Hi, there. I'm happy to give my 2 cents on this.

First of all, the prepositions "from" and "with" are for the most part superfluous. The verb "to suffer" can act as a transitive verb, which means it can take a direct object. Thus, the following sentences are correct.

Gandhi suffered martyrdom.

Cicero suffered the vengeance of Marc Antony.

Beethoven suffered the full loss of his hearing.

The car was totaled, but miraculously, he suffered no injury.

Adding the word "from" to "suffer" is used for a disease or ailment, and metaphorically, for any other cause of suffering that could be compared to a disease.

Beethoven suffered from deafness.

Modern psychologists suspect that Newton suffered from Asperger's Syndrome.

FDR suffered from polio as a child, which left him lame.

He suffers from a guilty conscience.

She is suffering from high incomes taxes this year.

When the word "with" is added to "suffer", the object of "with" would not be what one suffers, but it could indicate, for example, the manner by which someone suffered.

He suffers his disease with dignity.

She suffers his inanity with indifference.

Does all that make sense? Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike

i received a PM regarding this topic.

i don't think "suffer with" is ever idiomatically ok, unless the "with" is part of a different, unrelated construction (e.g., if the sentence describes a case in which two or more people are suffering together, and the "with" is used to connect the people).

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there is a difference between "suffer" and "suffer from"
contra what was written by the poster above, the "from" is not superfluous at all.

"PERSON suffers X" is, basically, a simple statement of fact -- just stating that PERSON actually has/experiences/is afflicted by condition X.
for instance, i suffered several injuries in last week's accident is nothing more than an objective statement about what happened in the accident: i.e., it's a fact that i was injured in several locations.
importantly, this construction does not indicate that PERSON is emotionally affected (or, indeed, affected in any other significant way) by "X". in the sentence above, there is no implication as to whether i was upset/traumatized, or whether my life was affected negatively in any way, by the injuries; that sentence implies nothing other than that the injuries happened. (in fact, "PERSON suffered X" is so devoid of emotional connotations that it often appears in police officers' and doctors' reports, which are notorious for their complete lack of emotional content.)

by contrast, "PERSON suffers from X" means that "X", whatever it is, actually causes some measure of physical or emotional distress to PERSON.
for instance, if i say that i am suffering from the injuries that i sustained in the accident, then i am actually implying that the injuries are stressful/are traumatic/are hurtful/cause emotional pain/are inconvenient to me in some way.
as a result, this construction can even apply to "X"s that are generally considered good things, provided that PERSON is somehow negatively affected by those things. for instance, James suffers from his newfound fame and wealth could make sense if, e.g., james is a solitary, reclusive person who hates attention and would thus prefer not to be famous.

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in any case, the probability that this difference will actually be tested on the gmat is basically 0, but this thread was an enjoyable digression from the usual business of the forum.

lunarpower wrote:i received a PM regarding this topic.

i don't think "suffer with" is ever idiomatically ok, unless the "with" is part of a different, unrelated construction (e.g., if the sentence describes a case in which two or more people are suffering together, and the "with" is used to connect the people).

I agree with what Ron said. For the sake of enumerating examples, I would point out --- the "with" after the verb "suffer" could indicate another person, as in . . . .

I suffered with Harold --- we both got the flu at the same time.

(In Latin, this is ablative of accompaniment.)

. . . or it could indicate the attitude with which one confronts suffering . . .

Even the last stages of cancer, she suffered with quiet dignity.

(In Latin, this is ablative of manner.)

. . . or it could indicate instruments used during suffering . . . .

Through her bout of pneumonia, she suffered with pillows propping her up.

(In Latin, this is ablative of means.)

I agree, though, that it is grammatically incorrect to say that one "suffers with" the affliction itself.

Mike