No limiar da eternidade: narrativas sobre a loucura na correspondência pessoal e nas pinturas de Vincent Van Gogh (1888-1890)

Abstract

This work brings us the narratives about the experience of illness, search for treatment and hospitalization of the painter Vincent Van Gogh. We sought to analyze how he approached this experience in his epistolary writings and paintings between February 1888 and July 1890. The clipping corresponds to the period in which Van Gogh, seeking a better climate for his health, goes to the south of France, Arles specifically. , his treatment at the Hospital de Arles after the crisis in which he self-mutilated his ear, his internment in Saint Remy de Provence after a popular petition, his treatment with Dr Gachet in Auvers Sur Oise and the period leading up to his suicide. Observing the letters and pictures as narratives constructed, largely, in periods of crisis, we seek to analyze the perspective of the patient in face of this and also of his condition. That is, how their conceptions about their disease, diagnosis and treatment are manifested, as well as their view on the functioning of the places of internment and their relationship with the medical team and other patients. The oscillation between acceptance and denial of the disease and its consequences, the use of the term madness as something prior to the period studied, the acceptance of the condition of madness coming from the outside, that is, only after the petition, the adoption of the Saint Remy asylum as a place for themselves and the dialogue between the letters and the paintings, which portray their daily lives, the structure of the places and their way of facing the disease are some of the conclusions found.