[The psychiatric disease of Vincent van Gogh]

From more than 650 letters of van Gogh psychopathologically striking phrases were collected. Their occurrence in the last 18 years of van Gogh's life was observed. The very different interpretations of his symptoms were compiled in a schedule. Finally the case of van Gogh's is used to discuss the borderline between psychosis and epilepsy, a topic which has long been neglected in German psychiatric teaching.