From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Wed Oct 31 2007 - 02:39:40 EDT
"This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing." (!) This story is so stupid it's rather funny - it reads like an article from _The Onion_. / In solidarity, Jerry ><http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21547470> > >REUTERS >Bad skin >may have influenced Marx's writings >Chronic disease linked to >boil-like lumps, psychological effects > >PHOTO OF MARX by Henry >Guttmann / Getty Images >German social, political and economic >theorist Karl Marx, who complained of painful boils, may have actually >suffered from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects. > >LONDON - 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.
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