Martyr Personalites and Suicide
by Ernest Shulman
Suicide bombers are in the news. The public sees fanatics dying to make a political point. Some people, however, choose death, not for a cause, but in association with a martyr-like lifestyle. Such individuals exist everywhere. Here I discuss three of them: Vincent Van Gogh from Holland, Primo Levi from Italy, and Nikolay Gogol of Russia.
Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Tormented by failures to connect with others, especially women he desired, Van Gogh lived largely a solitary existence. Some of his habits alienated people (Lubin, 1972). For example, he dressed and spoke uncouthly, indifferent to others’ expectations. He always lived in poverty. He distanced himself from teachers and colleagues. Paul Gauguin lived with him in Arles, France, for a few months but left in disgust, precipitating the incident in which Van Gogh cut off an ear lobe to present to a prostitute. Afterward, Van Gogh passed several months in a nearby mental hospital (St. Remy) where he continued painting but made several suicide attempts by swallowing poison. After leaving the asylum, he lived near Paris, not far from his patron and younger brother, Theo. Van Gogh shot himself when he recognized that Theo, now married and a father, would no longer be available to support him either financially or emotionally (Callow, 1990).
All his life, Van Gogh did without amenities to better fit the Christ-like existence he aspired to (Sweetman, 1990). For example, he spent two years as a Protestant missionary in Belgium’s coal-mining district. Appalled by the poverty he saw, he gave away his possessions to those in need, depriving himself of coat and bed. The missionary society dropped him as a theological seminary also did, on account of his unruliness. Such career disappointments led him to take up painting.
Vincent’s punitive actions toward himself included a childhood estranged from family for non-conformity to rules; self-flagellation when upset with himself; and an attempt to induce his uncle to allow him to visit his cousin, placing his hand in a candle flame and saying it would stay there until she appeared (his uncle blew out the flame and kicked him out).
Van Gogh was idealistic. To follow Christ’s path, he chose to suffer and die young. He intended his painting, like his earlier religious service, to bring God’s word to impoverished workers.
Primo Levi (1919-1987)
Levi, of Turin, Italy, grew up a mama’s boy. In the cold war between his parents, he took his mother’s side against his remote father. Teased by classmates for prudery, he remained sexually inhibited throughout life despite mutual attractions involving various women.
Caught by the Germans while fighting them in 1944, Levi as a Jew spent 10 months in Auschwitz. He emerged, returned to live with his widowed mother, married someone because she responded to his obsessive Auschwitz stories, and with her raised two children in his mother’s apartment.
Levi always felt guilty about surviving the death camp (Camon, 1989). He once wrote: “The bad survived– that is, the fittest; the best all died” (Anissimov, 1999, p. 163). Tormented to the end by Auschwitz memories, he often contemplated suicide. According to a friend, he felt like a prisoner at home, his wife in control. He lived to be 67 because of his work in a paint factory and because of his international success as author of many books, including Auschwitz memoirs, which helped him represent Holocaust survivors as a speaker. When he retired both from chemistry research and Holocaust witnessing to the public, he suffered from writer’s block. Then, reduced to serving his cancer-stricken, aged mother he would not leave her vicinity.
Chained by guilt to obligations he dreaded, one morning Levi jumped the railing outside his fourth-floor apartment, falling to his death on the ground floor (Thomson, 2002).
Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852)
Other schoolboys nicknamed him “the mysterious dwarf.” Russia’s famous poet, Pushkin, called him “the great melancholic” (Magarshak, 1957). Sensitive and depressed, sometimes for months, but often sociable, he left St. Petersburg in 1836 for 12 years of travel. Gogol, already renowned for satirizing national foibles (Karlinsky, 1976), continued writing. He enjoyed Rome most, where he conducted many homosexual affairs.
Homosexuality did not sit well with Gogol, however. His uneducated mother had inculcated in him a deep fear of hell if he broke any rules of orthodox Christianity, including the prohibition against homosexual conduct. Fear of hell tormented him, and would lead to his suicide at age 43.
While in Vienna, Gogol attained a transforming epiphany. A hypochondriac, he developed psychosomatic ailments, inducing death terrors. He coped by changing literary aims. No longer aesthetically inclined, Gogol’s grandiosity took a new turn. He had always believed himself destined to advance the spiritual regeneration of mankind, but in his last years he wrote to convert people to religiously orthodox standards. Setting up as a prophet, he worked to lead humanity to salvation (Setchkarev, 1965).
Returning to Moscow, for four years he associated mainly with religious fanatics, avoiding literary society that previously had lionized him. Gogol met Father Matthew to whom he confessed his “sins.” This priest ordered him to discontinue writing and do nothing but fast and pray as penance for past misconduct. Hoping to save his soul, Gogol starved himself to death.
Conclusion
Denial of basic needs characterizes the martyr personality. Compensation for deprivation can take many forms. If grandiosity accompanies the compensation, a suicide vulnerability becomes established. Then, if part or all of the compensatory role is lost, suicide may occur. Van Gogh deprived himself of financial autonomy and a support network; instead, he devoted himself to painting, his brother Theo alone sustaining him. With Theo’s unavailability, Vincent’s world collapsed. Levi replaced home pleasures with writing, Holocaust witnessing, and chemical research. Retired from those activities, he couldn’t sustain himself. Gogol wrote to generate social reform while unable to harmonize his emotions. He died when, convinced of sinfulness, he abandoned writing, hoping thereby to escape hell. The martyr personality lives on the edge, and topples off it if the lifestyle collapses.
References
Anissimov, M. (1999). Primo Levi: Tragedy of an optimist. Woodstock, NY: Overlook.
Callow, P. (1990). Vincent van Gogh: A life. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
Camon, F. (1989). Conversations with Primo Levi. Marlboro,VT: Marlboro.
Karlinsky, S. (1976). The sexual labyrinth of Nicolai Gogol. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.
Lubin, A.J. (1972). Stranger on the earth: A psychological biography of Vincent van Gogh. New York: Holt.
Magarshak, D. (1957). Gogol: A life. London: Faber and Faber.
Setchkarev, V. (1965). Gogol: His life and works. New York: New York University.
Sweetman, D. (1990). Van Gogh. New York: Crown.
Thomson, I. (2002). Primo Levi: A life. New York: Holt.
About the Author
Ernest Shulman, Ph.D., has been a member of AAS since 1982, has a doctorate in social psychology from City University of New York. He has presented over 30 research papers at AAS and other professional conferences, primarily in his specialties of suicidality in famous people and anthropology. The author of several published articles in peer-reviewed journals, he is currently completing a book titled, Why They Took Their Lives. Comments on this article would be appreciated; contact him at ERNVICSH@aol.com.