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| 02 Jun 2008 04:26:31 pm |
 Psychological Reflections of Vincent Van Gogh’s Art |
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I know for sure that I have an instinct for colour, and that it will come to me more and more, that painting is in the very marrow of my bones." - Vincent Van Gogh
Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge
Vincent William van Gough a famous Dutch artist whose work often associated with Post-Impressionism and later transformed in to Expressionism. Vincent Van Gogh, was one of the most important predecessors of modern painting. He was an outstanding mostly self taught artist who used color for its “symbolic and expressive values” rather than to reproduce light and literal surroundings. Vincent van Gogh’s artistic work deeply analyses his unconscious mind. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud viewed art as a privileged form of neurosis where the analyst-critic explores the artwork in order to understand and unearth the vicissitudes of the creator's psychological motivations. In this context van Gough’s art represent a profound psychological sketch.
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Netherlands. Since his childhood Van Gogh had an immense passion for art. Van Gogh’s emotional state highly affected his artistic work. Van Gogh’s most famous works include: Starry Night, Cafe Terrace at Night, Terrasse, Houses At Auvers, Restaurant De La Sirene At Asnieres, Sunflowers, Irises, and several self-portraits, amongst others. Most of his best-known work was created in the last two years of his life.
Though Van Gogh had little financial success as an artist during his lifetime and often lived in poverty, his fame grew dramatically after his death. Today van Gough’s name is considered to be one of the world’s most renowned, respected, and influential artists. But he could not live long enough to see his fame. His life was filled with misery and desolation and this suffering was painted in an artistic way.
Van Gogh suffered from complex psychiatric ailments. Apart from the illness excessive use of tobacco and alcohol made a negative impact on his mental health. The mental illness that plagued him affected his art immensely. Van Gough painted his anguish and despair on canvas. His brushwork became increasingly agitated. The striking colors, crude brush strokes, and distorted shapes and contours, express his disturbed mind. He suffered two distinct episodes of reactive depression, and there are clearly bipolar aspects to his history. Both episodes of depression were followed by sustained periods of increasingly high energy and enthusiasm.
Van Gogh's inimitable art was defined by its powerful, dramatic and emotional style. The artist’s concern for human suffering is in somber, melancholy study of art. Maybe he tried to explain the struggle between the man and the human nature, the reality and his unconscious mental conflicts. Van Gogh once said: "We spend our whole lives in unconscious exercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words."
His life was full of mental conflicts. He fought with his inner mind. This dual nature was observable. He had attacks of melancholy and of atrocious remorse. His colors lost the intensity His lines became restless. He applied the paint more violently with thicker layers. Van Gogh was drawn to objects in nature under stress: whirling suns, twisted cypress trees, and surging mountains. Although van Gogh’s illness emerged more violently he produced brilliant works as The Reaper, Cypresses The Red Vineyard, and his famed Starry Night.
In Starry Night (1889) the whole world seems engulfed by circular movements. The Starry Night is undoubtedly van Gogh’s most mysterious picture. The Starry Night which resides as his most popular work and one of the most influence pieces in history. The swirling lines of the sky are a possible representation of his mental state. The Starry Night embodies an inner, subjective expression of van Gogh's response to nature. Vincent van Gogh once said "Looking at the stars always makes me dream. We take death to reach a star."
From the beginning of Van Gogh's artistic career he had the ambition to draw and paint figures. For Vincent van Gogh color was the chief symbol of expression. Contemporary artists admired van Gogh’s passionate approach to art. But he viewed his life as horribly wasted, personally failed and impossible. On the contrary he was able to produce deeply moving images while living a life of ultimate desperation in an increasing state of mental imbalance.
Suicidal gestures by Vincent depicted in his last paintings. He painted immense fields of wheat under dark and stormy skies, commenting, "It is not difficult to express here my entire sadness and extreme loneliness" . In one of his last paintings, Wheat Field With Crows, the black birds fly in a starless sky, and three paths lead nowhere.
In 1888 Vincent’s mental health was very unstable. His state of mind was very weak and during a breakdown, he mutilated his ear. After a few weeks he was able to paint Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear and Pipe, which shows him in serene composure. Vincent van Gogh had an unconventional personality and unstable moods, suffered from recurrent psychotic episodes during the last 2 years of his life, and committed suicide in 1890 at the age of 37. Despite the mental illness he suffered Vincent remained marvelously creative until his death. Although he lived a relatively short period he left behind an astonishing body of work which included several hundred paintings.
The lyrics of Don McLean’s hit song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night) describes a comparison to Van Gogh's Actual Life and references to Van Gogh’s paintings.
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Don McLean articulates Vincent van Gogh's tragic death and points out that even though he loved painting, his paintings could never love him back.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you. |
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Category : People & Earth
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| 23 May 2008 08:39:11 am |
| Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Expedition |
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Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge
Thor Heyerdahl - a world renowned Norwegian explorer best known for his famous voyage Kon-Tiki expedition practically showed that ancient people could have crossed much greater distances through ocean for trade and cultural exchange. He was convinced that the ocean was only a barrier to man as long as our ancestors were strictly pedestrians, but it became a conveyor for cultural contact and the growth of diversified civilizations from the moment the first sea-going watercraft was invented. Heyerdahl once stated that "man hoisted sail before he saddled a horse. He poled and paddled among rivers and navigated open seas before he traveled on wheels along roads.
Thor Heyerdahl was born in 1914 in Norway. As a young boy he was interested in biology and had a dream to become an explorer and travel to exotic countries far away. During 1937 - 1938 Thor Heyerdahl received a zoological grant to research animal life on the Marquesas Islands. This journey had a great influence on his life. His interest soon turned as to how these Islands and Polynesia in general, had become populated. He was highly interested in marine migration and studied the cultural diffusion which occurred through ancient sea roots.
Thor Heyerdahl speculated that the food plants cultivated in aboriginal Polynesia appeared to have spread from South America prior to European arrival. This idea was condemned by the eminent archeologists’ claming that there were no possible sea travel between the South America and Polynesia. Also they emphasized that the Peruvian balsa rafts could not have floated there in pre-Columbian times.
Heyerdahl studied the cultural similarities of ancient Peru and Polynesia and formed a theory which was highly controversial at that time. He proclaimed that Polynesian Islands had been populated from South America. The main argument against Heyerdahl's theory was the lack of evidence of Pre-Colombian Indians in South America having had sea-going vessels capable of crossing the expanse of ocean between South America and Polynesia. According to the accepted theory Polynesian islands had been populated from the east, from Indonesia. But Thor Heyerdahl challenged this theory and decided to prove that the ancient Peruvians traveled to Polynesia by small rafts. This new theory he called “American Indians in the Pacific".
Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend there was a sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the mythical fair-skinned people in Peru. The original name for Virakocha was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki. Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of these legendary "white men" who left enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The legend continues with the mysterious bearded white men being attacked by a chief named Cari who came from the Coquimbo Valley. They had a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca, and the fair race was massacred. However, Kon-Tiki and his closest companions managed to escape and later arrived on the Pacific coast. The legend ends with Kon-Tiki and his companions disappearing westward out to sea. Heyerdahl proposed that Tiki's neolithic people colonized the then-uninhabited Polynesian islands as far north as Hawaii, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, and as far west as Samoa and Tonga a
round A.D. 500. But many scholars refused to adopt this theory.
In order to prove his controversial theory Thor Heyerdahl and five fellow adventurers went to Peru, where they constructed a 45 foot pae-pae raft from balsa wood and other native materials. They called this raft Kon Tiki. The Kon-Tiki expedition was inspired by old reports and drawings made by the Spanish Conquistadors of Inca rafts, and by native legends.
In 1947 along with Heyerdahl five companions left Callio harbor- Peru and traveled 8000 km across the Pacific Ocean. After 101 days they reached Polynesia (Raroia atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago). Hence Heyerdahl and his crew demonstrated that early contact between South Americans and Pacific Islanders was technically possible. Kon Tiki expedition practically proved that the ancient Peruvians could have reached Polynesia by small balsa rafts.
Kon-Tiki demonstrated that it was possible for a primitive raft to sail the Pacific Ocean with relative ease and safety, especially to the west with the wind and there was no technical reasons to prevent people from South America from having settled the Polynesian Islands.
Thor Heyerdahl was a practical scientist; iconoclast and a courageous explorer visited Sri Lanka in mid eighties. The international promoter of cooperation and understanding between people across the globe Thor Heyerdahl died in 2002, at the age of 87.
In 2007 after five years of Heyerdahl ‘s death evidence was released by the University of Auckland showing that a specific mutation in chickens native to Samoa and Tonga was seen in chicken bones found in Chile and dated to about 1400 AD. This provides very strong evidence that there was trade between Polynesia and South America. |
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Category : People & Earth
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| 19 Mar 2008 08:00:37 am |
| Arthur C. Clarke |
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Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England. As a boy, he enjoyed stargazing and reading old American science fiction pulp magazines (many of which made their way to the UK in ships with sailors who read them to pass the time). After secondary school and studying at Huish's Grammar School, Taunton, he was unable to afford a university education and got a job as an auditor in the pensions section of the Board of Education.
During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early warning radar defence system which contributed to the RAF's success during the Battle of Britain. Clarke actually spent most of his service time working on Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar, as documented in his semi-autobiographical novel Glide Path. Although GCA did not see much practical use in the war, after several more years of development it was vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. He was demobilised with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After the war, he earned a first-class degree in mathematics and physics at King's College London.
In the postwar years, Clarke became involved with the British Interplanetary Society and served for a time as its chairman. Although he was not the originator of the concept of geostationary satellites and communicating with them, one of his most important contributions may have been propagating the idea and recognizing that they would be ideal telecommunications relays. He advanced this idea in a paper privately circulated among the core technical members of the BIS in 1945. The concept later was published in Wireless World in October of that year. Clarke also wrote a number of non-fiction books describing the technical details and societal implications of rocketry and space flight. The most notable of these may be The Exploration of Space (1951) and The Promise of Space ( 1968 ). In recognition of these contributions, a geostationary orbit is officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union as a "Clarke orbit".
While Clarke had a few stories published in fanzines between 1937 and 1945, his first professional sales appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946: "Loophole" was published in April, while "Rescue Party", his first sale, was published in May. Along with his writing, Clarke briefly worked as Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts (1949) before devoting himself to writing full-time from 1951 onward. Clarke also contributed to the Dan Dare series published in Eagle, and his first three published novels were written for children.
Clarke corresponded with C. S. Lewis in the 1940s and 1950s, and they once met in an Oxford pub, the Eastgate, to discuss science fiction and space travel. Clarke, after Lewis's death, voiced great praise for him, saying the Ransom Trilogy was one of the few works of science fiction that could be considered literature.
In 1948, he wrote "The Sentinel" for a BBC competition. Though the story was rejected, it changed the course of Clarke's career. Not only was it the basis for A Space Odyssey, but "The Sentinel" also introduced a more mystical and cosmic element to Clarke's work. Many of Clarke's later works feature a technologically advanced but prejudiced mankind being confronted by a superior alien intelligence. In the cases of The City and the Stars, Childhood's End, and the 2001 series, this encounter produces a conceptual breakthrough that accelerates humanity into the next stage of its evolution.
In 1953, Clarke met and quickly married Marilyn Mayfield, a 22-year-old American divorcee with a young son. They separated permanently after six months, although the divorce was not finalised until 1964.
Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008, emigrating there when it was still called Ceylon, first in Unawatuna on the south coast, and then in Colombo. Clarke held citizenship of both the UK and Sri Lanka. He was an avid scuba diver and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club; living in Sri Lanka afforded him the opportunity to visit the ocean year-round. It also inspired the locale for his novel The Fountains of Paradise, in which he first described a space elevator. This, he believed, ultimately will be his legacy, more so than geostationary satellites, once space elevators make space shuttles obsolete.
His many predictions culminated in 1958 when he began a series of essays in various magazines that eventually became Profiles of the Future, published in book form in 1962. A timetable up to the year 2100 describes inventions and ideas including such things as a "global library" for 2005.
Early in his career, Clarke had a fascination with the paranormal, and stated that it was part of the inspiration for his novel Childhood's End. He also said that he was one of several who were fooled by a Uri Geller demonstration at Birkbeck College. Although he eventually dismissed and distanced himself from nearly all pseudoscience, he continued to advocate research into purported instances of psychokinesis and other similar phenomena.
In the early 1970s, Clarke signed a three-book publishing deal, a record for a science-fiction writer at the time. The first of the three was Rendezvous with Rama in 1973, which won him all the main genre awards and has spawned sequels, which, along with the 2001 series, formed the backbone of his later career.
In 1975, Clarke's short story "The Star" was not included in a new high school English textbook in Sri Lanka because of concerns that it might offend Roman Catholics even though it already had been selected. The same textbook also caused controversy because it replaced Shakespeare's work with that of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Isaac Asimov.
In the 1980s, Clarke became well known to many for his television programmes Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers.
In 1988, he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome and needed to use a wheelchair most of the time thereafter. On 10 September 2007, while commenting on the Cassini probe's flyby of Iapetus (which plays an important role in 2001: A Space Odyssey), Clarke mentioned that he was completely wheelchair-bound by polio, and did not plan to leave Sri Lanka again.
In 1989 Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The same year he became the first Chancellor of the International Space University, serving from 1989 to 2004, and also served as Chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka from 1979 to 2002.
In 26 May 2000 he was made a Knight Bachelor for his Services to Literature at a ceremony in Colombo. The investiture of the award had been delayed, at Clarke's request, since 1998 because of an accusation by the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror. The accusation, of paedophilia, was found baseless by Sri Lankan police and retracted by the paper soon after. The award of knight bachelor brings the title of "Sir," and carries no post-nominal letters, meaning that the previous postfix of "CBE" stood.
In December 2007, the occasion of his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a video message to his friends and fans, bidding them good-bye.
Clarke died in Sri Lanka at 1:30am on March 19, 2008 local time (UTC+5:30), after suffering from breathing problems, according to Rohan de Silva, one of his aides.
Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Category : People & Earth
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| 05 Feb 2008 08:09:23 am |
| The Psychopathology of the LTTE suicide bombers |
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Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.
There’s a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.
Eagles
The LTTE suicide killing is one of the most bizarre forms of political action adopted by its authority via glorification of death and violence. For the LTTE this action is not cleanly a military tactic or reprisal. It is a mass ritual as well as an action beyond death. The LTTE suicide carders better known as Black Tigers (or in Tamil: Karum Puligal ) are psychologically motivated to kill and get killed.
The selection of a member for a suicide mission is a complex process. They are handled and trained by experienced personnel. There are number of issues that have to be taken in to consideration before the selection. The selected member’s loyalty to the organization, psychological makeup, group identity, suicidal ideation etc needs to be analyzed. Then the human bombs under go institutionalized indoctrination and systematic injection of odium with adoration of death as well as scrupulous physical training. The intense indoctrination leads to blind obedience. Although the human bomb is aware of his/her impending death they are psychologically and physically geared up to full fill the task. After vigorous psychological an physical training the suicide bombers have last supper with the LTTE chief Prabhakaran before setting out on the mission.
The LTTE carried out their first suicide operation on July 5, 1987. Vasanthan alias Millar crashed the truck filled with explosives into Nelliaddym army camp. In the attack 40 servicemen were killed. From that day the LTTE has launched a numerous suicide bombing against military and civil targets killing hundreds. These attacks generated mass fear psychosis and confusion among the public.
The ICT Researcher Clara Beyler who published the article “Messengers of Death: female suicide bombers” explains that that the terrorist organizations legitimize the use of women as suicide bombers in two ways: by reference to prevalent social norms, and by religious ideology. A LTTE woman suicide bomber, Dhanu, assassinated former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, at an election rally in Sriperambadur, southern India, on May 21, 1991. According to unconfirmed sources Dhanu was raped by the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force). She may have suffered from RTS or Rape Trauma Syndrome. RTS which is a form of interpersonal violence generates a wider range of conflicting emotions. The victims often have a loss of faith about their sense of safety in society and may feel powerless. Depression and anger after the rape are common features in RTS. Hence Dhanu’s anger and frustration was projected to the former premier Rajiv Gandhi.
Suicide attack is an ancient practice with a modern history. The Mahabharata an ancient epic describes suicide warfare. Islamic Order of Assassins (hashashin) during the early Crusader times are well-known examples. The concept of “terror” as systematic use of violence to attain political ends was first codified by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. Vladimir Illich Ulyanove (Lenin) used terror against classes which was later developed by Stalin in a ruthless form.
During the World War 2 the Japanese kamikaze pilots launched suicide attack against the US forces. In Guerrilla Warfare authored by Ernesto Che Guevara described suicide attacks as a path to victory which naturally boosts the morale of other rebels. In the early years of struggle Che and Fidel Castro used deadly suicide attacks against Batista’s regime.
The LTTE suicide bombers choices are often voluntary, but typically under conditions of group pressure and the cult leadership. Hence their status as individuals has been nullified by the organization. Suicide behavior is arguably loyalty to intimate cohorts of peers. The suicide bombers see the world subjectively, and are biased and misconstrue the events take place around them. They have stereotyped thinking pattern, extremism and introversion. They justify the murders by a misinterpreted and manipulated faith.
The social conditions nurturing the rise of terrorism are complex and include demographic, economic, political, and educational factors. Poverty and hopelessness and lack of education and lack of opportunities help to breed terrorism. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu once stated “at the bottom of terrorism is poverty”. Similarly the LTTE suicide bombers are left no option under the totalitarian leadership. They gain social recognition after becoming a black tiger and hailed after the death.
The veneration of death is a form of cult adopted by Jim Jones of the People’s Temple. Jim Jones held a mass ritual of suicides in Guyana in mid seventies. Jim Jones’s followers believed that he was as messiah or a liberator. The black tigers too believe in the cult of Prabhakaran. Therefore the LTTE suicide bombers do not act entirely under their own authority and responsibility. After a suicide mission their photographs are displayed in public, and stories of their actions are told to the other members. Thus a strong desire is developed among the carders to follow the example of their predecessors and undertake attacks themselves.
According to Michael Bond who is an expert in analyzing the psychological factors of suicide bombers reveals that the bomber is always recruited and guided by a group with specific political or ideological aims, and the bombers tend to adopt a brotherhood mentality towards each other, encouraged by their common cause, their loyalty to the group and the secrecy of their mission. These factors are common among the LTTE suicide bombers.
The Suicide attackers do not operate in a vacuum. There is a large surroundings behind them. The families of suicide martyrs benefit from a financial compensation funded by the LTTE sympathizers. The LTTE actively promotes suicide bombers which along with a general climate of martyrdom glorification, serves to reinforce a culture of suicide. Among the LTTE there is an adoration of and reverence for suicide attacks.
These martyrs are like human robots. Most of them are traumatized people suffering from depression, PTSD and various other forms of psychological ailments. Their logical reasoning is impaired. They see people outside their organization as objects or enemies. They are operated by simple ground rules such as “ether you are my friend or you are my enemy”. There is nothing in between. Therefore they can commit an extreme form of violence without any remorse. |
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Category : People & Earth
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| 31 Dec 2007 08:29:34 am |
| Vladimir Vysotsky the Russian Bob Dylan |
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Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge MD
I still recall the words of one of my teachers Mr. Vethali Ivanovich who introduced me to the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky in 1986. He said “if you want to learn the Russian soul listen to Vysotsky” A poet, songwriter and actor, Vladimir Vysotsky was the most famous Russian bard. He is adored by millions of Russians today.
Vladimir Vysotsky, who began performing in the 1960s, was quite critical of the regime, highlighting bureaucracy criticizing the unfair privileges of the elite and objecting the repression. His lyrics took position on the Soviet status quo. But he loved his country and he was a true Russian. Vladimir Vysotsky could be considered as the Russian Bob Dylan. He was the voice of the silent generation of the Soviet Union.
In Capricious horses (Russian title: Koni Priveredlivye ) Vysotsky sings as follows.
By the edge, near the cliff, at the very, very limit
I am beating at my horses with my arm, a whiplash in it.
I'm not getting enough air - drinking wind, the fog imbibing,
And I scent with deadly rapture: I am dying, I am dying!
Just a little slower, horses, little slower now!
Do not listen to the sharp whip, it is wrong!
But the horses that I got are capricious ones
I can't live to the end, I can't finish my song.
Ironically Vysotsky sings about a strange land. The song is called “The tale of the wild mammal” (the Russian title Pro dikogo vepria ) This song was banned during his time.
In a kingdom where everything was quiet,
With no cataclysms, no wars and no shocks,
A monstrous animal came as a plight,
A kind of buffalo, a bull or an ox
The king had stomach trouble and asthma
Frightening everyone to death with his cough
In the meantime the terrible monster
Ate up people, or carried them off.
His songs were popular in the West. The famous movie White Nights (Colombia Pictures) carried the Academy Award winning song “Say you Say Me” by Lionel Richie and a rebellious song by Vladimir Vysotsky. Although he was the living soul and conscience of his time his songs were forbidden to play and his poems went unpublished.
This is another song by Vysotsky which is called “Some one saw the fruit” (Russian title: Prervannyi polet)
Someone saw the fruit that could not get ripe
They shook the trunk - it fell, just so...
Here's the song of him who did not finish his song
And that he had a voice - he did not know.
Perhaps he was not on good terms with fate,
And on bad terms with circumstance
And the tight string lay on a fret
That was broken in single place.
From his songs people drew strength to live, to work, and to love. Vysotsky’s songs were more profound and carried the message of love and truth. He openly fought against the hypocrisy and double standards. But he paid a heavy prize. Vysotsky was branded a subversive under the system and none of his works had been recognized by the state. In the later part of his life he was isolated and made more inactive. The crusader Vladimir Vysotsky died in 1980 at the age of 42. He was eventually rehabilitated during the cultural liberalization during the Perestroika in 1985. |
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Category : Arts & Music
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