As I stated in the paper, there are lots of theories on why van Gogh decided to cut off his ear. And of course, none can be accepted as ultimately correct. Here I will stress a few other theories on this event.
One interpretation says that the event occurred because of a homosexual impulses around by the presence of Gauguin. “According to this account, the ear was a phallic symbol (the Dutch slang word for penis, lul, resembled the Dutch word for ear, lel), and the act was a symbolic self-castration” (Runyan).
Another explanation is that van Gogh was influenced by the bullfights that he saw in Arles. The tradition is that a matador would after a fight cut off the ear of the bull and present it to a lady of his choice. This seems that van Gogh was confused in his own head, and thought of himself as both the winner (matador) and the loser (bull) in the same time, and thus cut off his own ear, and just like the matador does, presented it to Rachel, a lady of his choice (Runyan).
In the few months prior to van Gogh’s self-mutilation, there were 15 articles about a sadist, known as Jack the Ripper, who used to butcher the bodies of prostitutes, and even cut off their ears sometimes. Van Gogh might have been influenced by these articles, and then he might have reversed the procedure by not cutting of an ear of the prostitute, but his own, and then give it to a prostitute (Runyan).
It is well known that van Gogh had a great sympathy for prostitutes, and did identify himself with their social status. In the June of the year that self-mutilation took place, he wrote that “the whore is like a meat in a butcher shop”. Thus, treating his own body as a meat in the butcher’s shop, and butchering it by cutting of the ear, he identified himself with the prostitutes (Runyan).
Vincent van Gogh had an older brother, also named Vincent, who died at his very birth exactly an year before the painter was born. Throughout his life, van Gogh felt that he was unloved by his mother, and living in a shadow of an idealized dead brother. Thus, cutting his ear of and symbolically killing a part of himself might have been his attempt to win over his mother’s love (Runyan).
There is a scene in the Bible, in which Simon Peter cut off the ear of Malchus. This scene van Gogh actually tried to paint in the summer of 1888, the same ear he cut off his ear. It was also mentioned in his letter to his sister in October the same year. During a psychotic attack, Vincent maybe tried to act out this scene, using himself for both the roles of the victim and the aggressor (Runyan).
The last theory I am going to present is the following: van Gogh might have very likely experienced very vivid auditory hallucinations at the time. He also believed that such hallucinations might have been due to a disease of the nerves in the ears. Thus it is credible to believe that during a psychotic attack, he could have felt that cutting off his ear would disconnect these nerves and thus free him from the disturbing sounds he was hearing (Runyan).
These are just very few of the existing theories on the accident. Once again, there is absolutely no way to ever tell with complete accuracy what exactly happened in his mind and what in particular caused van Gogh to mutilate himself in such a way. My paper is just another, in my opinion very credible theory, and the one I believe in.