Daylight come and me want go ho-ome.

[@bookmouse2719]

The Absinthe drinker seems to be a popular title amongst painters: Monet, Degas and Picasso. Alcoholics have black outs and are clumsy when drunk. The yellow paint has to do with the style of painting and not to do with vision. Look at Gauguin's paintings. Fathers of Fauvism.

[@cadileigh9948]

It'd be interesting to talk to the man and find out his view of our interest in his mind that equals our interest in his work. Religion was a big part of his early life and some of his time in England was as a pastor . Quite the Wee Free style of religion with poverty and humility a big aspect of devotion. I'd expect that to cause internal conflict with the sensory side of a painter.

[@jannetteberends8730]

About the pronunciation of Van Gogh, I think the g is a soft one. Most Dutch people pronounce Van Gogh with two soft g, without sounding like scraping their throat. The sharp g isn’t typical dutch. In Brabant, Nuenen, where Van Gogh was born, the g is much softer. So for the correct pronunciation you should watch Vincent Van Gogh in Nuenen. The presenter talks with a Brabant accent I.m.o. the way the presenter pronounces his name is close to how Vincent would have pronounced it himself.

[@mr.creamiersteamiermemeier5919]

Great video; however, I think the discussion of differing color vision is dismissed too flagrantly. Van Gogh wasn't painting from life, color matching from life. He painted from life applying to an immense wealth of knowledge on color theory. If there's anything Van Gogh studied academic, in regards to art, it was color theory. To say that his vision didn't change because he was just picking the colors from life doesn't make any sense. His vision could of very well changed and that could be the cause of some of his more wild choices with color, because he believed he either believed he was discovering something new or was applying to color theory despite him not seeing it. I don't believe Van Gogh had anything wrong with his perception of color, and I'm red and green colorblind myself. But, I don't agree with the reason to dismiss the claim that he could have gone through a change in his vision.

[@combustbanx]

fun fact, in Vincent's dutch velar fricatives were palatalized, so his last name would be [vɑɲ ʝɔç] roughly sounding like English "josh"

[@godfreypigott]

Nup - the initial g is not pronounced y - it is almost the same as the final gh.