Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?

Wikipedia: Van Gogh cut off the ear lobe on one of his ears during some sort of seizure on December 23, 1888[citation needed]. Mental problems afflicted him, particularly in the last few years of his life. During some of these periods he did not paint, or was not allowed to. There has been much debate over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's mental illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label his illness, and some 30 different diagnoses have been suggested.[65] Diagnoses which have been put forward include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia, and a fondness for alcohol, and absinthe in particular. ==================== Any and/or all of the above reasons, brought on by a disagreement with a prostitute.  more

According to the movie "Akira Kurosawa's Dreams", he was painting a self portrait and couldn't get the ear to come out right, so he cut it off...  more

It's now believed that he didn't. What is believed to have happened was a fight between him and P. Gauguin in his studio was the result of the mutilation. Gauguin was a master swordsman and we believe that in a fit of frustration towards Van Gogh, Gauguin cut his ear with a rapier! The day or the day after Van Gogh went into the hospital Gauguin left Arles quickly to another city. Although Van Gogh did not report it to the authorities it's understood that he might have kept silent to protect what he considered his friend. I believe this to be true, knowing a lot of the man's history, the time it happened, where it happened and the general atmosphere during the incident makes it more plain and reasonable that this would be the proper story. Van Gogh was depressed, but he was not a nut job, nor a masochist. In the end he was suicidal but he was not crazy, and I don't believe he was crazy enough to mutilate himself. Given the information I have in my studies in the arts I would have to ...  more

A woman made him cut off his ear LOBE (not his whole ear). Also, he used to eat his own paints. Not a pretty picture.  more

To be precise, it was the lobe of his left ear which he put into an envelope and gave to a brothel wench named Rachel with these words: "Guard this object carefully." After he tried to drink a quart of turpentine in his studio, he was sent to the asylum at Saint-Remy on May 7, 1889. The doctors began to treat him with hydrotherapy for acute mania and epilepsy. A precise diagnosis of Van Gogh's illness is still unavailable, despite hundreds of conjectures. We do know a few facts: Van Gogh suffered from syphilis contracted from prostitutes off the docks at Antwerp; there was also a history of mental illness in his family. Some physicians now believe Van Gogh may have had a congenital brain lesion that was aggravated by absinthe.  more

He cut his ear off because he drank too much absynthe...He was a tarnished genius destroyed by his own ingenuity.... The universe took him from us, but remember the universe gives us what we want when we want, therefore we being the creators of our own lives. Vincent Van Gogh was the creator and therefore destroyer of his own life... nothing more nothing less.... People look way too much into all this when the answer is simple..... just look at your own life and recognise, whether you like it or not, that you are the creator of your own world... i mean everything in it.... this was maybe not what van gogh understood.....  more

I heard it was because of a constant ringing in his ear that was driving in mad.  more

The short and sweet answer. . . It has been speculated that Van Gogh suffered from bi-polar disorder(see <a href="http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/1380" target="_blank">http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/1380</a> ). He commited suicide in 1890. Around 1888, van Gogh suffered a mental breakdown (possibly induced by absinthe) and cut off part of his left ear, which he gave to a startled prostitute friend. From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Gogh" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.  more

If you type Van Gogh into the little "Find answers about:" box near the top of the screen you'll find this information very quickly without having to wait for the people on-line now to answer.  more