Sick people

Was reading one of those psychology books i borrowed. Here's a paragraph from the book [Psychology's Grand Theorists: how personal experiences shaped professional ideas by Amy Demorest] :

In his book Stranger on the Earth, Albert Lubin (1972) devotes a chapter to uncovering the origins of a single but dramatic event in Van Gogh's life. Late in the evening on December 23, 1888 when he was 35 years old, Van Gogh cut off the lower half of his left ear and took it to a brothel where he asked for a prostitute named Rachel, and handed her the earlobe with the words "keep this object carefully". After introducing this extroadinary event to the reader, Lubin considers the possible origins for the act in the earlier events that show a match with this one...
1. In the months preceding this episode, Jack the Ripper had mutilated a series of prostitutes in London's East End. Among the various organs he removed from his victim, the ear was occasionally his choice. his crimes gave rise to various emulators at the time and Van Gogh was one such emulator. But Van Gogh was a masochist rather than a sadist, and so he reversed the act by mutilating his own ear and giving it to a prostitute.
[skip the irrelevant parts]
4. During the day of December 23, Van Gogh had had a fight with fellow painter Paul Gaugin and had attempted to assault him with a razor. When Gaugin overpowered him, Van Gogh later turned the razor against himself. His conflict with Gaugin was based on his childhood oedipal hostility towards his father, with whom he competed for his mother, in part because Gaugin was much superior with the local prostitutes, Van Gogh was symbolically trying to possess his mother sexually, for in his native Dutch the word for earlobe (lel) resembles a slang word for [male sensitive part] (lul).

* Note that some irrelevant details are removed and replaced by small font square brackets. Also, censored words are replaced by another phrase with similar meaning in square brackets.

Firstly, I don't find a painter cutting off his ear and giving to a prostitute a 'dramatic' event. Second thing, I got no idea who Jack the Ripper is though I heard of it in Mr Midnight. Last point, I think Van Gogh is sick. Like SICK in the mind. No offence to those fans of his.

I am poor in vocab, but masochist is someone who derived pleasure from one's own pain or humilation. Like, which sicko would hurt himself just to be happy? I can't stand self-mutilation. it's scary. Which is why even if I am super depressed and feels that life isn't worth living anymore, I will NOT commit suicide, example, jumping off a 2 storey building (not that you will die from it but the thought is scary enough) or stabbed myself with the kitchen knife.

And oedipal is derived from Oedipus complex, which means 'the emotions aroused in a young child by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex'. (from the Oxford paperback Dictionary Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide)

This is grossing me out because I don't get how someone can erm, have desires for someone who gave birth to you.

Painters are weird people bah, since Leonardo da Vinci was rumored to be a homosexual and now Van Gogh (another famous painter) is like erm, ok, you read the above la.

Ok, back to the Jack the Ripper thing. I went wikipedia search. thats another sick person.

Disgusting.