Kurt Cobain: A Psychoanalytic Perspective of PersonalityEssay Preview: Kurt Cobain: A Psychoanalytic Perspective of PersonalityReport this essayKurt Cobain was the lead singer of the Seattle based grunge rock band Nirvana. As Nirvanas lead songwriter, guitarist, and singer, Cobain took the music industry by surprise and is considered the godfather of the grunge rock movement. Cobain and his band had a prevalent influence on young teenagers of the 1990s and were considered idols by numerous individuals. Nirvana took the popular music industry by storm when they were able to revamp the genre of grunge rock and cause a dramatic shift in music, away from the dominant genres of the 1980s. The success of Kurt Cobain was overshadowed by numerous of his psychological problems including drug addiction, his unstable marriage to music celebrity Courtney Love, and constant pressure from the American media. Cobain committed suicide on April 8th 1994, where he was found dead in his home from a self inflicted shotgun wound to his head. What were the psychological problems that existed in Cobains life and how did they affect his behavior and overall outcome that led to his demise as a celebrity? How can certain theories and aspects of personality be linked to Curt Cobains intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts that existed in his unique relationships with his family as a child and later his wife and family?
Kurt Cobain was the center of attention within his family until the age of three, when his sister was born. Before his sister was born, he received more attention, but at age seven his parents marriage went sour, divorcing, which had adverse effects on Cobains psychological development as an adolescent. According to Cloninger (2004), “These events left a narcissistic wound and a craving for parental love that was never met” (p.97). Although at first Cobain came from a relatively stable nuclear family the birth of his sister and divorce caused him to become mobile between living with his mother and father, and then eventually with assorted members of his family. He even claims in one of his songs from the famous album Nevermind that he was homeless at one time and lived under a bridge surviving “off of grass, and the drippings from the ceiling” (Geffen Records, 1991). Cobains success with music can be related to his personal striving to resolve interpersonal, intrapersonal, and cultural factors within his psychological conflict.
Cobain had a unique talent for writing lyrics and combining them with his bands overall ambition for musical abilities. I believe that music was the overall outlet that Cobain displayed to separate him and express his feelings in order to control his psychological neurotic problems. Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung would integrate his psychoanalytic theory of the self or psyche to Cobains talent. Jungs theory incorporates a unique integration of all aspects of personality and an individuals overall qualities and potentials.
Psychoanalyst Alfred Alder would relate Cobain to his individual psychoanalytic theory where a person is described to be struggling from inferiority toward something better. Cobains inferiority can be seen within his troubled childhood where “fear of abandonment, stemming undoubtedly from his parents emotional and sometimes physical abandonment left him vulnerable” (Cloninger,2004, p.108). Cobains relationship and sense of worth regarding his family led him to become neurotic, which he displays in the lyrics of his songs and his interactions with other individuals. An example of his actions, within his strange interpersonal relationship with his wife, can be found in the matrimonial photograph where he is wearing pajamas next to Courtney Love. Cobain could have been reflecting a deranged child-like self image by wearing pajamas in the photograph. This could have shed light on the feelings he had about matrimony where he could have believed that his relational boundaries and sense of self were being broken by a bond. This bond would not allow him to act childlike anymore and put restrains on his desires. How were his interpersonal relationships affected by his childhood past? Cobains growth process and the realization of his sense of self were stagnated and consequentially he felt the pressure of inferiority complex. According to Cloninger (2004), “The felt-minus situation is too powerful to be overcome and the person accepts an exaggerated sense of inferiority as an accurate self-description This exaggerated sense of inferiority may result from physical handicaps, family dynamics, or societal influences that are overwhelming” (p.108). Adler would have carefully analyzed his final outcome of suicide and would have labeled it a negative outcome which could have been prevented.
The father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud would shed a tremendous amount of light on Kurt Cobains death from suicide. Freuds theory of the pre-genetically disposed biological drives within the human brain can give reason to why an individual, who was a celebrity superstar, would take his own life in a selfless act. The psychological drive of Freuds “Id” theory displays intrinsic characteristics of human nature. Within the “Id” principle there exist the life and death instincts: Eros and Thanatos. Sigmund Freud would shed light on Cobains Thanatos. Cloninger (2004), states:
Thanatos, the death instinct, is a destructive force directing us inevitably toward death, the ultimate release from tension of living. It motivates all kinds of aggression including war and suicide. Most often, Freud emphasized erotic, sexual, energy and conflict over its expression.” (41)
The sexual expression that Cobain expressed included numerous sexual explicit drawings where fictitious characters were missing the appropriate genital areas only to be placed somewhere where these organs are not expected. Another form of this expression could be displayed in the album cover art of Nirvanas compact discs such as the naked baby submerged in a swimming pool while chasing after a dollar bill on a fish hook in their most famous work of music Nevermind. Cobain displayed self destructive tendencies in his continuous tampering with his body due to the use of psychoactive drugs. His constant use of heroin may have been the biological good feeling drive that he could have believed drugs offered. Cobain had overdosed numerous times on different substances, most notably was the time Nirvana had to cancel their European tour due to Cobains overdose prior to a live concert in Rome, Italy. Post mortem autopsies found that during the time he committed
n a drug overdose, Cobain had several heart attacks, a major heart attack, and a heart attack on January 3, 1997[…] A second drug overdose was recorded in 1986, a third in 1989, while two or three other similar incidents occurred in 1990[…] At the time of the third record, Cobain and Nirvana were promoting their new album, Nevermind. When his bandmates had planned to release Nirvana’s eighth studio album, Nevermind in 1992, both Cobain and Nirvana were already on tour after the “Nirvana” concert, which was held in Italy and ended with Cobain’s mother screaming at the stage in a desperate attempt to save his life. The last recorded drug overdose was at a concert in Paris, France, on October 20, 1993; and another was at a concert in Chicago, Illinois, on October 22, 1993.[…] A third drug overdose by Cobain occurred in the early afternoon of November 3.[…] It was reported to the police that at one point, on December 14, 1994, Cobain used “Boom Bang” as a suicide weapon, resulting in a brain injury.[…] The following month, Cobain was found dead in an upstairs apartment in San Francisco, California on August 24th, 1999.[…] As per Nirvana, the only evidence presented against Cobain was his physical strength; his heart had stopped beating much in 1997; and his body temperature was unknown. All these indications are implausible.[…] This investigation did find some significant inconsistencies with a 1997 police report stating the following about Cobain’s whereabouts: No police reports reported his injuries being consistent with narcotics.[…] For instance, while a report stated that he received drugs from a friend of his, in fact he had been “sick and tired from some activities and drug use…”, this was not the case of cocaine. There was also no physical evidence to support a drug overdose. All evidence points to a possible attempt on Nirvana’s life, which was the result of an intense period of obsession, lust, and drugs being involved.[…] The following are excerpts from interviews Cobain had with an interviewer[…] After they had arrived in Los Angeles, the Cobain family and all other parties, including his manager and the band, were in Washington Square Park, New York, to “go to dinner with our friends.” Cobain had been coming downtown as part of the New York music tour coming up. The family was invited by John Legend to check out the show. Legend told the family that one of Cobain’s girlfriends had been waiting at a subway carriage and could not leave the carriage because of heavy traffic. The family didn’t know who was leaving, let alone that this was a woman that Cobain thought of as a friend.[…] After leaving, the family were confronted by the drummer of Nirvana who was also on the band and was very intoxicated. “Oh god you man, what you do now, you can’t even breath to go out… I don’t even think I can believe this. You’re so drunk you’re just fucking lying there, lying there, just fucking fucking there. It was crazy. I don’t know what to give you,” Legend was saying, referring to a quote that Cobain would often utter after his concert, “You don’t realize you’re drunk. All of you are and you’ve been and you’ve no idea what’s going on. You just know it’s gonna happen.”[…] In fact, there was no record of a “lonewolf” in any attempt on Nirvana’s life.[…] In the next few weeks. It was reported that Cobain was leaving the band and was still having an early hard time dealing with the pressures of dealing with the New York Rock Scene which has become an active part of his life.[…] The Cobain family moved to Hollywood in March 1997 for a concert in Hollywood, California called The Golden Age. A man named Steve had just