scholarly journals Aristotle and DSM on ‘Bipolar’ Melancholy: Symptoms, Medication, Link to Creativity.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlies borg
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Work Characteristics ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Vincent Van Gogh ◽  
Opposite Extreme

That Aristotle connected excellence, creativity to (bipolar) melancholy is known. This article adds depth and detail by distilling from his work characteristics of hot and cold melancholy, placing them in pairs of opposites, and comparing them with the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder in DSM. The Greek warned against extreme mood. He named two examples of mythical persons who suffered the tragic consequences; Ajax’ suicide and Hercules’ manic destruction of his wife and children. More recent examples are Vincent van Gogh, who committed suicide and his brother Theo who attacked his wife and child, was interned and finally succumbed from the consequences of extreme mania. Aristotle urged melancholics to temper their mood. For it was only from mild melancholy that sustained creativity could be expected. He advocated hellebore as medicine. His general ethical advice to strive towards the opposite extreme is especially relevant for melancholics. Aristotle’s work on excellence and bipolar melancholy can inspire those confronted with bipolar disorder today to temper their mood. The examples of famous melancholics throughout the ages bring comfort and a sense of belonging. The author, who is stabilized on lithium, holds up the example of the van Gogh family who, lacking the effective the medicine available today, communicated openly with each other about their disorder. With the new 20th century medication, perfected in our own time, it is from increased openness that the major advances in mental health are now to be expected.

scholarly journals The Example of Vincent van Gogh Denying Forms, Systems and Academicism in Art and Religion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Rouska
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Symbolic Language ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Academic Standard ◽  
Vincent Van Gogh

The Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-90) affected the art movements and artists of the 20th century. His artistic thought, symbolic language and perspective on reality was far from that of the painters of his time and so they could not understand him or appreciate his work. Van Gogh did not consider himself to be an academic artist, or his work to be of academic standard. He knew that they were not technically perfect. In van Gogh’s works, art is governed by spirituality. Van Gogh rejected academicism in both art and religion.

scholarly journals The Protection of Cultural Heritage vs. the Right to Private Property: The Extraordinary Case of the Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-68
Author(s):  
Kamil Zeidler ◽  
Aleksandra Guss
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Art World ◽  
Hard Case ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Vincent Van Gogh ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

In 1890, Vincent van Gogh moved from Paris to Auvers-sur-Oise, where he met Dr. Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, who agreed to host and take care of the painter, especially regarding his mental health. However, he did not manage to save the artist, who committed suicide the same year. His hopeless mental health was seen in the famous portrait of Dr. Gachet, which radiated a distinct melancholy and sadness. The Portrait of Dr. Gachet was bought for $ 82.5 million by a Japanese millionaire and art collector, Ryoei Saito, who said that after his death it was to be burned along with his corpse. It raised loud objections in the art world, which recognised the common good and the legacy of our cultural heritage in the painting. This case is a classic example of a dispute between the ideals of liberalism and communitarianism and is seen as a hard case in law. The aim of the article is to present the history of The Portrait of Dr. Gachet and its place in the dispute between liberalism and communitarianism (in the context of cultural heritage law), which in turn means that this case can be seen as a hard case.

Logwood Writing Inks: History, Production, Forensics, and Use

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Neevel
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Vincent Van Gogh ◽  
Textile Dyeing ◽  
Iron Gall ◽  
Black Writing

Abstract In the 16th century, the Spanish brought logwood from Mexico to Europe. Its extract was used for textile dyeing. The French introduced the logwood tree to Western Hispaniola, which became Haiti in 1804. Around 1880, Haiti exported most of its logwood to France. In 1847, Runge introduced the black chrome-logwood ink as an alternative for iron-gall ink, because the latter attacked the steel writing nibs. The most important constituents of logwood are hematoxylin and hematein. Due to the profitable import conditions from Haiti, chrome-logwood ink became the cheapest and most commonly used black writing ink in France. This could explain why Vincent van Gogh, during his French period, used it for writing and drawing and why most of the French postcards from the first half of the 20th century, studied in this publication, were written with chrome-logwood ink, while most of the Dutch postcards were written with an iron gall ink.

scholarly journals A safe lithium mimetic?: The inositol depletion hypothesis rescues an experimental drug for bipolar disorder

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Grant C. Churchill ◽  
Nisha Singh ◽  
Sridhar Vasudevan
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Van Gogh ◽  
Vincent Van Gogh ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Experimental Drug ◽  
The One ◽  
Insight Into

Vincent Van Gogh painted for just 10 years, but produced over 2000 works of art in periods of intense productivity and creativity. However, during these creative periods, his personal life was one of chaos with poor and impulsive decisions relating to finance, career, business, substance abuse, sexuality and romance (sending his severed ear to the object of his affection), and between these periods he was institutionalized with crushing depressions and he eventually took his own life. It is likely that he suffered from what we now know as bipolar disorder1. Insight into mood is not easily conveyed, but we can get a sense of Van Gogh's mood extremes from two of his paintings, both with the theme of a starry night, but one suggesting exuberant mania and one gloomy depression. Surprisingly, the best treatment for bipolar disorder still remains the one first discovered over 60 years ago: the cation lithium2. Nevertheless, lithium's side effects and toxicity have spurred the search for a replacement2,3.

scholarly journals Sense of belonging: A vital mental health concept

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie M.K. Hagerty ◽  
Judith Lynch-Sauer ◽  
Kathleen L. Patusky ◽  
Maria Bouwsema ◽  
Peggy Collier
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Health Concept

scholarly journals A machine learning algorithm to differentiate bipolar disorder from major depressive disorder using an online mental health questionnaire and blood biomarker data

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Tomasik ◽  
Sung Yeon Sarah Han ◽  
Giles Barton-Owen ◽  
Dan-Mircea Mirea ◽  
Nayra A. Martin-Key ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Major Depressive Disorder ◽  
Depressive Disorder ◽  
Diagnostic Algorithm ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
Major Depressive ◽  
Blood Biomarker ◽  
Mental Health Questionnaire ◽  
Biomarker Data

AbstractThe vast personal and economic burden of mood disorders is largely caused by their under- and misdiagnosis, which is associated with ineffective treatment and worsening of outcomes. Here, we aimed to develop a diagnostic algorithm, based on an online questionnaire and blood biomarker data, to reduce the misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) as major depressive disorder (MDD). Individuals with depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score ≥5) aged 18–45 years were recruited online. After completing a purpose-built online mental health questionnaire, eligible participants provided dried blood spot samples for biomarker analysis and underwent the World Health Organization World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview via telephone, to establish their mental health diagnosis. Extreme Gradient Boosting and nested cross-validation were used to train and validate diagnostic models differentiating BD from MDD in participants who self-reported a current MDD diagnosis. Mean test area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for separating participants with BD diagnosed as MDD (N = 126) from those with correct MDD diagnosis (N = 187) was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.86–0.97). Core predictors included elevated mood, grandiosity, talkativeness, recklessness and risky behaviour. Additional validation in participants with no previous mood disorder diagnosis showed AUROCs of 0.89 (0.86–0.91) and 0.90 (0.87–0.91) for separating newly diagnosed BD (N = 98) from MDD (N = 112) and subclinical low mood (N = 120), respectively. Validation in participants with a previous diagnosis of BD (N = 45) demonstrated sensitivity of 0.86 (0.57–0.96). The diagnostic algorithm accurately identified patients with BD in various clinical scenarios, and could help expedite accurate clinical diagnosis and treatment of BD.

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