Marx's erupting skin may have influenced writings
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.
Who would have thought that ten's of millions would die and that many more would suffer because some loser had boils.
