I think two things can be true. Various psychoactive substances are well known to cause substantially worse effects in people with existing, but manageable mental illness.
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In this case, the poor guy was already bipolar and schizoaffective. His girlfriend had just broken up with him, and he hit the bottle. Then he tried this new liquor that was all the rage at the time . . . You can see how this goes.
sep 1, 2025, 3:44 am • 1 0 • view
I've read that the girlfriend thing is kinda bullshit, and that in reality he gave his ear to a young 18 year old maid who worked in a brothel. She wasn't a sex worker, like many people think either. I've also read that the triggering event prior to cutting his ear off
sep 1, 2025, 5:26 am • 0 1 • view
--Was that he got into an argument with a male artist friend, Paul Gauguin, and then wandered into town, which led to the ear gifting. He was considered even for the time "a heavy absinthe drinker."
sep 1, 2025, 5:26 am • 0 1 • view
Sorry, I meant: he got into a heated argument, chopped his ear off*, THEN wandered into town lol
sep 1, 2025, 5:28 am • 0 1 • view
As for whether or not he was mentally ill first or after absinthe consumption isn't clear. The problem is that there is such thing as substance induced psychosis AND/or substance induced activation of dormant genes. He drank absinthe for many many years. He like many artists believed that his art
sep 1, 2025, 5:36 am • 0 1 • view
Wasn't as pure, spiritual, creative, beautiful, etc, without it. His signature use of yellow is even attributed to his absinthe drinking. Parisian painters who drank absinthe recreationally, reported that it "made colors brighter and bolder, and even gave them the ability to see new colors"
sep 1, 2025, 5:36 am • 2 1 • view
--"that they could not see before drinking absinthe or without it." That's why there was so much sociopolitical intensity around protecting artists' access to the drink. Even Oscar Wilde famously wrote essays on the importance of maintaining its legal use in society LOL.
sep 1, 2025, 5:36 am • 2 0 • view
megan, this post just makes me want to travel back in time and steal a case of absinth
sep 1, 2025, 5:57 am • 1 0 • view
Lmffaaaoo...all I know is the Parisian artsy fartsy green cafes were probably wild. A lot of talented painters literally painted portraits of random ppl in the bar, just men and women looking so disheveled and dazed with their fresh glass of absinthe. like tf all y'all seem so sad and unwell LOL
sep 1, 2025, 6:02 am • 1 0 • view
But they fought so damn hard to maintain legal access to brain damage juice. Fascinating shit.
sep 1, 2025, 6:02 am • 1 0 • view