'Waarde Theo': A Lexical Analysis of Vincent van Gogh’s Letters Based on Psycholinguistics

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‘Waarde Theo’:

A Lexical Analysis of Vincent van Gogh’s Letters Based on Psycholinguistics

Lot Woittiez 1342312

MA Thesis, Book and Digital Media Studies

Dr. P. A. F. Verhaar, thesis supervisor and first reader F. E. W. Praal MA, second reader

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Introduction

“It’s difficult to know oneself”1_{, Vincent van Gogh wrote in September of 1889 to his}

brother Theo, whilst in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. What he states here is true, of course, it is difficult, although not impossible, to know oneself or even others. Van Gogh wrote numerous letters during his lifetime which enables us to develop an impression of his character, of his relation to others, and of his mental and artistic development. Without the letters, we would only know him through his paintings and through other people’s

views of him. They give us unique insights not only into a 19th_{century artist’s life, but}

also into the mind of someone who is often regarded as a troubled man. Scholars of all areas have studied and analysed his writings, whether from a perspective of art history, biography, or behavioural sciences.

With the help of biographical information, psychology, and linguistics to provide necessary context, I aim to apply different algorithmic textual analyses of Vincent van Gogh’s correspondence in order to establish a connection between his mental state and the language he uses in his letters. Research from biographical and psychological angles points to the fact that Vincent van Gogh was dealing with psychological difficulties

throughout his life.2_{There is also an indication that, towards the end of Van Gogh’s life,}

there was a significant mental decline.3_{This is especially noticeable in the last phase of}

his life, before he committed suicide. Psycholinguistics studies have found, through algorithmic lexical analyses of various texts, that certain language patterns can be

connected to the presence of mental illness.4_{This means that the choice of specific}

words can indicate that the writer of these words may be susceptible to a mental

1_{Van Gogh Letters, ‘800’ <}_{http://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let800/letter.html}_{> (6 July, 2019).} 2_{J.C.A. Morrant. 'The wing of madness: the illness of Vincent van Gogh', The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 38} (1993), pp. 480-484.

W.N. Arnold. 'The Illness of Vincent van Gogh', Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 13 (2004), pp. 22-43.

D. Blumer. 'The Illness of Vincent van Gogh', American Journal of Psychiatry, 159 (2002), pp. 519-526.

3_{A. A. P. van Emmerik and E. L. Hamaker. ‘Paint it Black: Using Change-Point Analysis to Investigate Increasing} Vulnerability to Depression towards the End of Vincent van Gogh’s Life’, Healthcare, 5 (2017), pp. 1-5. 4_{T. Nguyen et al. ‘Affective and content analysis of online depression communities’, IEEE Transactions on} Affective Computing, 5 (2014), pp. 217-226.

M. Al-Mosaiwi and T. Johnstone. ‘In an absolute state: Elevated use of absolutist words is a marker specific to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.’ Clinical Psychological Science, 6 (2018), pp. 529-542.

S. Rude, E. Gortner, and J. Pennebaker. ‘Language use of depressed and depression-vulnerable college students’, Cognition & Emotion, 18 (2004), pp. 1121-1133.

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6 disorder such as depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder. Thus, through different types of lexical analyses, I aim to identify the language patterns in Van Gogh’s letters, if any, that are able to signify psychological strain and/or a decline in his mental state over time. Despite the fact that I will be using terms derived from the field of psychology throughout these chapters, it should be noted that this thesis does not have the goal of diagnosing Vincent van Gogh, as this is in many ways impossible. A diagnosis is an

evaluation carried out in person by a mental health professional.5_{While the thesis aims}

to understand Van Gogh’s mind through the application of psycholinguistics, we should

remember it remains a distant reading analysis of letters written by a 19th_century

historical figure. The data at our disposal is limited and thus we cannot call this analysis a diagnosis.

In order to be able to effectively execute this analysis, I should ascertain who exactly Vincent van Gogh was. In chapter 1, I learn about him through his letters,

through the perspective of those who knew him, and, primarily, through the perspective of his biographers. Gaining more biographical insight into Van Gogh’s life will provide context to the later lexical analyses in chapter 3. The results of the experiments can only be interpreted accurately if I know why Vincent van Gogh is the way he is. Thus, in chapter 1, I inquire how Van Gogh’s biographers as well as psychologists who have studied him regard his life and his mental state. Vincent van Gogh was rather attached to

his family, but he consistently felt rejected by them.6_{The main, consistent positive}

friendship in his life was the connection he had with his brother, Theo van Gogh. Even though there is no consensus on this matter, many psychologists believe that Vincent van Gogh suffered from some form of depression or bipolar disorder, as there are

identifiable highs and lows in his mental state.7_{As the letters written by Van Gogh serve}

as the basis for my analysis, I explore these texts as well as the themes and language that characterise them. I also discuss the various correspondents that Van Gogh was in

contact with between 1872 and 1890. The tone of the letters varied greatly, depending on whether Van Gogh wrote to family members or to artist friends. Chapter 1 also

contains a discussion of the Vincent van Gogh Correspondence Project, as their project is

5_{American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. American Psychiatric} Publishing, Arlington, VA, 2013, p. 5.

6_{S.W. Naifeh and G. W. Smith. Van Gogh: The Life. (Random House Incorporated, 2011).}

7_{W.N. Arnold. 'The Illness of Vincent van Gogh', Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 13 (2004), pp.} 22-43.

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the reason I am able to carry out this particular thesis.8_{The Vincent van Gogh}

Correspondence Project has managed to transcribe, annotate, translate, and digitise all 902 letters, so that they are available online to everyone.

Having observed the biographical and psychological context that underlies this thesis, chapter 2 explores the previous research that has been conducted to find a connection between language and psychology. These studies have been conducted with the help of lexical analysis on a variety of texts, comprising, for example, ego-documents

such as personal diaries, lyrics, and online forums.9_{I discuss the methodologies through}

which these researchers have achieved their results, which includes the software (e.g.

LIWC), 10_{the tools, and psychological theories they have based their analysis on. I also}

address the difference between ‘function’ words (e.g. personal pronouns and absolutist words such as ‘completely’ or ‘nothing’) and ‘content’ words (e.g. verbs and adjectives)

and what these different types of words can reveal.11_{Both can be meaningful in terms of}

psychology, yet some say that function words are even more revealing.12_{Overall, many}

different types of lexical analyses which have been utilised to examine various corpora could also be applied to Van Gogh’s letters so that we can find more information about his state of mind.

In chapter 3, I utilise the information gathered from both chapter 1 and chapter 2 in order to develop the methodologies through which the letters are analysed. I employ Python and NLTK to tokenise the text, count words and generate data about all the letters. Some of the language patterns that are investigated in Van Gogh’s writings based on previous research are the use of pronouns, specifically FPSP, and the use of absolutist words. The control group includes letters written by correspondents of Van Gogh, such as Theo van Gogh, Anthon Rappard, Paul Gauguin, and Willemien van Gogh. Since LIWC is used frequently in order to investigate the psychological meaning of texts, I also apply

8_{Van Gogh Letters, 'Letters', <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html}_{> (14 July, 2019).}

9_{T. Nguyen et al. ‘Affective and content analysis of online depression communities’, IEEE Transactions on} Affective Computing, 5 (2014), pp. 217-226.

A.J. Rodriguez, S.E. Holleran, and M.R. Mehl. ‘Reading between the lines: The lay assessment of subclinical depression from written self‐descriptions’, Journal of personality, 78 (2010), pp. 575-598.

E. J. Lightman et al. ‘Using computational text analysis tools to compare the lyrics of suicidal and non-suicidal songwriters’, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 29 (2007), pp. 1217-1222. 10_{LIWC. <}_{http://liwc.wpengine.com/}_{> (14 July, 2019).}

11_{C. Chung and J. W. Pennebaker. ‘The psychological functions of function words’, Social communication, 1} (2007), p. 345.

12_{M. Al-Mosaiwi and T. Johnstone. ‘In an absolute state: Elevated use of absolutist words is a marker specific to} anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation’, Clinical Psychological Science, 6 (2018), p. 531.

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8 a variety of LIWC dictionaries to the corpus of Van Gogh’s letters. The last analysis draws on my own methodology based on the definitions within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders (DSM-5) of major depressive disorder and manic episodes related

to bipolar disorder.13_{I have chosen these particular disorders, since these are most}

frequently mentioned by psychologists who study Van Gogh and his writing. The DSM-5 is highly regarded in the world of psychiatry and provides very detailed descriptions of various disorders. While this is not an attempt at a diagnosis, using an official source such as the DSM-5 could tell us more about Van Gogh’s mental state. With the help of the descriptions which list the symptoms of these disorders, I am utilising a mixture of my own constructed lexicons in Python as well as dictionaries that already exist in the LIWC database.

In the end, I hope to be able to conclude this thesis by analysing the results of my case study and discussing the implications these results have in regards to the

connection between Van Gogh’s language use and his mental state.

The images on the front and back cover of this thesis were taken from the facsimiles of the letters 32 and 47 on the website of the Vincent van Gogh

Correspondence Project.14

13_{American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. American} Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA, 2013.

14_{Van Gogh Letters, ‘032’, <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let032/letter.html}_{> (20 July, 2019).} Van Gogh Letters, ‘047’, <http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let047/letter.html> (20 July, 2019).

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Chapter 1: Vincent van Gogh's Life, Letters, and Illness

While the focus on Vincent van Gogh has mostly revolved around him as an artist or a historical figure, he is also incredibly interesting as a person. This personality transpires from his letters, in which he is able to tell us much about his life, his thoughts, and his feelings. These texts are a valuable resource both for research based on distant reading and for close reading analyses.

Lexical analyses can usefully be applied to explore a connection between language and mental state. Various scholars from the areas of art history as well as psychiatry have already observed a process of mental decline in Vincent van Gogh, based on what we know about his life. A distant reading of Van Gogh’s letters could offer a different but enlightening perspective that considers his language use on a very systematic level. This is part of the reason I have chosen to use Vincent van Gogh's letters as the subject of my research. Another reason for this is the large number of letters that remain from his correspondence, 902 in total, and the long time period they

span, 18 years.15_{On top of this, not much research based on distant reading has been}

conducted in regard to his letters, excepting a study by A. A. P. van Emmerik and E.L.

Hamaker.16_{Vincent van Gogh himself is particularly suited for research because there is}

no real consensus about his mental state. Many academics have speculated about his mental and physical health after his death, based on an interpretation of his letters as

well as documents from the Saint-Paul asylum based in Saint Rémy.17

In the first section of this chapter, I explore what we know about Vincent van Gogh's life and how biographers have portrayed him. I also regard the way in which various scholars have attempted to analyse his mental state posthumously and compare his behaviour with symptoms of different illnesses and disorders.

In the second section, I provide insight into Van Gogh’s letters based on various analyses of their themes and language use, produced via a close reading of these letters. On top of this, I examine the way Van Gogh’s mental state is presented in the letters, if it appears at all. I also explore Vincent van Gogh’s relationship with his brother Theo van

15_{Van Gogh Letters, 'Letters', <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters.html}_{> (5 May, 2018).}

16_{A.A.P. van Emmerik and E. L. Hamaker. 'Paint it Black: Using Change-Point Analysis to Investigate Increasing} Vulnerability to Depression towards the End of Vincent van Gogh’s Life.' Healthcare 5 (2017), pp. 1-5. 17_{D. Blumer. 'The Illness of Vincent van Gogh', American Journal of Psychiatry 159 (2002), pp. 519-526.}

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10 Gogh through the letters, as well as the other people Vincent van Gogh corresponded with. Lastly, I discuss the methods with which the Huygens Institute has digitised the letters and how their edition differs from previous publications of Van Gogh’s letters.

1.1 Who Was Vincent van Gogh?

1.1.1 Family

Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 into an upper middle-class, vicar's family. Like his siblings, he received a good education and was raised in a peaceful home with Christian values. His parents always seemed to want the best for their children and were very involved in each of their lives. Overall, the Van Goghs were a close-knit family, but

Vincent and his parents did have some difficulties. In the 1870s, this was related to what was described as Vincent van Gogh's 'religious fanaticism' by his parents, as he wanted to become a clergyman at that time. They also emphasised how different he was from the rest of the family, which was later affirmed by Van Gogh himself. He writes in letter 411 (1883): "In character I’m quite different from the various members of the family,

and I’m actually not a “Van Gogh”." 18_{The relationship with his father became further}

strained as Van Gogh entirely distanced himself from the church and accused his father of being 'narrow-minded'. The relationship between Van Gogh and his brother Theo could also be characterised as quite tumultuous. They were interdependent, but there were certainly tensions, as Vincent could be very mean towards Theo when he was convinced of his own opinion. Theo, on the other hand, was rather good-natured and thus able to help him through the many difficulties that Vincent encountered in his life. Theo felt responsible for his brother and the brotherly friendship survived despite Van

Gogh's harshness.19_{Not only did Vincent van Gogh have difficulties in his familial}

relationships, he also battled with physical as well as mental issues, some of which include seizures, a bad stomach, nightmares, anxiety, and frequent fevers. Towards the

end of his life, the mentions of suicide in his letters increase. 20

18_{Van Gogh Letters, '411', <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let411/letter.html}_{> (5 May, 2018).} 19_{Van Gogh Letters, 'Biographical and Historical Context', <http://vangoghletters.org/vg/context_1.html> (5} May, 2018).

Naifeh, S. W., and G. W. Smith. Van Gogh: The Life. (Random House Incorporated, 2011). 20_{Van Gogh Letters, 'Search results 'suicide'', <}_{https://tinyurl.com/y9pdgbpw}_{> (5 May, 2018).}

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1.1.2 Love, work, and religion

Van Gogh became an art dealer in The Hague at the age of 16 , thanks to his uncle Cent. He thoroughly enjoyed this type of work and continued it in London. Once he arrived there, he fell in love with the daughter of his landlady, Eugenie Loyer. After being rejected, Van Gogh fell into a zealous passion and grew more isolated. He also became less agreeable at his place of work, where he was harsh towards his co-workers as well as the customers; he was eventually fired.

Because of his education at a Methodist school for boys, he developed a growing passion for preaching and he started pursuing this new career. Despite failing his exam, he departed to Belgium to work as a missionary among coal miners, where he lived very simply, as he imitated the community. This was frowned upon by church authorities, who considered him strange and dismissed him.

When he returned home, Van Gogh’s parents were very disappointed, so much so that his father threatened to have him committed to the lunatic asylum in Geel. He left his parents after this debacle and, on Theo’s suggestion, decided to become an artist. Theo was now financially supporting him, as his parents had decided he was no longer their responsibility. At the academy, Vincent van Gogh became acquainted with Anthon Rappard, with whom he would become good friends. He continued to exchange letters throughout his life. He also took lessons from his cousin in The Hague, Anton Mauve, but this did not last long. Van Gogh was in a relationship with Sien Hoornik, a pregnant prostitute, and Mauve severely disapproved of this connection.

After two years, however, he broke off the relationship and moved to Drenthe, following other artists who had done so. After a short while, he moved back to his parents, as Drenthe lacked models and drawing materials. In Nuenen, aside from only drawing, he started painting more frequently. In order to further his craft, he studied at the academy of Antwerp and enjoyed the city and its museums tremendously. He greatly admired Japanese art and the impressionists. For a period in 1886, Van Gogh lived with his brother in Paris, where he became acquainted with artists such as Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard, both of whom he would later exchange letters with. From this period, a much smaller number of letters exist, since the brothers lived together and there was no need for letter-writing between them. In 1888, Vincent van Gogh moved to Arles, hoping to create a place where a group of artists could share ideas and paint together.

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12 Gauguin joined him in Arles in October, but only a few months later, Van Gogh experienced some kind of attack during which he cut off his ear. There is no real

consensus as to what caused this violent behaviour.21_{Gauguin quickly returned back to}

Paris. Van Gogh voluntarily entered the asylum of Saint-Rémy and he was unable to work during his illness, although he occasionally went outside to paint. After leaving Saint-Rémy he only lived for two more months, believing he was a failure, despite his success among a select group, and finding life difficult to bear. He was, however, incredibly productive in those last few months of his life and created dozens of paintings. In July 1890, he shot himself and died two days later in the presence of his

brother Theo van Gogh.22_{The last words Vincent van Gogh spoke, as Theo told their}

sister Lies van Gogh, were “La tristesse durera toujours”, which translates to “The

sadness will last forever.”23

1.1.3 Psychological analysis

Over the years, many scholars, specifically psychiatrists, have attempted to examine

Vincent van Gogh and his mental state posthumously.24_{They all have varying}

conclusions which include (but are not limited to) depression, porphyria, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, and depressive mood swings aggravated by substance abuse. Many agree, however, that Vincent van Gogh dealt with some form of depression or bipolar disorder, which was worsened by alcohol. For my research, I will thus be focusing on mental disorders, specifically those related to major depressive disorder and bipolar

disorder, as defined by the DSM-5.25_{The mental issues van Gogh had, according to}

Blumer,26_{could be interpreted in part from the correspondence that existed between}

21_{W. M. Runyan. ‘Why did Van Gogh cut off his ear? The problem of alternative explanations in} psychobiography’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40 (1981), p. 1070.

22_{Naifeh, S. W., and G. W. Smith. Van Gogh: The Life. (Random House Incorporated, 2011).}

23_{WebExhibits’ Van Gogh’s Letters, <}_{http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/21/etc-Theo-Lies.htm}_{> (14} July, 2019).

24_{J.C.A. Morrant. 'The wing of madness: the illness of Vincent van Gogh', The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 38} (1993), pp. 480-484.

W.N. Arnold. 'The Illness of Vincent van Gogh', Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 13 (2004), pp. 22-43.

D. Blumer. 'The Illness of Vincent van Gogh', American Journal of Psychiatry, 159 (2002), pp. 519-526. 25_{American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. American} Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA, 2013.

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13 family members. Theo van Gogh writes to his youngest sister, Willemien van Gogh, about their brother:

It seems as if he were two persons: one, marvelously gifted, tender and refined, the other, egotistic and hard hearted. They present themselves in turns, so that one hears him talk first in one way, then in the other, and always with arguments on both sides. It is a pity that he is his own enemy, for he makes life hard not only

for others but also for himself.27

This changeable behaviour, if consisting of a pattern, could lead us to believe that van Gogh did in fact suffer from bipolar disorder. Other sections from letters written by van Gogh himself suggest that he could have had mental problems include: "if the storm within gets too loud, I take a glass more to stun myself", as well as:

I can’t precisely describe what the thing I have is like, there are terrible fits of anxiety sometimes – without any apparent cause – or then again a feeling of emptiness and fatigue in the mind. I consider the whole rather as a simple

accident, no doubt a large part of it is my fault, and from time to time I have fits of

melancholy, atrocious remorse.28

Regardless of any diagnosis, his words are very melancholy. He suggests substance abuse as a solution to his mental distress and describes his anxious feelings in great detail. If anything becomes clear from Blumer’s analysis, it is that we can learn an enormous amount of information from van Gogh's correspondence.

In the following section, I will explain more about the letters and how they have come to be published online through the Vincent van Gogh Correspondence Project.

1.2 The Letters

In total, 902 letters are available for analysis, 820 of which were written by Vincent van Gogh, and 82 of which were written to Vincent van Gogh by various correspondents. The letters span a time period of almost twenty years during which van Gogh corresponded with family members, close friends, and various other contacts. The vast majority of his letters were addressed to his brother, Theo van Gogh. As many as two thirds of the letters were written in Dutch, while a remaining one third is penned in French. He also wrote a small number of letters in English.

27_Ibid.

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1.2.1 Themes and language

The themes that appear in the letters vary from family to religion to art. Most notably lacking from Van Gogh’s letters are direct references to symptoms of mental illness. R. de Leeuw notes this peculiarity in the introduction to Penguin’s classics edition of Van

Gogh’s letters.29_{Of course, this is not entirely strange: mental illness, especially in that}

time period, was not understood and certainly frowned upon. Since Van Gogh was not merely writing a personal diary, but actually corresponding with peers as well as family, he most likely shied away from explicitly mentioning those kinds of problems. Aside from this, it is also possible that when he was experiencing mental strife, he may have either chosen not to write anything or he may have been entirely unable to do so. One of

the main symptoms of depression is a lack of interest in any activities.30_{Since we cannot}

rely on Van Gogh’s direct descriptions of his psychology, we will need to read between the lines. The fact that it is hardly ever mentioned explicitly does not necessarily mean it is not there at all.

One of the themes that arose quite suddenly around 1875 is that of religion. His preoccupation with God and the bible has been described by R. de Leeuw, art historian, as ‘religious fanaticism’ where he spoke with “pedagogic and sermonizing tone

(alternating) with the intense passions of the zealot”.31_{Behind this religious enthusiasm}

lies something of obsession; it arose suddenly and he talked so much about religion in this period that his attention was partly turned away from art. He even temporarily pursued the occupation of preacher. This period ended rather quickly: after 1879, there are very few references to religion and no more bible quotes mentioned in Van Gogh’s letters. This period may have been a reaction to the loneliness and homesickness he was feeling at the time, and thus was likely an attempt to fill a void that existed in his life. His father was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, so the occupation likely felt

familiar and safe to him.

Another theme that stands out in his letters is that of family and friendship. He consistently references how much he misses family and regularly asks Theo van Gogh if their siblings, parents, uncles, and aunts are well. Even though he is often portrayed as reclusive or antisocial, these letters reveal that he is anything but. He certainly valued

29_{R. de Leeuw and A. J. Pomerans (ed.). The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, (Penguin books, 1996).} 30_{American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. American} Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA, 2013.

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15 his time spent alone, but he always seemed to search for some kind of contact with others, whether this was the familial connection and approval he craved or the

discussion of art (business) with likeminded artists. He sadly did not always achieve the connection he was hoping for, or lost it due to a disagreement, as he could have a bad temper. Even the friendship that could be characterised as being the most positive, throughout Van Gogh’s life, was rather tempestuous. However, his brother Theo

described him as a kind man: “Through him I came into contact with many painters who held him in high regard […]. Moreover, his heart is so big that he is constantly trying to

do things for others. Tant pis for all those who cannot or will not understand him.”32

J. Hulsker stated in 1993 that if Vincent van Gogh had not become a painter, he

could have been a writer.33_{Van Gogh himself also references this exactly in one of his}

letters, as he mentions, “I would either go into the business or I would write”.34_{This is}

certainly noticeable from the way he writes; although the language is usually simple, he chooses his words carefully and with purpose. Van Gogh often used metaphors, as is

described by various sources.35_{To Theo, “he compares their conflicting views to the}

actions of soldiers firing at one another from behind barricades, because they, too, belonged to distinct camps - artists and art dealers. Because of their private frame of

reference, a simple allusion to a novel both brothers had read sufficed.”36_{Even when}

they are in disagreement about a topic, Vincent van Gogh is able to describe the problem in vivid and interesting language. He often used metaphors when attempting to defend himself. Perhaps it was easier for him to address a conflict implicitly, instead of talking about it directly. He also utilised metaphors when discussing metaphysical themes, likely due to his religious background. The tone of this type of stylistic writing changed when discussing darker topics. As R. de Leeuw describes, in his introduction to the Penguin classics edition of Van Gogh’s letters: “His metaphors became grimmer during his stay at the Saint-Rémy institution, when he likened the ‘continuous horrible

screaming and screeching’ of the inmates to that ‘of animals in a zoo’”.37_{The use of}

32_Ibid.

33_{C. Swan (transl.) and J. Hulsker (ed.). Vincent van Gogh: A guide to his work and letters. (Van Gogh Museum,} 1993).

34_{Van Gogh Letters, '710', <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let710/letter.html}_{> (13 July, 2019).} 35_{Van Gogh Letters, ‘Van Gogh as a letter-writer, strategies and rhetoric’,}

<http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letter_writer_4.html> (13 July, 2019).

R. de Leeuw and A. J. Pomerans (ed.). The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, (Penguin books, 1996). 36_Ibid.

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16 metaphors also has consequences for lexical analyses, as the words used above, such as ‘soldiers’ or ‘barricades’ do not have a meaning that is obvious. When taken out of context, a metaphor such as this could be taken literally when using the method of distant reading, since algorithms are not able to recognise the intent behind figurative language. This is a matter that should be kept in mind when handling chapter 3, as any results are subject to these lyrical whims of language that Van Gogh tends to use.

1.2.2 Correspondents

The various people with whom Van Gogh corresponded over the course of the letters usually fall into one of two categories: family members or artist friends. He was in contact with a great number of people, some with more frequency or familiarity than others. In this section, for the sake of brevity, I only discuss those correspondents whose letters appear frequently (more than ten times) within the corpus of 902 letters. I

explore the different tones and words that Vincent van Gogh chooses when addressing different people. As Grant states, “the tone and register of Van Gogh’s writing are often gauged to fit the recipient. Thus, he is solicitous and often kind to Wil, racy and

unbuttoned with Bernard, and academic and theoretical with Van Rappard; with Theo,

he expresses a spectrum of emotions of Dostoevskian range and variety.”38_{It is to be}

expected that these different tones and registers when addressing different people may also impact any analysis of the language used in the letters.

Out of the 820 letters that Vincent van Gogh wrote, 651 of them were addressed to Theo van Gogh, his brother. It is to be expected that the letters that were exchanged between the two are more personal than the contact with, for example, Emile Bernard, who was an artist friend of Vincent van Gogh. This is in part true. As time progressed, he opened up more to Theo van Gogh emotionally, but there was also a functional aspect to the letters he wrote to his brother. Theo van Gogh supported him financially, and thus many of the letters begin by thanking his brother for the latest payment he had received. This was also part of the reason that Vincent van Gogh started writing to him again in 1880, after he had become estranged from both his parents and his brother. Thus the correspondence between them was in part rather business-like, but Vincent van Gogh also confided in him about more personal matters, such as family and love. They also frequently discussed art and art trade. Between 1886 and 1888 there is a much smaller

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17 number of letters between Theo and Vincent van Gogh, as they lived together in Paris during that period. Their relationship at that time went through phases of closeness and times in which Theo van Gogh proclaimed he could not bear his brother anymore, as the latter could apparently be rather moody and very mean to Theo. During the last period of Vincent van Gogh’s life, however, they seemed closer than ever and shared a mutual understanding. Theo van Gogh always supported his brother’s ventures into art and

genuinely believed in the paintings that he created.39_{Presumably, both artistically and}

financially, Vincent van Gogh felt greatly supported by his brother. He needed this, as he felt so estranged from the rest of his family and experienced home-sickness throughout

his life.40_{While Theo van Gogh saved many letters written by Vincent van Gogh, only 39}

letters from Theo survived.

Another family member with whom Van Gogh corresponded, specifically in the later years of his life, was Willemien van Gogh, his youngest sister. It seemed as if he was happy to be in contact with her, as his letters to her tend to have more light-hearted language and even include occasional jokes. The letters he wrote to her are valuable due to the long ruminations on life, illness, and art that they contain. When discussing similar topics with Emile Bernard, Van Gogh could be hard-headed and uncompromising in his opinions, but he felt more free when talking to his sister. Thus he was able to present

himself to her in a more vulnerable light.41

This vulnerability he is able to show with his family members is much less

present when writing letters to artist friends. These letters tended to be more related to discussing the world of art, artistic problems, and generally exchanging ideas. Van Gogh shared similar ideas about art with Anthon van Rappard, as they were both in the beginning of their careers at the first meeting. They wrote to each other frequently between 1880 and 1885. However, their friendship came to an end in 1885, when Rappard criticised Van Gogh’s painting, The Potato Eaters, and Van Gogh could not help but vehemently fight back. He was very hurt by his friend’s harsh judgment and thus he could not let the matter go. The relationship could not be mended after this incident. Very similarly, the correspondence between Emile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh was

39_{Van Gogh Letters, ‘Correspondents, family members’,}

<http://vangoghletters.org/vg/correspondents_2.html> (13 July, 2019).

40_{S. W. Naifeh and G. W. Smith. Van Gogh: The Life. (Random House Incorporated, 2011).} 41_{Van Gogh Letters, ‘Correspondents, family members’,}

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18 also marked by professional interest in art and ended because of an artistic conflict. This time, however, Van Gogh played the part of the harsh judge and thus Bernard stopped writing him, presumably because of his criticism. The letters between Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh differ from the artists mentioned above, as they are characterised by

mutual respect and the language is more formal.42_{This also means that Van Gogh}

presumably felt less free to express his feelings and thoughts on various matters, as he did with Bernard and Rappard. Their friendship was, of course, dramatic: arriving in Arles in 1888, Gauguin spent two months with Van Gogh, after which Van Gogh cut off his own ear. Gauguin quickly left for Paris, and although their friendship remained intact, the correspondence between them remained as formal as before they had spent those months together. Vincent van Gogh felt that Gauguin had abandoned him at a time

of need, and he expressed this to his brother.43_{When Van Gogh died, Gauguin wrote this}

about him to Bernard:

However sad one is at this death, I do not really lament it, because I foresaw it and I knew the suffering of that poor boy, battling his madness. Dying now is great good luck for him, it means the end of his suffering, and if he ever returns in another life he will reap the rewards of his good behaviour in this world (according to the law of Buddha). He took with him the consolation that he was not forsaken by his brother

and was understood by some artists.44

Overall, the correspondence between Van Gogh and his family tended to be more personal in tone, while the letters between him and other artists were more distant, as they connected over their art or profession. With some artists he did have a more

personal or emotional bond (Anton van Rappard and Emile Bernard) and with others he had a more formal connection (Paul Gauguin). Between the two brothers, Theo and Vincent van Gogh, a mixture of personal, transactional, philosophical, and work-related topics feature in the letters. Van Gogh was presumably more likely to share his negative feelings with people he felt more open with, specifically with Theo and Willemien van Gogh, and perhaps occasionally with Rappard and Bernard. It is, however, unlikely, due to the formal nature of their friendship, that Van Gogh would express himself as freely to someone like Gauguin.

42_{Van Gogh Letters, ‘Correspondents, artist friends’, <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/correspondents_3.html}_> (13 July, 2019).

43_Ibid. 44_Ibid.

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19

1.2.3 The Vincent van Gogh Correspondence Project

Conducting my research on van Gogh's letters is possible due to the Huygens institute, which initiated the Vincent van Gogh Correspondence Project. The planning for this project took place many years ago, in 1990, though in a slightly different form. Back then, the idea was to publish the collection of van Gogh's letters in book-form. It would be different from the latest publications from 1952-1954, when all of van Gogh's correspondence was collected by V.W. van Gogh into four volumes. A new concept was necessary because of the criticism directed at these previous publications: in the fifties, important elements were left out and editorial mistakes were made. Thus the Van Gogh Museum decided to work together with the Huygens Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The plan was to create a twelve volume series that included all the original letters as well as English translations, accompanied by notes and an introduction. Since the fifties, the field of Van Gogh studies had greatly expanded and become much more international, so it was important to the creators to have this project reflect this progress. The project officially started in 1994 and was estimated to take about five years, while, in fact, the process of doing research and designing the

project alone took up those five years.45

Transcriptions of the original manuscripts were made and surveyed for mistakes by three different people. Most of the letters, which are located in the Van Gogh Museum, were easily checked, but some are part of private collections. In the end, 14

transcriptions were not checked against the original manuscripts. The transcriptions were turned into reading texts, also known as normalised editions. The transcriptions and normalised editions may differ, because spelling and grammar errors in the

transcriptions were amended in order to make the letters more readable. After that, the letters still had to be translated, annotated, and edited extensively. As time progressed, it became more and more appealing to publish the collection digitally. This made much sense because of the way the publishing world had changed and how the internet had grown in the meantime. On top of that, there is no real physical limit to publishing anything online in terms of both quantity and complexity. This lack of limitation is especially useful when context or explanations need to be provided to texts such as these letters. Without taking up space on a page, it is very easy to refer to other links or use a pop-up mechanic for footnotes online. In every way, the Vincent van Gogh

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20 Correspondence project was much better suited to the online world. For those who

prefer a physical version to hold in their hands, the option still exists, however.46

The purpose of this edition is largely academic, as the project has aimed from the beginning to serve as a study edition for specialists, students, art historians, and literary scholars. Because of this, the collection is entirely complete. Not only are all letters available to anyone who wishes to read them, the many annotations are full of any kind of information that could be considered relevant to any research on these letters. The English translation, which I use for my research, "renders the meaning of the original as

faithfully as possible and is consequently not literary or interpretive".47_{This is}

incredibly valuable, especially since my own research question concentrates on the language, aiming to interpret the specific uses of words. This completeness as well as the thorough work invested in transcription, annotation, and translation is part of how it differs from another edition, such as the Penguin edition of The Letters of Vincent van Gogh. While the Penguin edition is a collection which aims to show the most interesting and significant letters, the Correspondence Project offers all letters that have been found. While a curated selection may be sufficient for the general public, having the entire collection at one’s disposal is much more useful to academics. On top of that, while the Penguin edition is credited to two specialists, the Correspondence Project’s work is credited to various transcribers, five translators coordinated by an editor, and

more than twenty students as well as several researchers who worked on annotations.48

This indicates the amount of effort and specialist knowledge that has been devoted to the project, which is certainly evident from the quality of the letters.

For my main focus I will be using the letters written by Vincent van Gogh himself, and I will utilise other letters within the corpus to act as a control group.

Conclusion

Van Gogh’s letters can provide an incredibly vast amount of information about who he was, how his mind worked, and how he felt about people or about himself. This chapter

46_{Van Gogh Letters, 'About this edition', <}_{http://vangoghletters.org/vg/about_1.html}_{> (3 May, 2018).} 47_Ibid.

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21 only supplies a very small percentage of the details about Van Gogh’s life, whether

derived from his letters or other sources.

Most scholars agree that Vincent van Gogh dealt with some sort of inner turmoil related to his mental state, but it is difficult to specify what this was exactly without

imposing modern definitions of mental illness upon a 19th_{century man. Still, in this}

chapter and in the following chapters, I deal with modern terms simply because these

are the words available to me in the 21st_century.

The letters feature various themes and topics, ranging from religion to family to art. The way he deals with these topics is often revealing, such as the obsessive manner in which he occupies himself with religion and the loneliness he seems to feel when writing about family.

The Vincent van Gogh Correspondence Project provides an online library

complete with all letters between Van Gogh and various correspondents that still exist. Since these letters are annotated as well as translated, this edition is very well suited for academic use.

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Chapter 2: Computerised Analyses in Psycholinguistics

According to Y. R. Tausczik and J. W. Pennebaker, text analysis has part of its roots in

psychology.49_{Freud thought he could discover people’s most inner thoughts and feelings}

through linguistic mistakes they made; the Rorschach test was applied to analyse the language people chose to describe ambiguous-looking ink blots. In both cases, language was used to draw conclusions about one’s personality, thoughts, and feelings. While their theories are no longer relevant today, we still use textual analysis in many ways. Although this type of research is now often computerised and based on algorithms, the principle that our language can reveal information about us remains a fascination to psychologists and linguists alike.

A considerable number of studies have previously been conducted to investigate the use of language in texts on a large scale. As I am focusing on the connection between mental illness and the use of language through the use of computerised analyses, it is relevant to look at a wide variety of methodologies in this area that have been used before to analyse texts from a distance. This is necessary in order to better understand how computerised psycholinguistics is practiced and which tools are most frequently utilised for this purpose. This topic is primarily made up of three different parts: linguistics, data analysis, and psychology. Since my personal background is in digital humanities, not in psychology, it is also necessary to learn more about the psychological aspect of these studies in particular. I aim to find out more about the psychological meaning behind certain language, how data is generated based on corpora and

dictionaries, and lastly, how results can be analysed most effectively and purposefully. After gathering this information, I will then be able to utilise some of these researched methodologies, adjust, and apply them to my own analysis of Vincent van Gogh’s letters in chapter 3.

In the first section, I will focus on various computerised text analyses which have been applied in studies in order to ascertain linguistic information, usually about large corpora. One program which is used frequently for this purpose is Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, also known as LIWC, a software program created by J. W. Pennebaker.

49_{Y. R. Tausczik and J. W. Pennebaker. 'The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text} analysis methods.' Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29 (2010), pp. 24-54.

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23 There are many examples of researchers using this program to process their corpora and applying psycholinguistic analyses to the results. I will discuss several of these studies in order to better understand the connection between mental health and use of language.

In the second section, I will look at various analyses that have been conducted using lexical analyses, such as type-token ratios, pronoun analyses, lexical frequencies, and use of absolutist words. I will also explore the difference between ‘function’ words and ‘content’ words, as well as their relevance in psycholinguistic analysis.

2.1 Programs

There are various programs currently in use to aid those who wish to use text mining to do research but may not have full knowledge of coding languages. Many digital

humanists or psychologists do have basic knowledge of what they are aiming to find out, which is information that can be acquired through the use of this kind of software. However, it may also be limiting at times, since many of these tools are black boxes and

thus the algorithm behind it is partly or even completely invisible to a user.50_{On top of}

this, online tools tend to be limiting, since they are not made with your particular research question in mind, and thus will not meet every researcher's needs. There are also programs, however, that are open and flexible to a certain extent.

Some programs which have tools to analyse language include SPSS,51

Coh-Metrix,52_Concordance,53_{the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program,}54_and

R.55_{By far the most frequently used in this area of academia, however, is the LIWC}

program, which utilises eighty different language categories to count the percentages of

words that reflect different features of the text.56_{Since this is utilised in the majority of}

previous studies which relate to the topic at hand, I will discuss this particular program in detail, but, naturally, other tools exist and new tools of lexical analysis are consistently

50_{J. E. Dobson. 'Can an Algorithm be Disturbed? Machine Learning, Intrinsic Criticism, and the Digital} Humanities', College Literature 42 (2015), pp. 543–564.

51_{IBM SPSS Statistics. <}_{https://www.ibm.com/products/spss-statistics}_{>(20 July, 2019).} 52_{Coh-Metrix. <}_{http://www.cohmetrix.com/}_{> (20 July, 2019).}

53_{This particular software is no longer available: Concordance, <concordancesoftware.co.uk>, (19 May, 2018).} 54_{LIWC. <}_{http://liwc.wpengine.com/}_{> (20 July, 2019).}

55_{The R Project for Statistical Computing. <}_{https://www.r-project.org/}_{> (20 July, 2019).}

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24 being developed. There are several different categories of words within LIWC which can be analysed in a text. This includes emotions, thinking styles, social concerns, and parts of speech. When processing a text, the tool calculates a percentage of words that match each category and shows how they compare to one another. On the website, the example of the word 'cried' is given, which would be recognised by five different word categories: ‘sadness’, ‘negative emotion’, ‘overall affect’, ‘verb’, and ‘past focus’. On top of this, the category Sadness would automatically fall under Negative Emotion, which makes it easy

for the user to view information hierarchically.57_{Basically put, LIWC makes use of}

lexicons, or as the program refers to them, dictionaries. What is flexible about LIWC is that a user can choose which dictionaries they would like to use, as well as add their own dictionaries to the program.

The LIWC program is particularly interesting in relation to my topic because it addresses psychological processes in the use of language. As is stated by Tausczik and Pennebaker, the latter being one of the developers of LIWC: "Pronouns and verb tense are useful linguistic elements that can help identify focus, which, in turn, can show

priorities, intentions, and processing."58_{Identifying negative and positive emotions in}

text is also part of the program. Tausczik and Pennebaker further explain that emotion words have the strongest correlation with pronoun use, auxiliary verb use, and negation use. Not only can these language features reveal information about human emotions, Tausczik and Pennebaker state that they can also function as indicators of mental health. According to them, those who are depressed and suicidal tend to use more self-focused language, which I will discuss further in the following section. They are also more likely to express negative emotions and in some cases there appears to be a frequent use of

death-related words.59

A large number of studies that cover this particular topic utilise LIWC, likely because it is an accessible and affordable tool, which makes textual analyses fairly uncomplicated. It is also able to provide a vast amount of information about the text, based on a multitude of categories, and is therefore very versatile. The tool has

previously been applied to corpora which exist out of text from online forums,60_blogs,

57_{LIWC. 'How it works', <}_{http://liwc.wpengine.com/how-it-works/}_{> (20 May, 2018).}

59_Ibid.

60_{T. Nguyen et al. ‘Affective and content analysis of online depression communities’, IEEE Transactions on} Affective Computing, 5 (2014), pp. 217-226.

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25

personal diaries,61_lyrics,62_poetry,63_{and essays written by students.}64_{Using many of the}

same categories within the dictionary of LIWC, the results of these studies tend to vary slightly in certain areas. For example, many of the researchers chose to analyse use of emotion words, which includes positive emotions as well as negative emotions. The latter is further divided into anger, anxiety, and sadness. T. Nguyen et al. and S. Rude et al., when analysing texts from depression communities and depressed students, both found a significant difference between their corpus and their control group; negative emotion words were used more frequently in the case of the depressed or depression-vulnerable group. A. J. Rodriguez et al. found similar results, as sadness words

specifically were indicative of depression in the analysed personal diaries, although not in the public blogs that were also considered in this study. However, several other studies, such as those conducted by E. J. Lightman et al., M. Al-Moisawi et al. and S. W. Stirman et al., either did not show any significant difference between their corpus and their control group or showed a difference that was entirely unexpected (i.e. the control group utilised more negative emotion words or the test group utilised more positive emotions). An explanation for this phenomenon is that ‘content’ words, as Al-Mosaiwi

refers to them, are not as suited for lexical analysis as ‘function’ words.65

A significant factor in the research conducted by Rodriguez et al. is the fact that both public, online blogs as well as personal diaries were analysed to find signs of depression within the language. These two types of texts differ greatly, as one has a particularly wide audience, as it is available to anyone with an internet connection, while the other has no audience at all. Keeping this in mind, Rodriguez et al. determined that depression signs present themselves very differently in the two text types. Firstly, the linguistic signs are much clearer and more explicit in the personal diaries, as opposed to the online blogs. Secondly, in the personal diaries these signs appear as

M. Al-Mosaiwi and T. Johnstone. ‘In an absolute state: Elevated use of absolutist words is a marker specific to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.’ Clinical Psychological Science, 6 (2018), pp. 529-542.

61_{A.J. Rodriguez, S.E. Holleran, and M.R. Mehl. ‘Reading between the lines: The lay assessment of subclinical} depression from written self‐descriptions’, Journal of personality, 78 (2010), pp. 575-598.

62_{E. J. Lightman et al. ‘Using computational text analysis tools to compare the lyrics of suicidal and non-suicidal} songwriters’, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 29 (2007), pp. 1217-1222. 63_{S. W. Stirman and J. W. Pennebaker. ‘Word use in the poetry of suicidal and nonsuicidal poets’,}

Psychosomatic medicine, 63 (2001), pp. 517-522.

64_{S. Rude, E. Gortner, and J. Pennebaker. ‘Language use of depressed and depression-vulnerable college} students’, Cognition & Emotion, 18 (2004), pp. 1121-1133.

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26 sadness words, cognitive mechanism words, and metaphysical references. The signs identified in the blogs, on the other hand, were swear words and references to sleep. Rodriguez et al. theorises that the difference here lies in what is socially acceptable and what is not: people may be more likely to shy away from publically stating their sadness, as this is stigmatised, while using swear words, although still negative, appeals to

peers.66_{This contrast between public and private signs of depression in language is}

particularly interesting, since the corpus of Van Gogh’s letters does not entirely fall into either category of public or private. They are clearly not private, but they are also not broadcast to the world; instead, they are shared with one person, usually a close friend or family member to Vincent van Gogh. However, M. McQuillan describes the letters as

having ‘diary-like intimacy’.67_{This makes it more likely that any features or symptoms}

that point to mental illness would appear in the letters, since they are so intimate and personal. Regardless, any signs of mental instability in the letters may present

themselves entirely different from both the private and public signs that were identified by Rodriguez et al. This will be considered in the following chapter.

2.2 Lexical Analyses

Many lexical analyses have already been conducted in relation to fictional as well as non-fictional texts. I will discuss two of them in the following section, as they utilise

methodologies which may serve as examples to my own research. The results from these papers are also quite interesting, especially in relating language use to mental decline. While one pertains to Alzheimer's disease instead of depressive disorder, its

methodology and perspective is still potentially valuable to this topic.

Earlier in this chapter, the contrast between ‘function’ words and ‘content’ words was mentioned. When analysing text to find out more about someone’s mental state, the first thought may be to test for nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs denoting emotions, or to search for words which express concrete meaning. However, there is much more to

66_{A.J. Rodriguez, S.E. Holleran, and M.R. Mehl. ‘Reading between the lines: The lay assessment of subclinical} depression from written self‐descriptions’, Journal of personality, 78 (2010), p. 589.

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27 be found in text, namely in functional words such as pronouns, verb tenses, or articles, which may initially seem to lack meaning. As Al-Mosaiwi states:

They [functional words] help determine our style of writing, not its contents. Moreover, functional words are ordinarily outside of conscious control

(Pennebaker & Chung, 2013); therefore, they can serve as implicit markers. We believe a shift in focus to how we think rather than what we think can provide greater insight into possible cognitive mechanisms underlying affective

disorders.68

C. Chung et al. further reiterate this point of view, although they also address two particular concerns about the topic. Firstly, do these function words actually provide information about the inner workings of someone’s mind or are they merely random markers that happen to be used in a certain manner? And secondly, are function words a

reflection of our minds, or do they influence the way our brains work?69_{To answer the}

first question, Chung et al. explain that language is not random; words are chosen by the people who speak or write something. So even if the function words that are used depend on context, there is still a reason why people choose to use those words. The second question does not have a definitive answer. Their research points to the fact that function words do give us information about thought processes, and not that using certain function words stimulates certain thought processes. Forcing people to use first person plural pronouns, for example, to feel more part of a group, has not been effective

according to Chung et al.70_{These implicit markers will thus be of great significance in}

the following overview as well as the next chapter. Of course, the explicit meaning of nouns and verbs are not to be discounted, and we will be focusing on both types of words: those with function and those with explicit meaning.

2.2.1 Lexical frequency and type-token analysis

One unique lexical analysis has been conducted by Peter Garrard, who aimed to

investigate a connection between Iris Murdoch's work and her mental decline over the

69_{C. Chung and J. W. Pennebaker. ‘The psychological functions of function words’, Social communication, 1} (2007), p. 355.

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28

years.71_{Specifically, he poses the question whether her last book, Jackson's Dilemma,}

reflects any symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. She was diagnosed a few years after this book was published, but Garrard believes there might still be evidence of the disease present within her fictional work. Garrard utilised Rob Watt's Concordance software in

order to generate the data he needed.72_{The main focus is lexical frequency, since this}

has shown to have a strong correlation with Alzheimer's disease. This means that frequently used words are more likely to be remembered by patients, while less frequently used words tend to be forgotten. Word length was also analysed in each novel, although there is no proven link between Alzheimer's and a decrease in use of relatively longer words. To determine lexical frequency, an online psycholinguistic database from the Medical Research Council was used to compare the frequencies of

words used in Murdoch's novels to recorded values of the use of these words.73

Murdoch's final novel clearly displays a higher mean lexical frequency in comparison to the other two novels, which means that low frequency words tended to be lost in her third work. On top of this evidence, Garrard also found that cumulative word-type counts pointed to Jackson's Dilemma as being the outlier of the three. At intervals of 10,000 tokens, the number of accumulating unique words was calculated for each novel. While a work such as Under The Net can be described as dynamic until the very end, the accumulation of new types for Jackson's Dilemma is much less so.

These findings do point, at least, to Murdoch's final work standing out. It is questionable whether this is due to mental decline or another change that took place in Iris Murdoch's life, which may not necessarily have been negative. On the other hand, the different aspects of language which were analysed by Garrard, using a form of type-token analysis and examining lexical frequencies, are very informative and show that this kind of analysis can shine a light on the author's mind. Since this analysis focuses on Alzheimer’s disease rather than a psychological disorder such as depression, however, I will not be applying this particular method in my own case study of Van Gogh’s letters. Regardless, it is a valuable and fascinating study.

71_{P. Garrard. ‘Textual pathology’, Text and genre in reconstruction: Effects of digitization on ideas, behaviours,} products & institutions, edited by Willard McCarthy, Open Book Publishers, 2010, pp. 71-91.

72_{Concordance, <}_{https://www.concordancesoftware.co.uk/}_{>, (19 May, 2018).}

73_{MRC Psycholinguistic database, <}_{http://websites.psychology.uwa.edu.au/school/MRCDatabase/mrc2.html}_>, (19 May, 2018).

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2.2.2 Pronoun analysis

A particularly interesting example of pronoun analysis has been conducted by A. A. P.

van Emmerik and E. L. Hamaker, who have studied Van Gogh's letters.74_{They argue that,}

as Van Gogh's life progressed, he slowly became more depressed and self-focused. Thus, over time, he started using more first person singular pronouns (FPSP) and his use of first person plural pronouns (FPPP) decreased. Through the use of LIWC, mentioned in the previous paragraph, Emmerik and Hamaker analysed the corpus of letters with the word categories of FPSP and FPPP. While doing this, they employed a change-point analysis, which means that they were able to see a progression of the use of these words over time. This method is also referred to as structural break analysis, and it is used in order to identify subtle changes in texts spanning a specific period, if these changes exist. For example, this particular technique was useful especially when attempting to determine whether there was any difference in language before and after Vincent van Gogh moved to Arles.

In the end, a change was found: after moving to Arles, there was a rise in Van Gogh’s use of FPSP, as he became more self-focussed. Emmerik and Hamaker connect the results of Van Gogh's pronoun use in his later letters with depression-related symptoms. According to them, this self-focused behaviour is in accord with a theory

described by T. Pyszczynski75_{, which Emmerik and Hamaker based part of their research}

on:

We found the changes in Van Gogh’s pronoun use towards the end of his life to be consistent with the self-regulatory perseveration theory of depression, which assigns a central role to self-focused attention in the development and

maintenance of depression. According to this theory, self-focused attention magnifies the negative affect that occurs after the loss of a valued source of

identity or self-esteem.76

This is not the first time, however, that a study was published on the connection between pronoun use and mental illness. One early piece of research on text analysis methods, conducted by W. Weintraub in the 1980s, also found a relation between first

person singular pronouns and depression.77_{He hand-counted a variety of texts,}

74_{A. A. P. van Emmerik and E. L. Hamaker. 'Paint it Black: Using Change-Point Analysis to Investigate Increasing} Vulnerability to Depression towards the End of Vincent van Gogh’s Life.' Healthcare, 5 (2017), pp. 1-5.

75_{T. Pyszczynski and J. Greenberg. 'Self-regulatory perseveration and the depressive self-focusing style:} A self-awareness theory of reactive depression' Psychol. Bull., 102 (1987), pp. 122–138.

76_{A. A. P. van Emmerik and E. L. Hamaker. 'Paint it Black: Using Change-Point Analysis to Investigate Increasing} Vulnerability to Depression towards the End of Vincent van Gogh’s Life.' Healthcare, 5 (2017), p. 4.

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30 including political speeches and interviews, and concluded there was a significant

connection between the use of ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘my’ and levels of depression. As Tausczik et

al. states, Weintraub’s findings were almost completely disregarded in his time.78

Only now, long after Weintraub’s findings were published, more and more

research into this topic is being conducted. The majority of these studies all reiterate the initial premise: first person singular pronouns function as an indicator or predictor of depression. Not only this, first person plural pronouns (FPPP) are used less frequently

by people who show signs of depression or suicidal ideation.79_{Using FPPP frequently}

may mean that one feels part of a group, rather than only an individual. Thus when it is used less frequently, it only reinforces the effect of FPSP; an increased focus on the self as well as a decreased focus on others. Aside from testing Van Gogh’s letters for both the use of FPSP and FPPP, I will also be looking for second person pronouns (SPP) and third person pronouns (TPP). I have not been able to find a precedent in earlier research specifically analysing the use of all different personal pronouns; the focus has often been on the use of first person pronouns. Perhaps the frequency of SPP and TPP will signify how much interest the writer has in other people around him. The added information about the frequency of SPP and TPP in the letters would give us valuable data about the levels of his social engagement.

2.2.3 Absolutist language

Much like pronouns, absolutist words (i.e. words such as ‘nothing’, ‘all’, or ‘completely’) are functional words. In the 1990s, A. Ostell et al. concluded there was a significant connection between using absolutist language and poor health, both physically and mentally. Through interviews with teachers, questions were posed about how work problems had been handled, and the individuals were classified as ‘absolutist’ based on certain criteria, such as ‘perfectionist demands’, ‘the emphatic use of imperatives’ and ‘an unwillingness to change’. The teachers were then analysed based on how well they handled certain situations, in terms of coping, emotional management, and how

effectively they could solve problems. According to Ostell et al., absolutist thinkers and

W. Weintraub. Verbal behavior in everyday life. New York: Springer, 1989.

78_{Y. R. Tausczik and J. W. Pennebaker. ‘The psychological meaning of words: LIWC and computerized text} analysis methods’, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29 (2010), pp. 24-54.

79_{S. W. Stirman and J. W. Pennebaker. ‘Word use in the poetry of suicidal and nonsuicidal poets’,} Psychosomatic medicine, 63 (2001), p. 520.