Marx's erupting skin may have influenced writings
AP-News
Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered from a
chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have
influenced his writings, a British expert said on Tuesday.
Sam Shuster, professor of dermatology at the University of East Anglia, believes the
revolutionary thinker had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which the apocrine
sweat glands -- found mainly in the armpits and groin -- become blocked and
inflamed. "In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to
his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem," said
Shuster, who published his findings in the British Journal of
Dermatology. "This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response
reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing."
While HS is linked to boil-like lumps, the painful condition also causes more widespread infection, swelling, skin thickening and scarring.
It could also explain a number of Marx's other complaints, not previously linked, such as joint pain and a painful eye condition which often stopped him working.
Shuster based his diagnosis on an analysis of Marx's extensive correspondence, in which he wrote to friends about his health and described his skin lesions as "curs" and "swine."
"The bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying day,"
Marx told Friedrich Engels in a letter from 1867.
Marx, who died in 1883, was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century and his radical writings formed the basis of modern communism.
Just think how the world would have been different if Poor Mr. Marx had had access to anti-botics and Sam-e. Yes, Mr. Marx as a card carrying member of the Bourgeoisie, I do remember your carbuncles. I remember them and the countless millions that died at hands of Stalin. Of the trillions of dollars wasted on defending liberty at your expense.
Unfortunately for me, I never got into Karl's writings. These are the only Marxs I ever liked:
2 comments:
Funny you should mention this today Sir, for last night I read a chapter titled "Organization and Repressed Sexuality" which discussed Frederick Taylor and how his whole theory of scientific management was the prodct of the inner struggles of a disturbed and neurotic personality and his attempts to organize and control his world.
"In much of science and in everyday life, we manage our world by simplifying it; in making it simple we make it amenable to control. In doing so, we create the myth that we are actually in control and that we are more powerful than we really are... Arrogance often hides weakness, and the idea that human beings, so small, puny, and transient, can organize and boast mastery of nature is, in many respects, a sign of their own vulnerability."
What is a Carbuncle? Here is a picture of one:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/popupnowrap.cfm?objectid=940AEB76-B52B-4FEC-A6A007441AB96DB0&method=display_full
They are a very painful, puss filled, boil. But very halarious to say (not to have)
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