why did van go cut off his ear?
<answer> Because he had an argument with one of his friends. <context> Yes, Vincent van Gogh cut his left earlobe off December 24, 1888, because he had had an argument with one of his friends. The argument may have been whether Paul Gauguin was g…oing to leave Arles, where they had been working together. Nobody was with Vincent van Gogh when he cut off his ear. He used a razor (a very sharp kind of knife) to cut it off; he was in deep depression after his friend Paul Gauguin had been mad at him. Van Gogh suffered from mental illness.