He then said "Guard this object carefully" (Sweetman 293).
Some reasons speculated for this unusual self-destruction were:.
1. Schizophrenia.
2. He failed to harm Paul Gaugin so he turned the violence on himself?.
3. He was just filled with self-loathing?.
It was later discovered that he was tormented by voices and was having hallucinations. Had he attempted to silence the voices by cutting off the offending organ? (Sweetman 294).
Vincent van Gogh began having nervous attacks in 1888, and his doctor diagnosed him with having some sort of epilepsy. He then went back to painting (Sweetman 296). Vincent was fully conscious of his state, and after about four months he went to live at the asylum of St. Paul-de-Mausole. He left the asylum after a few months and returned to painting again. But the nervous attacks did not stop. Then in 1890 when he realized that his epileptic state was incurable, he committed suicide (Sweetman 303).
On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh attempted suicide- but he didn't die. After lunch, Vincent went to Chateau d'Auvers. He leaned his easel against a haystack, and went down to the Chateau wall. He held a revolver to his chest, pulled the trigger, and fainted. When he came to, he searched for the weapon he had used, but could not find it. So he got up and walked to a friend's house in town (Sweetman 341). The friends called a doctor, and the doctor dressed the bullet wound. No vital organ including the heart had been hit. But the doctors decided that if Vincent wanted to die, they would let him. He was not taken to a hospital, and the doctors left (Sweetman 342). On July 28, 1890, Theodore, Vincent's brother came to where Vincent was staying. Though he was in good condition, as the day wore on, infection set in Because doctors believed that leaving the wound alone and not taking out the bullet would make it heal faster. There was a period where suffocation was near as he struggled for breath.