Providentia

Can Personality Traits Predict Political Success?

A new study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences investigates the relationship between personality and political careers. Drawing on a unique survey of municipal candidates from two Canadian provinces (N = 1193) and supplemented with survey data from citizens (N = 1665),  researchers test for personality differences in candidate recruitment and electoral success. Results reveal significant personality differences between candidates and citizens, as well as between winning and losing candidates. Compared to other citizens, candidates are higher in extraversion, openness to experience, and emotional stability. As for the difference between electoral winners and losers, openness to experience is associated with a slightly higher likelihood of losing an election. These differences in personality traits emerge independent of other background characteristics such as age, education, and gender. Ultimately, the psychological dispositions that influence running for office and winning an election are not the same. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Dementia Patient Defrauded by "Long Lost Granddaughter"

A woman in New Zealand has been charged with defrauding a 76-year-old dementia patient out of thousands of dollars after telling care staff she was his "long lost granddaughter".    In August 2017, 33-year-old Jammie Rigby contacted a Gisborne, New Zealand care facility and told them that she was the granddaughter of one of their patients,  76-year-old Ronald Boswell.   The former school teacher had been receiving full-time care for the previous twelve years due to dementia resulting from a severe head injury sustained in the 1990s during a home invasion.   While his niece had power of attorney over his financial decisions, he had no local family and staff permitted Rigby to take him on various outings around the city.  

During one of these outings, she took Boswell to a local bank and persuaded him to transfer  $3,500 from his bank account into hers with the reference 'grandad'.  A few days later,  she returned to the same bank and had him transfer a further $2,800 into her account.  There were no further outings afterward and she terminated all contact weeks later.   After the bank notified the care facility about the financial activity, staff then contacted Boswell's niece Deanna Brittenden who notified police.   

"I don't hold them accountable. I'd much rather someone erred on the side of believing people were good rather than believing everyone was out to get what they could," Brittenden said in an interview with local media.  "This woman came in under an assumed name, she met and had coffee with him a few times before taking him out, and he had no access to an eftpos card, so I don't think there was much more they could have done."    She also acknowledged that she should have notified the bank to require her approval for any withdrawals over a certain amount,  "I'd never done that because up until a few years ago he was able to go out on his mobility scooter to do shopping, get cups of coffee and so on."

Prior to the home invasion that left him brain-damaged, Ronald Boswell had been a well-known primary school teacher in northern New Zealand and it may have been there that Rigby came to know him.  Though he had been relatively independent his injury, his condition deteriorated sharply over the past two decades to the point of his requiring full-time care.  Despite his current limitations, Brittenden feels that Rigby's deceit has had an adverse effect on his condition.  "I can't put words into his mouth, but I know he was upset he didn't have the connection to the family he thought he was getting out of the relationship. It shook his confidence I think," she said.

Though Rigby is still awaiting trial, she is already well-known to local law agencies due to her previous criminal history including her role in another home invasion in which gang members stole the possessions of a man who had befriended her.  

While defrauding the elderly is a growing problem around the world, dementia patients are deemed to be particularly vulnerable.   Even people in the early stages of dementia may not be aware that they have been targeted by scamsters until it is too late.  Fortunately, there are excellent online resources available for family members worried about protecting dementia patients who might otherwise fall victim to these scams. 

 Organizations such as the AARP Fraud Watch Network provides regular alerts about active scams, and maintain a toll-free helpline (877.908.3360) for people who want tips on how to avoid fraud and guidance about next steps for victims of fraud.     In the United States, the The United States Senate Special Committee on Aging provides an annual report explaining the most common scams targeting seniors and also provides national resources for fraud victims along with a toll-free helpline (855.303.9470).  Equivalent agencies can be found in most developed nations though an Internet web search.   

 

The Oilman and the Ghost

Pleasantville isn't a particularly big town these days. 

Situated in Venango Country, Pennsylvania, it boasts a population just under 900 according to the 2010 census and is mainly remembered for the brief "oil boom" resulting from a massive oil discovery in 1868.  Not only did this briefly propel the town to unheard-of prosperity, but the population grew by more than 400 percent in just a few short years (though most quickly left when the oil played out).    Still, it was the bizarre story of how the oil was first discovered that set it apart from all of the other major discoveries of the late 19th century.   Especially if you happen to believe in ghosts...

While actual details of Abraham James' early history seem rather muddled, most news stories covering his role in the Pleasantville oil find described him as an old-time geologist who specialized in finding new oil fields.   But it was James fascination with Spiritualism, not to mention his claims to being a spirit medium, that set him apart from the usual oil speculators searching for new strikes across the country.  If it seems incredible that anyone would rely on spirit messages for finding oil, it's important to understand  that Spiritualism was a hot topic in a country still dealing with a devastating Civil War that  claimed over 600,000 lives.   This created a market for "spirit mediums" who communicated with the dead and well-attended seances were conducted across the country (as well as in Europe).  Also, the geology of that era was fairly primitive and geologists largely relied on surface features to identify potential sites, something that was frequently prone to error.   Since exploratory drilling was expensive (half of all wells dug were unproductive), this meant that the prospect of having spirit messages provide a shortcut was certainly enticing.   At least, many of James' investors thought so.

James' first foray into using spirit messages to lead him to oil occurred in Chicago in 1863 when he pointed out a site in the nearby countryside that he assured his fellow investors would lead them to an enormous oil reserve.  While the predicted oil never materialized, the drilling did lead to the discovery of a large artesian well and a profitable water business.    Though James' investors still made money from James' discovery, he was still determined to find oil and decided to try his luck elsewhere.  

Whatever it was that drew him Pennsylvania's Venango County in 1866,  James' celebrity status as the discoverer of Chicago's artesian well  was enough to draw in potential investors when he promised to find oil.   Not that he was the only would-be psychic searching for oil  back then...    Even as these other psychics criss-crossed over likely sites using divining rods and relying on "sympathetic vibrations" looking for oil, James conducted seances instead.   After two fruitless years, it was in the summer of 1868 when James gathered a small group of wealthy investor (who also happened to be fellow Spiritualists) with news of a valuable new oil discovery, apparently conveyed to him by a spirit.

According to James, he had been participating in seances and, as he said afterward, "the conditions were more than usually favorable and the most gratifying manifestations were drawn from the usually reticent spirits."   A few days later, he was reportedly driving in his wagon through the countryside when he experienced a "strange sensation" similar to what happened when he went into trances.  Though he tried to resist, the influence was "more powerful than his will and he was obliged to yield.   At that point, a "spirit or force" suddenly came upon him and made him leave his wagon.  and "conducted him like magic across fields and through forests to a wild spot in the vicinity of Pleasantville, where they rested."   He then said that "the earth opened and an immense cavern yawned before them."  Brought into the cavern by his spirit guide, he was reportedly taken down deep into the earth where they came upon "the margin of a lake of petroleum of unknown extent."   The spirit then returned him to the surface and the cavern closed.

Though the story probably would have been dismissed by more skeptical moneymen, James knew his audience well.   Not only were all of his investors dedicated Spiritualists, but the entire oil industry was going through a financial panic at that time.   The end of the Civil War had triggered a massive depression and the frequent failure to find oil meant that many companies quickly went bankrupt.  Even though James' previous track record for finding oil fields hadn't been particularly good, the  prospect of being on the ground floor of a marvelous new oil find, not to mention reinforcing their own belief in ghosts, proved irresistible to James' investors. and he soon had his startup capital. 

 Sinking a well in the very spot where James claimed the spirit had guided him, the drill  eventually struck oil-bearing sand at the 830-foot mark and was soon yielding 150 barrels of oil each day.  News of the Pleasantville oil strike brought in other oil companies who bought up real estate at unheard-of prices.  The oil syndicate led by James soon had five wells going at once and made fortunes at a time when oil was still selling for just three dollars a barrel.   For the short time it lasted, the Pleasantville oil field was one of the richest in the world.    

Unfortunately, the oil boom that James launched didn't last particularly long.   After years of record oil production, the oil reserves were largely exhausted by 1880 and  most of the town's new residents soon moved on.  As for James himself, he was believed to have pocketed an estimated $500,000 from his investment (accounts differ on how much he actually made) and his fellow investors likely made even more. 

But that was pretty much the highpoint of James' career as a geologist/medium.   Despite the money he had made through his oil company,  he fell on hard times soon afterward and  lost his entire fortune after buying up land on the Pacific coast which failed to yield anything of value (presumably, the spirits were no longer talking to him by this point).  By the time of his death in 1885, he was completely broke and the very few obituaries I have been able to find largely focused on his 1868 oil strike while ignoring his life before and since.   

While the story of Abraham James and the spirits who helped him find oil has become enshrined in Venango County folklore, the reality is likely more down-to-earth.  The modern consensus seems to be that James had used his knowledge of geology to find what he assumed would be a rich field and, by relying on his reputation as a Spiritualist and medium, was able to attract investors who might have ignored him otherwise.   

In the years following his 1868 discovery, James continued to be hailed  as a financial prodigy, and the story of how he discovered the oil field was played up in newspapers and Spiritualist magazines for decades afterward.    Even the story of how the spirits led him to his 1868 discovery had a way of changing.   In one 1915 story by an anonymous source, James had been reportedly led to the oil find by the spirit of a Seneca chief named "Mountain Bear" and, in later stories, to the ghost of a beautiful Indian maiden named "Lalah" (which presumably sounded more enticing to readers).   Also, given that we are living in a more skeptical age,  James and his fellow "oil-witches" have been largely written or marginalized in many modern histories of the 19th-century oil industry.   Presumably, the role they played in the early oil industry is something deemed best forgotten. 

Sic transit gloria mundi.

 

 

In Praise of Pain

Human beings have always had a love/hate relationship with pain.

Not only has pain and suffering always been viewed as something all humans had to endure (including Biblical stories such as  childbirth pain being due to the sin of Eve or Job being afflicted with suffering to test his faith),  religions often championed the notion that bearing pain stoically was a sure sign of virtuous living.  The very word “stoic” stemmed from a philosophical school that viewed pain and suffering as essential to being truly human. In St. Paul's First Letter to the Colossians, he wrote that: "I fill up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ in my flesh".     Still, while virtually every organized religion has regarded pain as a necessary evil, the use of herbal remedies to deal with pain have been a necessary part of medicine for all of recorded history (and likely long before).   While physicians and other healers often viewed pain as being an important sign of disease and that masking it with medication  interfered with treatment, they were also quick to dispense whatever pain-relieving agents that they had at their disposal for patients in agony.   That usually included the familiar standby, papaver somniferum (a.k.a., the opium poppy), which was cultivated for its analgesic properties as far back as neolithic times in most of Eurasia.

Even with the advent of anesthesia in the 19^th century, new  discoveries, including morphine, chloroform, and nitrous oxide, were greeted with mixed feelings, especially among religious leaders who viewed such innovations as somehow being a subversion of God’s plan.  Queen Victoria’s very public decision to use chloroform to ensure a painless delivery of one of her children in 1853 was greeted with alarm at first although it also helped spread the word that anesthesia was safe and effective.  Despite religious qualms, the era of painless dentistry and surgery had begun.

By the dawn of the 20^th century, anesthesia was already widely used in surgery.  While pessimistic philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer stressed the inescapable nature of pain in their own writings,  improvements in medicine, including the wide availability of powerful analgesics,  made pain relief universally available (at least to those who could afford it).   Even familiar remedies such as morphine continued to be superseded by better and stronger alternatives, including heroin which was available in numerous locations without a prescription.

As the dangers associated with opiate addiction became better understood, an inevitable backlash set in.  Many commercially available analgesics were eventually banned under international narcotics laws.  Prohibition became a dominant movement in the United States while, in other countries, medical doctors, theologians,  and social critics viewed the addictive properties of many popular narcotics with increasing alarm. This alarm was spurred by the thousands of wounded veterans of World War I, many of whom were left addicted to the pain medication prescribed for them.   This public alarm led to attempts at reconceptualizing how pain should be treated.  Rather than viewing pain as something to be eliminated by any means possible,  wasn't it possible that resisting pain was actually a virtue and that giving into pain by demanding medical relief was actually a form of cowardice? 

By 1935, French writer and journalist, Julien Teppe, became the leading force in what came to be known as the "dolorism" movement.  Taken from the Latin word for pain, dolorism basically exalted the value of pain, both medically and philosophically.  The two books that Teppe wrote, Apologie pour l'anormal (a.k.a. the "Dolorist manifesto") in 1935 and Dictature de la douleur in 1937 justified dolorism as a reaction against what Teppe called the "tyranny of the fit".  He viewed pain as  a way of learning about oneself (essentially arguing that "I am suffering, therefore I am").  He also wrote that, "Pain, of all the psychological states, is the one which takes over the entire being, both the flesh and the spirit, with the greatest urgency and force.  It is a disposition which sweeps away, blots out, and annihilates all the rest."   Through pain, humans learn about compassion for other human beings and inability to understand suffering was the root cause for hostility and intolerance.  Not only did Teppe argue for a better understanding of pain, he also suggested that students in all programs be required to visit hospitals and sanatoriums as part of their education. 

While not an original concept (existentialist philosophers such  as Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger had made  similar arguments years before), Teppe's movement quickly took root.   Along with his influential books, Teppe also launched the Revue Doloriste, an episodic journal that was meant to be the standard for the entire dolorist movement.   On its first publication in 1946, the French conservative paper, Le Figaro, a tongue-in-cheek endorsement to the new journal and to dolorism in general:  "No school ever chose its hour better than this one.  Every French citizen is an unknowing Dolorist.  And [then-premier] Monsieur Gouin, perhaps, is one".   While never the financial success that Teppe had hoped, the first issue sold 5,000 copies and eventually included original essays from such prominent writers as Andre Gide and Colette.

That dolorism became a hotly debated subject before and after World War II is perhaps not surprising given the political and economic struggle to rebuild Europe.   Theologians continued to advocate pain as a necessary evil while neurologists and physiologists weighed in on the medical aspects of pain.  Teppe's chief opponent was prominent surgeon, Rene Leriche.  Having gained his experience in treating pain associated with battlefield injuries in World War I,  Leriche's book La Chirugie de la douler (the Surgery of Pain) quickly became a classic in treating "pain disorders" after its publication in 1937.  As a militant humanist as well as a surgeon, Leriche avidly fought any attempt to glorify pain and argued against the idea that pain could be beneficial or useful in any way.    Ironically, Leriche actively spoke against the use of pain medications such as morphine and argued that surgical approaches were the ideal method for pain relief. 

Another prominent dolorism opponent, prominent neuropsychiatrist Jean L'hermitte, argued that "the first duty of medicine is to heal when it can, to relieve often, and to comfort always.  As a result, a physician's role is not only to relieve moral suffering often but also, insofar as it is possible, to alleviate pain and its repercussions on the different organs."    As an important example of pain's importance, L'hermitte described cases of syringomelia in which patients with interrupted sensory nerve fibres injure themselves due to their inability to feel pain.  He also saw analgesics such as morphine as being effective in preventing suicides among chronic pain sufferers. 

Still, the spectre of addiction to pain medication was ever present.  Even L'hermitte was quick to argue that some physicians gave out morphine "too freely" and that it should only be prescribed by physicians who were certain that their patients were genuinely suffering.  He advocated that morphine only be administered through injection and at the doctor's discretion.   While he denounced dolorism as a dangerous trend, he still advocated an extremely conservative approach to pain treatment which often meant that patients were expected to "suffer in silence" rather than admit that they were unable to bear their chronic pain "maturely".  Many religious hospitals, though recognizing the need to deal with pain, often stressed the virtue of endurance and advised doctors and nurses to train patients to resist pain rather than to plead for better analgesics.   As formal treatment shifted towards specialized hospital wards to deal with chronic pain patients, pain clinics have become an integral part of most tertiary care hospitals.

Although today's physicians are no longer expected to allow patients to "suffer for their own good", the old dolorist arguments have never completely faded away.  The reluctance to prescribe pain medications due to addiction risks, however legitimate, often masks an expectation that patients overcome pain on their own rather than rely on chemical aids.  That there is an obvious economic component to this argument (medication costs money, after all) makes it all the more appealing to rein in rising health care costs.   Many of the moral dilemmas and problems raised by Julien Teppe and his supporters remain unresolved and the stringent regulations that physicians often face in prescribing medication means that pain management remains one of the most contentious issues facing medicine today. 

And that is unlikely to change any time soon. 

Is E-Cigarette Use Linked to Poor Mental Health?

A new study in the Journal of Affective Disorders examined the association between electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use and adverse mental health status.  A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using data from the 2015 and 2016 Canadian Community Health Survey (n = 53,050). Sampling weights and associated bootstrap procedures were used to account for survey design effects. Multivariable logistic regression was employed to examine the association between e-cigarette use and the following mental health outcomes: depressive symptom ratings (using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9), self-reported professionally diagnosed mood and anxiety disorders, perceived mental health, suicidal thoughts/attempts, and binge drinking. Results showed that the overall prevalence of past 30-day e-cigarette use was 2.9% (95% CI: 2.6–3.1). 11.5% (95% CI: 10.4–12.7) of smokers reported also using e-cigarettes. Dual users had the highest prevalence of adverse mental health status. The association between e-cigarette use and mental health was found to be modified by smoking status and sex in most of the logistic models. E-cigarettes had less than multiplicative effects among smokers. Female e-cigarette users tended to have higher odds of adverse mental health than male users. Overall, in the multivariable modeling, e-cigarette use was consistently associated with poor mental health among non-smokers and women, a finding that persisted after adjustment for additional covariates. These results indicate that e-cigarette use is associated with adverse mental health status, particularly among the non-smoking general population and women.  The study relied on respondent self-report, and the cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow us to clarify the direction of this association.

For the abstract

Russian Police Investigate Exorcism Death of Nine-Year-Old Child

Acting on a tip from a family member, police in Yekaterinburg, Russia unearthed the body of a nine-year-old boy who had been killed during an exorcism by a religious sect to which his parents belonged.   Identified only as "David K.", the boy and his parents belonged to a religious sect, the Disciples of Jesus Christ and had apparently been subjected to a violent ritual aimed at "driving out the devil" though the reason for this abuse has not been given.   The ritual had been conducted in the apartment where the boy and his family had been living.  

During the course of this ritual, David was held down by his mother while other cult members, including his father, whipped him repeatedly..  He had also been gagged to prevent him from screaming out.   After the child died, sect members then prayed by the body for two days hoping that he would be returned to life.   He was then buried in a wooded area near the city while the parents and other sect members fled the city to avoid arrest.  An autopsy of the body determined that the boy had died of asphyxiation with whip marks being clearly visible.   

Police have since located the boy's father, 40-year-old Ivan Kazantsev, and a sect elder, Zemfira Gainullina in the nearby Republic of Bashkiria and arrested them.   David's mother has since fled to Belarus where she is being held as a material witness and awaiting extradition.   Both of David's parents had recently immigrated to Yekaterinburg from Belarus

Defending the sect's actions in an online post before her arrest, Gainullina wrote that, "Many times we were persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ, but no-one could blame us for anything, because there was no crime in us....No-one could forbid us to live the way the Lord Jesus Christ leads us.”  According to available sources,  arrested sect members are refusing to cooperate with authorities and insisted that they only obeyed "heaven's law".    In describing the behaviour of Kazantsev and  Gainullina while in custody, a police spokesperson said that "both detainees behaved, to put it mildly, strangely. They  produced the impression of being zombified."   

While the sect has an active social media presence, including footage of Gainullina playing guitar while her followers danced and prayed together, little information appears available, including "private practices" such as the use of extreme corporal punishment, including whipping, on children to "drive out demons."  

An investigation is continuing.

 

 

The Van Gogh Perspective

There have been few artists whose lives have been more thoroughly dissected than Vincent van Gogh.  

The enormous range of fiction and non-fiction books, movies, plays and music inspired by his life and art could fill a library all by itself.   Almost as fascinating as the details of his mental illness and how it shaped van Gogh's life was the speculation over the exact diagnosis involved.   Considering the bizarre set of symptoms that he displayed, especially during the ten prior to his death on July 29, 1890., medical experts and biographers have suggested possible medical diagnoses including neurosyphilis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, and even poisoning due to his chronic absinthe use.   The only actual clues to what motivated Van Gogh's mental deterioration  are the letters that he wrote to his brother Theo and sister-in-law, Johanna. 

Those letters make fascinating reading, not only by the glimpses that they provide into the life of a struggling artist but also the changes in his personality that preceded many of the bizarre episodes that have made him famous.    Johanna Van-Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow, admitted in her introduction to her 1913 book that she was uneasy about her decision to publish the Van Gogh letters.   She expressed the very real fear that her brother-in-law's dramatic life might well overshadow his artistic work (and she was likely right).  

For all Van Gogh's amazing art, it is almost certainly the mythology surrounding his life that has driven the fascination that he still holds today (and makes his paintings fetch such amazing prices in international art aucti0ns).    As many biographers point out, Van Gogh's chief ambition was to be a "painter of modern portraits" who enjoyed portraying peasant life but he is largely seen as a madman who died for the sake of his art. 

A Gift For Rachel

Although Vincent Van Gogh had numerous episodes of mental illness during his lifetime, the most notorious one occurred when he cut off part of his left ear while living in the southern French city of Arles.   By late 1888, Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were sharing rooms in Arles at the now-famous Yellow House and their strained relationship made life difficult for both of them.    As Vincent described in a letter that he wrote to Theo on December 23, 1888, " I think that Gauguin was a little disenchanted with the good town of Arles, the little yellow house where we work, and above all with me.  Indeed there are serious problems to overcome here still, for him as well as for me...  But these problems lie more in ourselves than anywhere else."   Although Vincent added that "Gauguin is very strong, very creative, but he needs peace precisely because of that.  Will he find it elsewhere if he doesn't find it here?  I await his decision with absolute equanimity", what happened later that day suggested that his relationship with Gauguin exploded in a way that neither of them anticipated.

After Gauguin returned from a walk through a nearby garden, Van Gogh suddenly approached him and threatened him with a straight-edge razor.  Although Gauguin managed to calm him down, he wisely decided to spend the night in a hotel and left his roommate alone.  Later that same night, Van Gogh went to an Arles brothel and asked for Rachel, a favourite prostitute of his.  He then gave her a piece of his earlobe that he had cut off, carefully wrapped in newspaper.   After asking Rachel to "keep this object carefully", he then staggered home.  

Gauguin found him the next morning unconscious in his bed which was covered in blood.   He then contacted the police and Van Gogh was taken to a local hospital.  Although the actual police reports are long gone, Theo rushed to Arles after Gauguin sent him a telegram.   While in the hospital, Van Gogh was treated by a sympathetic doctor and his condition was stabilized.  Considering this was in an era before blood transfusions and antibiotics were available, he likely came close to dying.   

In a note that Van Gogh wrote to Theo on January 2, just a few days after the ear-mutilation incident, he played down what had happened.   He also added that "I hope that I have had no more than a perfectly ordinary attack of artistic temperament, followed by a high fever as a consequence of the loss of a very great deal of blood because an artery had been severed"  Despite being open about his physical recovery, and the excellent medical care he received in hospital, his main concern was dealing with insomnia.   He was also honest about what the episode meant for his career as an artist.  Closing the note to Theo, he said "If I recover, I must start afresh, but I shall never again be able to reach the heights to which the [mental] illness to some extent led me...".    

Van Gogh  also wrote letters to Gauguin in which he tried to make amends for threatening him and even made an attempt to see Rachel to apologize for his actions and the "gift" he left for her.    As he pointed out to Theo in a February 3, 1889 letter, "Yesterday I went to see the girl to whom I had gone when I was off my head.  they told me that there]s nothing surprising about things like that in this part of the world.  She'd been upset and had fainted but had regained her composure  And indeed, they spoke well of her.     But it won't do for us to think that I am completely sane.  The people from round here who are ill like me have told me the truth.  You can be old or young, but there will always be times when you take leave of your senses.  So I don't ask you to tell people that there is nothing wrong with me, or that there never will be...  as long as you have no false shame and say frankly how you feel, you cannot go wrong".

From Hospital to Asylum

 Although he was was formally discharged from hospital on February 17, Vincent Van Gogh's problems were hardly over.   As far as the good people of Arles were concerned, the artist was dangerously insane and a public petition asked the mayor to have him locked in an isolation cell for a month.   The Yellow House where he and Gauguin had lived was sealed by police and he was banned from returning.  In bringing Theo up to date on what was happening, Van Gogh had to reassure him in a letter that "As far as I can judge, I am not really mad."   His artist friends continued to visit and they even went to the Yellow House together to make fun of the police on guard.   Van Gogh also began painting again although he was afraid of setting up a new studio on his own.  He  and his brother began discussing his going to a nearby asylum as a precaution and he was realistic as he evaluated his condition.  As he wrote to Theo, "What comforts me is that I am beginning to look on madness as a disease like  any other and to accept it as such".     

 Becoming more used to the fixed hospital routine, Van Gogh became increasingly afraid of reentering the world (a common problem with psychiatric patients facing release).  Along with the stigma attached to his mental illness, he also reported feeling "crushed by guilt and inadequacy" and hints of suicidal thoughts, which were nothing new to him, became more frequent in his writing.   He was also worried about money despite Theo reassuring him that his business as an art dealer was going well.  At one point, Vincent even suggested enlisting in the Foreign Legion (yes, people actually did that back then although Theo quashed this idea).   

By late 1889, Van Gogh left Arles for the last time and went to the St  Paul de Mausole asylum in nearby Saint-Remy.  As he explained in a letter to his sister, Wil, "In all, I have had 4 major attacks, during which I had no idea what I asid, what I wanted or what I did, not to mention the three times before when I had fainting fits for inexplicable reasons, being quite unable to recall what I felt at that time".   

Life in the Asylum

Even as a patient, Van Gogh kept up his painting.  Along with sending him painting equipment, Theo kept his brother informed on what was happening in the Paris artist community and which of his paintings he would be entering in art exhibitions.   Although Van Gogh's doctor limited his freedom of movement at first, that changed as staff became more confident that there would be no more self-harm incidents.   Vincent also studied his fellow mental patients with keen interest and wrote to Theo that "my fear of madness is wearing off markedly, since I can see at close quarters those who are affected by in the same way that I may very easily be in the future...  For though there are some who howl and rave a great deal, there is much true friendship here.  They say we must tolerate others so that others may tolerate us, and other very sound arguments, which they put into practice too.  And we understand each other very well.  Sometimes for instance, I can talk with one of them - who can only reply in incoherent sound - because he is not afraid of me". 

He was also a keen observer of his mental processes before and after his psychotic episodes and carefully documented these changes in his letters (the equivalent of blogging back then).   As he commented in a letter to Theo, "Again- speaking of my condition- I am so grateful for yet another thing.  I've noticed that others, too, hear sounds and strange voices during their attacks, as I did, and that things seemed to change before their very eyes.  And that lessened the horror with which I remembered my first attack, something that, when it comes on you unexpectedly, cannot but frighten you terribly.  Once you know it is part of the illness, you accept it like anything else.  Had I not seen other lunatics close to, I should not have been able to stop myself from thinking about it all the time.  For the suffering and the anguish are not funny when you are having the attack...I like to think that once you know what it is, once you are conscious of your condition, and of being subject to attacks, then you can do something to prevent your being taken unawares by the anguish or the terror.  Now that it has been abating for five months I have high hopes of getting over it, or at least of no longer having such violent attacks."

Though restricted to the hospital grounds (with supervised visits to the local countryside), Vincent managed to continue his painting and Theo's letters were full of praise for the quality of his work.   In one letter, he praised Vincent for "conveying the quintessence of your thoughts about nature and living beings, which , you feel are so closely bound up in them.  But how that brain of yours must have laboured, and how you have risked everything in venturing to the very brink, where vertigo is inevitable."   Theo wasn't the only one to recognize the genius of his brother's work.   The time Van Gogh spent in hospital marked some of his most amazing artwork, including The Reaper, Cypresses, and his best-known painting, The Starry Night (later the title of a Don Henley song about his life).    

Despite a psychotic attack in mid-July that threatened to delay his release from hospital,  Van Gogh slowly improved.   His doctors had misgivings about his recovery though.  According to one doctor who privately reported to Theo, "his suicidal tendencies have gone, the only thing that still troubles him is having unpleasant dreams."    There was also the question of where Vincent could go after his release.  While he wanted to go north to continue his painting, he hesitated since "there are so many people there".   This recovery was delayed further by a serious attack in December, 1889, almost a full year after the Arles episode.   Since he tried to commit suicide by swallowing paint, his doctors restricted his painting and confined him to drawing instead. 

Once he had recovered enough to write to Theo and Johanna again, Vincent described himself as feeling "like a broken vessel".    Despite further setbacks, Vincent was cheered by the birth of a nephew (named "Vincent" in his honour).   Despite serious epileptic seizures and more setbacks to his recovery, Vincent Van Gogh kept up his painting and his correspondence with friends and family.    There were also long silences during which he didn't write at all and Theo noted sadly, in a letter to him on April 23, 1890, that "your silence is proof that you are not yet well."   Van Gogh did his best to reassure Theo and finally left the asylum to travel to Paris. 

Van Gogh's Final Days

Vincent Van Gogh had a very personal reason for visiting Paris after leaving the asylum.  Not only had he never met his sister-in-law Johanna except through her letters, he was also eager to see his new nephew for the first time.   Although he and Johanna had been exchanging letters since her marriage to Theo, the meeting was important for both of them.  She would later write that "I had expected a sick man but here was a sturdy, broad-shouldered man, with a healthy colour, a smile on his face, and a very resolute appearance."  Van Gogh in turn described Johanna as "charming and very simple and nice".   Despite being with his family, Van Gogh was disturbed by "the noise and bustle" of Paris and was afraid of having a relapse.  

By May, 1890, he had left Paris and was safely settled in nearby Auvers-sur-Oise.  Now a suburb of Paris, the peaceful commune was a favourite hangout for artists.    In deciding that he should live there, Theo Van Gogh had arranged for his brother to say in the home of a homeopathic doctor and psychiatrist named Paul Gachet.   Since Dr. Gachet was an amateur painter himself, the Van Gogh brothers had decided that he would be the ideal doctor to oversee Vincent's recovery and allow him to continue his painting.   

Despite having numerous artists as patients (including August Renoir and Edouard Cezanne), Dr. Gachet had his own eccentricities and Van Gogh had problems with the treatment he received.  Van Gough eventually concluded that Dr. Gachet was "sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much."    Although the doctor was full of advice on how his patient could recover (including giving up alcohol and smoking), Van Gogh refused to follow it    

If Van Gogh had been optimistic before coming to Auvers-sur-Oise, his misgivings about Dr. Gachet's treatment likely made him more depressed than ever.  Along with his depression, he also seemed more apprehensive about his condition getting worse.  Although Van Gogh's time there was one of his most productive periods with many fine works being produced (including a portrait of Dr. Gachet and his daughter), his letters to Theo were filled with concerns about his future prospects.  Theo in turn was worried about his brother as well as his own career as an art dealer. 

Despite hints that Van Gogh was slowly growing worse, what happened on July 27, 1890 took everyone by surprise.   After the sound of a shot was heard behind the Auberge Ravoux where he had been staying as a lodger, a severely wounded Vincent Van Gogh  stumbled into the chateau.   While his condition appeared to be stabilized at first (he was even smoking a pipe at one point),  he eventually slipped into a coma.  

According to medical sources, the attending physician underestimated how serious the wound was and made no attempt to remove the bullet.   Theo, summoned from Paris by an urgent telegram from Dr. Gachet, managed to arrive in time to have his brother die in his arms.  While no gun was ever found, there seemed little doubt that his death was a suicide. 

In describing Vincent's death, Johanna later wrote  that "Fear of the illness that was threatening him once again, or an actual attack drove him to his death."   Although Paul Gachet faced considerable criticism over his patient's suicide just ten weeks after treatment began, he defended himself by pointing out that Vincent failed to follow much of the actual advice that he had been given.   Vincent was buried in Auvers-sur-Oise.

The Aftermath

And Vincent Van Gogh wasn't the only casualty.   Theo, grieving over his brother's death and guilt-stricken over being able to prevent the suicide, developed serious medical problems of his own.   His health had already been poor and he never recovered from the shock of losing Vincent.   Just a month after settling Vincent's last will and testament (he was the executor), Theo began experiencing severe headaches and mood swings as well as terrible nightmares.  

He quit his job and eventually broke down completely by the middle of October when he was admitted to a Paris clinic with a possible stroke.   His condition worsened and Johanna took him home to the Netherlands where he died on January 25, 1891.  He was only 33 years old. Although the official cause of death was dementia paralytica (possibly syphilis-related), the emotional trauma of his brother's suicide likely played a major role.  While he was first buried in his native country, Theo's body was exhumed in 1914 and buried next to his brother in France. As for Johanna, although she later remarried, she continued to act as a major driving force in promoting the memory of Vincent and Theo Van Gogh until her own death in 1925. 

Already praised for his amazing art during his lifetime, Van Gogh's reputation grew steadily after his death.    The extensive collection of letters that he wrote were first published in annotated form by Johanna in 1913.   Along with providing a compelling look at the lifelong friendship between Vincent and Theo,  the letters also show Vincent's  relationship with some of the most famous artists of his time (including Paul Gauguin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec) and the emotional support that he depended on for so long.   Although the letters were originally undated, careful work by Van Gogh's various biographers, as well as historians associated with the Van Gogh Museum have made the letters an imp0rtant resource for art historians and psychologists alike.

The letters may be a good resource for people coping with mental illness as well.   Despite his tragic death, Vincent Van Gogh coped successfully with his mental illness for many years with the help of caring family members.    The symptoms that Vincent carefully described in his letters are ones that many people with psychiatric problems need to wrestle with on a daily basis.  His sad fate also demonstrates the need for prompt intervention and a good relationship between patients and their caregivers.  

Would Vincent have been as great an artist with modern medical treatment available (including medication)?  Could he have lived longer and provided the world with even more amazing paintings?  Some questions can never be answered.

Reading The Bumps

One thing you could say about phrenologist and author, Orson Squire Fowler,  he certainly knew how to grab your attention.

Part of my collection of rare psychology books is an 1875 volume by Fowler.  The title certainly leaves little to the imagination: 

"Creative and Sexual Science: or Manhood, Womanhood, and Their Mutual Interrelations;  Love, Its Law, Power, ETC.;  Selection, or Mutual Adaptation; Courtship, Married Life, and PERFECT CHILDREN;  Their Generation, Endowment, Paternity, Maternity, Bearing, Nursing and Rearing; Together with Puberty,, Boyhood, Girlhood, ETC.;  SEXUAL IMPAIRMENTS RESTORED, Male Vigor ad Female Health and Beauty Perpetuated ad Augmented, ETC.,  as Taught By PHRENOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY " 

(Fowler was showman enough to make sure that the most important words were carefully capitalized). 

But more on that later after I provide a little background on the beginnings of phrenology.

Although the idea that mental abilities were linked to specific locations in the brain dates back to Aristotle, true scientific work into the nature of brain functioning didn't begin until the late 18th century.   While early visionaries such as Emmanuel Swedenborg made some inspired guesses about how the brain worked, it was German neuroanatomist Franz Joseph Gall who can properly be considered the father of phrenology (not that he ever used that term).  

After establishing his reputation as one of Austria's most prominent physicians, Gall turned his research interests to the human brain and developed the first true theory of cerebral localization.  By 1792, he began lecturing on his idea that the human cerebral cortex was actually a mosaic made up of different specialized organs.  Although many of his ideas were actually correct, including his observations on the significance of cerebral hemispheres and the importance of the frontal lobes in complex thinking, the pseudoscience linked to Gall's name has largely overshadowed his reputation as a medical pioneer.    The premises that Gall laid out in his lectures were that:

1. the brain is the organ of the mind,
2.  the mind is made up of separate and discrete faculties,
3. each faculty must have its own "seat" or organ in the brain,
4.   the size of each organ is a direct measure of its relative importance in the mind,
5.   the shape of the brain is determined by how each organ developed,
6. since the skull is formed from the shape of the brain, measuring the skull can provide an accurate assessment of individual aptitudes and tendencies.    

Gall identified nineteen mental faculties which he considered to be essentially animal in nature, these included "reproductive instinct," "love of one's offspring," "affection," "destructiveness or tendency to murder," and "desire to possess things."   In contrast, he also identified a series of exclusively human qualities such as "wisdom", "satire and wit", "sense of metaphysics",  "religious sentiment", and firmness of purpose".  

Public reaction to Gall's lectures were decidedly mixed.   Despite the lectures being popular, conservative Catholic authorities and even some of his medical colleagues accused him of subversion for daring to suggest that the brain was the centre of intellect rather than the soul (the Austrian empire was still officially Catholic at that time). Although Gall defended himself and his theories as much as he could, he was ordered to stop lecturing in 1801.  

Realizing that he would never be allowed to teach freely in Austria, Gall went into exile to teach and continue his brain research.   Along with giving lectures and public demonstrations of dissections in Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, and France, he took a keen interest in the brains of convicted criminals and gathered further material for his writings on brain functioning.    Settling in Paris in 1807, Gall began writing his masterpiece, ,  The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, with Observations upon the possibility of ascertaining the several Intellectual and Moral Dispositions of Man and Animal, by the configuration of their Heads,  which was eventually published in 1819. 

It was his chief supporter, Johann Spurzheim, who helped develop many of Gall's theories after they first met in 1800.   Although he wasn't the first to coin the term "phrenology", Spurzheim  quickly adopted it for the brain science that he and Gall developed.  Their relatively productive relationship end in 1813 over disagreements on how the brain should be classified.    While Gall's research on criminal brains led to his arguing that there were "evil" tendencies in those brains that needed to be suppressed (such as regions of the brain controlling "murder" and "theft"), Spurzheim rejected this completely and argued that criminal behaviour was caused by underdeveloped moral faculties.  

He also changed Gall's classification system by adding new organs such as "hope" and "moral sense" to Gall's list.   The total number of organs in Spurzheim's revised list rose to thirty-three from Gall's original twenty-seven.    Spurzheim also rejected Gall's gloomy pessimism over changing human nature and argued that proper upbringing could help overcome criminal tendencies.     After their split, Gall publicly condemned many of Spurzheim's "innovations" in his own books and often denounced him as a plagiarist and a quack. 

And with good reason perhaps.  While Gall tried to link his conclusions to actual brain research, Spurzheim development of "practical phrenology" became extremely popular in England and Scotland (and eventually in the United States as well).   Gall was, well, galled by Spurzheim's success and, despite his refusal to use the term phrenology himself (he preferred to call his own science "organology" or "zoonomy"),  it was Spurzheim's term that won out.  Various critics had no problem linking their names together and one reviewer in 1815 denounced their theories as "a collection of mere absurdities, without truth, connexion, or consistency".   Despite some recognition for his original contributions to brain research, Gall remained bitter over never receiving the eminence he felt he deserved.  He died in 1828 after requesting that his own skull be added to the large collection of skulls that are still on display in the Rollet Museum in Baden bei Wien, Austria.

As fpr Spurzhim and his own chief supporter, George Combe, the practical phrenology that they both advocated had less and less to do with any actual brain science as time went on.   While Spurzheim still had some actual medical credentials and gave public demonstrations of brain dissections, his death in 1832 left George Combe as the chief spokesman for phrenology.  Since Combe had no actual medical training (he was a lawyer),  that also meant that phrenology's tenuous claim to science was weaker than ever.   Still, as phrenology shifted away from brain science towards more"personality-oriented" applications, social reformers, innovators, and criminologists became attracted by its appeal.  Cesare Lombroso incorporated many aspects of Gall and Spurzheim's ideas into his own system of identifying "born criminals".     Educators saw phrenology as a way of classifying students according to their ability to learn while psychiatrists began studying patient skulls to find better ways of dealing with asylum inmates. 

By the time of Johann Spurzheim's death, there were at least twenty-nine different phrenological societies in Great Britain alone (George Combe personally founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820).  George Combe's books became international best-sellers and his best-known book, The Constitution of Man, sold more than seventy thousand copies by 1838 alone (and would eventually go on to sell more than three hundred thousand copies).   Even the British royal family consulted Conde since Prince Albert had been worried that one of his sons was a slow learner.   Conde also evaluated Queen Victoria (from a distance) and concluded that her broad and high forehead reflected her "firmness of purpose, great self-control, and awareness of moral principles".   

Despite the controversy over phrenology and increasingly successful attacks by eminent scientists,  phrenology spread across the Atlantic and American phrenological societies sprang up as well.  Still,  phrenology didn't last particularly long as a serious movement in the United States.   Eminent American surgeon John Collins Warren attended many of Spurzheim's lectures and recognized its significance although he never became a member of a phrenological society himself.  He also carried out the autopsy on Johann Spurzheim after his death in Boston during an American tour (leading to Spurzheim's skull being added to the growing Harvard medical collection).    Other eminent medical researchers such as Charles Caldwell and John Bell also attended Spurzheim's lectures and founded Pennsylvania's first phrenological society (Caldwell went to write the first American textbook on phrenology).    Although George Combe visited the United States on lecture tours (and met several American presidents in the process), the movement began fading after 1840 and largely became relegated to a pseudoscience before the decade was out.

Which brings us back to Orson Fowler and his brother...

Born in Steuben Country, New York in 1809, Orson Fowler attended Amherst College in Massachusetts.  While attending school there, he developed a keen interest in phrenology which he shared with his best friend, Henry Ward Beecher.   While Beecher went into ministry work after their graduation in  1834, Fowler had other ideas. 

He and his brother, Lorenzo Fowler opened a phrenology office in New York City and launched a series of public lectures on phrenology, physiology,  psychology, and social reform.   Orson Fowler also became a popular writer and editor of the American Phrenological Journal and placed his own stamp on American phrenology by launching one of the largest mail-order firms in New York City.   At the height of the phrenology craze, Fowler's New York offices attracted as many visitors as the nearby museum run by P.T. Barnum.   

Along with phrenology, the Fowlers also promoted a new "scientific" system of shorthand called phonography (they called it scientific since it was based on a specific set of rules).   Not that the Fowler family believed in limiting themselves in any way.   Orson's wife Lydia and sister, Charlotte, were both active suffragettes and the Fowler offices in New York became a gathering place where people could discuss anything from abolishing slavery (pre-Civil War) to the crusade against alcohol (did I forget to mention that they were also temperance movement supporters?). 

Although the American Phrenological Journal that Fowler edited folded up by 1842,  his company did brisk business with a range of other products.  Along with books and pamphlets (mostly written by Orson Fowler),  the company also sold phrenological charts, measuring tapes, craniometers, and the classic china Phrenology Heads which are still collectors' items today.     The Fowler brothers also took their show across the country as part of a regular lecture circuit although they often faced attacks by skeptics denouncing phrenology as "quackery".   While both Fowlers defended the science behind their work, that claim became harder to defend as mainstream medical researchers withdrew support. 

Still, the Fowler brothers carried on their crusade and insisted that phrenology had just as much right to be labelled a science as mathematics, astronomy, or natural history.   Orson Fowler also stressed the theological importance of phrenology, which revealed "the hand-writing of God" since its principles, like all scientific truths as far as he was concerned,  were "of divine origin".    Lorenzo Fowler even argued that phrenologists were completing the work that Jesus Christ started in reforming human behaviour.

As for the Orson Fowler book in my collection, it seems fairly typical of the phrenological literature that he sold through his company.   The book's introduction begins with:  "Reproduction is Nature's paramount work;  because to all else what foundation is to house- its sine qua non.  It has its SCIENCE, or natural laws, prescribed modus operandi and, and instrumentalities.  GENDER IS ITS MASTER WORKMAN, and Nature's "male and female" arrangement, with its governing law, her chose "ways and means" or originating all life: which growth completes."   Covering nine sections in all, the book includes sections such as "Gender and Sexuality", "Love", "Sexual Selection", "Married Life",  "Generation" (the polite Victorian euphemism for sexual intercourse), "Maternity",  and "Sexual Restoration".   

Despite these being taboo topics during the Victorian era in which Fowler was writing, his tenuous claim to medical expertise enabled him to present his phrenological advice in the form of a marriage manual for concerned adults trying to deal with different aspects of human sexuality.   While Orson Fowler proudly inserted the word "science" into his book as much as he could (usually in capital letters), there was very little, if any, empirical testing of the elaborate claims that he made in his book.  He certainly didn't believe in referencing his "facts" and, despite abundant illustrations, there doesn't seem to be any citations (aside from his own works).   The book also contains surprising little phrenology and mostly deals with Victorian ideals about the proper age for teaching children about sexual matters and the need for a "scientific" approach to sex and love.   The book seems to say more about Fowler's personal biases than any attempt at scientific objectivity.   As well, his insistence that producing children was the ultimate purpose for any sexual act marked him very much as a man of his time. 

Whenever critics  accused him of being more interested in making money than actually promoting phrenology, Orson Fowler simply defended himself by saying that he worked so hard because "I loved the science!".     Still,  the decline had begun setting in after 1860 and Lorenzo Fowler, sensing that the market was drying up, moved to Great Britain in 1863 to continue his phrenology crusade there.  Although Charlotte Fowler took over running the company and a new generation of Fowlers came on board to help with the mail-order business, phrenology's day was definitely past.  By the time Orson Fowler died in 1887, phrenology was just one of many different "sciences" being promoted by travelling hucksters giving lectures across the country.    As the phrenology market dried up, the ex-phrenologists drifted on to more profitable ventures, including spiritualist research and more evolutionary explanations for human behaviourism.  

Beginning in the 1870s,  Social Darwinist theories based (loosely) on Darwin's theory of evolution grew in popularity and social reformers shifted away from phrenology-based social reform towards improving human behaviour through "good breeding".  As phrenology societies faded, eugenics societies formed on both sides of the Atlantic with credible scientists using their research to boost the idea of improving society through genetics  (especially Charles Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton).   But that's another story.

While phrenologists tried every marketing strategy that they could, including the developing of mechanical phrenology devices (which I once tried myself at an American Psychological Association convention),  American phrenology never survived Orson Fowler's death.  Despite phrenology fading in the United States, the movement staggered on in parts of Europe despite most scientists denouncing its validity.   Several early 20th scientists, such as Bernard Hollander in the United Kingdom and Paul Bouts in Belgium, tried repackaging phrenology to make it more acceptable but their efforts are largely forgotten today. 

Although phrenology has long since been relegated to obscurity, the legacy that Gall, Spurzheim, and Fowler left behind still lingers.   Various pseudoscientific schemes for classifying people still enjoy some popularity, whether through classifying people by blood-type,  graphology (handwriting), or astrology, although none of them seem to have ever enjoyed the scientific respectability that phrenology could claim (at first).    

Unfortunately, while pseudoscientific movements can be easily dismissed, more scientifically validated methods of personality classification using psychometric testing are prone to misuse as well (and often are).   Various media psychologists selling unscientific advice to the public through self-help books, radio, and television appearances often rely on the same selling strategies that worked for Orson Fowler,  however briefly.    Failing to acknowledge the very real scientific limits of psychology will almost certainly catch up to them in time however.   Whether the current pundits can learn from Orson Fowler's example remains to be seen.

Can Teen Health Complaints Help Predict Suicide Risk?

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents. Screening for persons at risk usually includes asking about suicidal ideation, which is considered inappropriate in some societies and situations. To avoid directly addressing suicide, a new paper in the Journal of Affective Disorders investigates whether the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Symptom Checklist (HBSC-SCL), a validated non-clinical measure of eight subjective health complaints (e.g. headache, feeling low), could be used as a tool for screening suicidal ideation and behavior in adolescents.  A sample 5262 secondary school students aged 12–18 answered the Luxembourgish HBSC 2014 survey, including the HBSC-SCL items and suicidal ideation and behavior questions. Results showed that each HBSC-SCL item correlates with suicidal ideation and behavior. A sum score was calculated ranging from zero to eight health complaints to predict respondents who considered suicide (area under the ROC curve = 0.770). The ideal cut-off for screening students who consider suicide is three or more health complaints: sensitivity is 66.3%, specificity is 75.9% and positive predictive value is 32.9%.  One limitation is HBSC-SCL's low positive predictive value. This is a general problem of screening rare events: the lower the prevalence, the lower the positive predictive value. Sensitivity and specificity could be improved by taking age-, gender- and country-specific cut-off values, but such refinements would make the score calculation more complicated. Conclusions: The HBSC-SCL is short, easy to use, with satisfactory screening properties. The checklist can be used when suicide cannot be addressed directly, and also in a more general context, e.g. by school nurses when screening adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract