Karl Marx, often called the father of communism, suffered from a chronic and debilitating skin disease that is known to have profound psychological effects, a British dermatologist says.
In an article for the British Journal of Dermatology, Sam Shuster says the philosopher and revolutionary - who often complained of excruciating boils - actually suffered from hidradenitis suppurativa, which could have had a major effect on his psychological wellbeing and his writing.
The disease affects the apocrine sweat glands - found mainly in the armpits and groin - which become blocked and inflamed. Infected fluid is released under the skin and onto the skin surface and causes lumps and abscesses.
Several of Marx's other health complaints could be the result of hidradenitis, says the article, including joint pain, lesions on the body, scalp and face, and a painful eye condition that often stopped him working.
"Hidradenitis is a vicious skin disease," Prof. Shuster told Double Take yesterday. "Skin disease causes tremendous upset" among its sufferers, he added. "When people have got it their self-image goes down and you get self-loathing. And hidradenitis is among the worst for getting you down."
Prof. Shuster first became interested in the topic when he read Karl Marx: A Life by Francis Wheen in 1999. "It became obvious almost immediately that the diagnosis [of boils]was wrong," he said.
So Prof. Shuster read through Marx's extensive correspondence and came to his diagnosis of hidradenitis. In his letters, Marx often told friends about his health and described his skin lesions as "curs" and "swine."
"Marx said that he was aware that it affected his writing," said Prof. Shuster. "He was writing his big works like Das Kapital at a time when the disease was particularly bad and it was pretty clear that he was not in the best of moods when he was writing it."
In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to his poverty, "hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem," said Prof. Shuster. "This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing."
Marx, who died in 1883, told philosopher Friedrich Engels in a letter in 1867: "The bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying day."
Acid comments
Because of his illness, Karl Marx might not have been in the best of moods when he made the following observations.
"Capital is dead labour, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks."
"For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him."
"Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the labourer, unless under compulsion from society."
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
"I am not a Marxist."