Psychology

Kurt Cobain life was on one hand amazing while in another it was rather disturbing to him. Throughout his life he sought to find balance and peace yet the social, psychological and physiological imbalances in his past never gave him the chance to fully stabilize his life. Through a life of great struggle to get his happiness and balance psychologically, Kurt always felt he did not attain it all and the life he chose in his adolescent and adult phases never gave him the happiness foundation he desired. It may therefore be stated that he never attained his happiness. This paper therefore seeks to analyze the life and social patterns that Kurt followed and how social theories can analytically evaluate his life experiences.

In his lifetime as an adult, Kurt Cobain enjoyed the leading role as a singer with the Nirvana rock band, mainly based in Seattle. In the early days of the bands times in the music industry, probably in the early 1990s, the Nirvana band members were seen as idols in the eyes of many teenagers. Cobain, the bands lead singer had taken the rock music world by storm and in many peoples minds, he may be the founder of the hard rock movement. Martin (2005, p. 7) notes that Kurt Cobain was one of the most remarkable people in rock history. In the 1980s the rock bands and music that existed, knew no regeneration like the one that Cobain brought to the grunge type of rock music. Nevertheless, the story of Kurt Cobain can not be termed as one that started with the right tone or footing. Though a successful musician, Kurt Cobains past seems to have not only covered and influenced much of his happy days, and surrounded his life with difficult challenges.

Psychological challenges always seem to have overshadowed Kurt Cobains life and past. Though having not well understood his path and how his past had influenced his present, Kurt lived his life with much pain. His efforts were always directed towards rebelling his past and driving for a life that would free him from his past. The main question that one may then ask is that Did Kurt Cobain escape his past Kurts childhood may have been the happy child life in the early years of his life. However, with the birth of his sister, the parents attention seems to have been divided among the two children. As a clear indication that parental nurture can have great effect on children, the life of Kurt Cobain may be described by the theories developed by a German psychological analyst named Karen Horney.

According to Horneys psycho-social theories, thought the environment can alter the way that an individual may turn out, the ultimate personality changer is the parental nurture. In Kurt Cobains case, the nurture that shaped his life and seemingly led to his demise at the peak of his music career may be seen as the one he went through in his early years as a young boy. Growing up in Brought up by a home maker mum and a mechanic as a dad, Kurt knew no other pampering than any spoilt child would have. In the times that his younger sister was born, attention would most likely have been divided and suddenly he may have realized he was not running the family showbiz. With the onset of a life with one parent, Kurt Cobain felt the psychological and social drift his parents divorce brought to him. With the kind of love and talent that Kurt Cobain had, one may think he would have been happy with his success, however, praise almost always made him uncomfortable (Martin, 2005, p. 11) a sign that his success may have turned out to be his pain as well.

In an attempt to describe the life that Kurt Cobain lived, Piagets theory of psychoanalysis may come to play in describing the main stages that formed the foundation for his adult life. Kurt Cobains childhood gave him the basis of becoming a young adult man who resorted to raging against the provincial mentality he perceived around him and rebelling when his happy childhood turned into a troubled adolescence (Molanphy, 2003, p. 12). Kurt Cobains initial life stages were attacked negatively in all ways beginning from the divorce of his parents that led to him becoming what Molanphy (2003, p. 10) calls a mass of contradictions. With a sense of loss of direction, Kurt Cobain jumped from one home to another living with one parent at a time and sometimes staying with his relatives  aunts and uncles.

Piagets theory of formal operational reasoning gives a clear picture of the early childhood that Kurt Cobain may have had when he first faced his challenge of loneliness when his parents divorced. Citing Piagets elaboration, Kurt Cobains life after his parents divorce can be defined by the systematic way in which the child becomes able to consider all possible combinations in relation to the whole problem and to reason about an entirely hypothetical situation (Harris  Butterworth, 2002, p. 307). Kurts early childhood, though filled with love and the protection of his parents soon turned to be his greatest misery. His childhood was spent in a series of tiny houses (Molanphy, 2003, p. 12) gave the confines that any young boy would not well adjust to. As a young boy, hyperactive as he had been diagnosed to be, Kurt Cobain may have found difficulty adjusting to the space of tin houses. Finally his parents resorted to giving him sedatives, maybe to confine his movement or maybe to tame his activity and make place for less frustration.

Kurt would want to be free. Free to explore the new world, and free to find true happiness. However, Kurt who seemed to be a cheerful, gregarious child, he was much beloved by his family, with his grandparents and aunts doting on him (Molanphy, 2003, p. 12). A contradiction of his life in adulthood, Kurt was doted at by his family and relatives at a tender age yet his heart suffered most want for love and affection through his life. The gap that any analyst would want to uncover is the gap that Kurt Cobain had in his life. Why would he have a doting family, yet grow to be an adult who seemed not to have anyone by his side. Why would he die alone, with his body filled with drugs  as if to escape the abandon and loneliness

A step back to Aberdeen, the town in which Kurt Cobain grew up, in the 1960s, the town was beset by a depressed economy and high unemployment (Molanphy, 2003, p. 12), a sign that family pressure characterized by his fathers struggle to cater for the financial needs of the family may have formed the foundational framework for the emotional lack he may have experienced in his life. A young boy growing up with a stressed father struggling to cater for the family may have developed an emotional gap from a tender age. In addition to the struggles the father went through financially as a low earning mechanic, the fathers marriage to a pregnant fresh graduate may have contributed to the pressures in the family, though they were not openly writer about in Kurt Cobains biographies.

Kurt Cobains music career may have started as a retaliation of the rebellious and confusing life he led. His first guitar given to him by a relative may have been his way to express his feelings of anger and loss (Martin, 2005, p. 13). As if the sedation of the music guitar was not enough to cool his hunger for an escape from his stressful life, at a tender age Kurt was treated with sedatives (Molanphy, 2003, p 15) as early as grade school as a preventative measure against his seemingly hyperactive life. From a tender age of younger than 3 years, Kurt Cobain got all attention until the time when his younger sister became apart of the family. In the early years hyperactivity seems to have covered for loneliness resulting in the decision to give him sedatives to get him to settle down sometimes.

The sedatives and many other factors seem to have contributed to a greater change in his behaviour when his younger sister finally came along and he felt more and more secluded from the life he led before. Growing into adolescence saw Kurt Cobain reveal a lot more alienation than teenagers would normally be comfortable to keep. His distance from his parents and alienation from any form of teenage social orientations, Kurt seems to have started nurturing thoughts of death as he talked casually with school friends about murder and suicide (Molanphy, 2003, p. 15), as if seemingly always portraying it in his art. When we as humans lose the sense of direction, we become preoccupied with struggles against problems and obstacles over which we have no control (Cloninger, 2004, p. 124), hence the self defeating lifestylethat Kurt Cobain chose to lead.

Divorce is devastating especially for adolescents who are at the peak age of trying to get a balance in their life and find their true identity and Kurt Cobain was no exception. He suffered the brunt dent in his identity when his parents divorced and the efforts to try and find the right environment to dwell and grow did not bear much fruit. His stay with his mother alone did not prove fulfilling as the mother had moved on to date and be with another man. Experiencing the psychological devastation of divorce and having to bear the relations he had to build with the new man in his mothers life was much than his psychological footing would handle. Running to hide in the dwelling with his father did not bear much consolation for the psychological balance and stability he needed because the father had a new partner as well. Its true that each individual is like a wave that is an inseparable part of the eternal ocean of life (Cloninger, 2004, p. 190). Its, therefore, noteworthy to say that as a human being and a young man for that matter, Kurt Cobain had no place to find the nurturing environment to grow psychologically.

THE LATTER ADULT LIFE
Kurt Cobains life led a transition of loneliness and a great gap in his psychological stability. In his adult life, probably the life he led after the age of 16-18 years, Kurt knew no peace as he sought for ways to make a mark in his life. Trying to work his way up the ladder in the grunge rock music industry, Kurt Cobain founded and worked hard as he lead singer in the Nirvana band. A taste of hard rock played by the band gave the listeners what they looked for in rock but never found. The hard metal was a sign that he sought the hardest rock instruments for the hard metal music as an escape from his early years of violent behaviour. Cobains accomplishments and eventual success as a musician can generally be attributed to his individual motivation and determination to make resolutions concerning his intrapersonal as well as the general cultural aspects that were within his psychosomatic and mental conflicts from his past.

Kurt Cobains marriage to Courtney Love can not only be viewed as his own way of trying to cover for the marriage that his family broke but a way to find motherly love. The relationship he shared with his mother was close though seemingly distant. Kurt Cobain sought the motherly love that he would find from anyone he would be with and his marriage to Courtney Love was a confirmation of the deep desire he had to find this form of love. From seeking motherly love after divorce to his quest for fatherly love, Kurt Cobain moved to stay with his father though this was short-lived and proved to create another dent in his social and psychological makeup. His struggle to find a role model in his life was eminent. His choices and life decisions reveal a pattern of longing for a foundation based on motherly love and the role model of a fatherly figure.

During childhood, the parental nurturing and support that children get are highly crucial for their psychological and social stability in society. The association and connection that parents have with their children predicts how the childrens psychological wellness as well as their interpersonal course and direction in life would be. Many social theories delve into the deep aspects of nurture as opposed to nature, however, the nurturing aspect are the core representatives of the outcomes in a persons interpersonal conflict. Steered further and further away from the confines of the parental, healthy family environment and atmosphere, Kurt Cobains sudden realization of the divorce his parents were going through were deep rooted and could only be expressed in his musical lyrics and images on his bands albums.

Erick H. Erikson, the eminent psychoanalyst from Denmark, might have been alarmed with Kurt Cobains general search for his place in society through the attainment of his self image and a sense of identity. The search for self identity and self image occurs in adolescence and is influenced considerably by the social-cultural climate of that historical time, and we can clearly see that the rock music culture provided the arena for Cobain to struggle for his identity (Cloninger, 2004, p.98). After the divorce of his parents, Kurt Cobain had minimal influence and guidance from his father and lacking in a fatherly figure seemingly had its impact on the young boy who wanted to and dreamt of growing up and looking up to his father for guidance.

Kurt Cobains resort to death may be a way to express his need for solace and peace from a world so trying and so draining. The lyrics being a constant reminder of the life he led and the home not quite matching the home he may have so much desired to have in his past. True growth starts with conscious awareness of what is occurring in ones current existence, including how one is affected and how one affects others (Corsini et al., 2007, p. 329) and Kurt Cobains effect on others seems to have been totally different from the effect of those in his life had on him. Kurt Cobains parents do not seem to have had much positive effect in his childhood years. Apart from the divorce they never made proper arrangements on where he would stay so as to ensure that he was emotionally and psychologically stable.

As if depicting the life of Kurt Cobain, Cloninger (2004, p. 321), states that a person cannot properly understand or treat psychopathology until he or she has an adequate model of normal psychology. The life that Kurt led in his early years as a child may have seemed to be normal though no form of normalcy was ever attained to the end. Kurt never knew what normal psychology and emotion and happiness would feel like. From the early need to contend with a younger sister, the divorce and eventual failure with school, Kurt knew he had no much choice. Kurt Cobain didnt know what would be normal and what would not be when it came to the normal human life. He therefore did not learn or could not learn how to keep his inner voice, suppressed and his mind in control.

Kurt never valued school hence his decision to drop out and move on to art and music to express his needs. Throughout his quest for love and compassion, it can be depicted that each person is a unified whole comprised of body, mind and spirit, and that each person is an inseparable part of an all-encompassing cosmic order (Cloninger, 2004, p. 321). This shows that Kurt Cobains quest for motherly love even in marriage was his disconnect from the universal connection that in so many ways exerts itself through the relation with others. As Kurt Cobain sought to find the connection with the cosmic order, he sought the love taken away at childhood. Cobains psychopathic quest led to drugs and grunge rock when he found no solace in the universe atmosphere.

THE SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Starting his substance abuse seems to be one of Kurt Cobains escapes from reality and to ecstasy and a high that took away his troubles for a moment. However, the download spiral of thought from reduction in freedom of will by conditioning of maladaptive habits is illustrated for substance dependence (Cloninger, 2004, p. 124). Kurt began to abuse illegal substances like marijuana at a tender age hence the great drift in his character and increased withdrawal. In the end, preoccupation with drugs pervades every aspect of a persons life (Cloninger, 2004, p. 125). In his misgivings, Kurt was a self defeater in the way he worked. Working hard with the band yet not showing any self respect in working as hard to maintain his health. Use of controlled or illegal substances had become his norm. In some cases in his journals, Kurt talks of having been totally stoned for days even as the band toured.

According to Corsini et al., (2007, p. 329) when one knows, senses, and feels ones self here and now, including the possibilities for change, one can be fully present,, accepting or changing what is not satisfying. Kurt Cobain knew that he would have to find himself alone and he would have to sense and act on the right strategies and decisions that would bring him the satisfaction he desired. However, the change that he was forced to adapt to at a tender age did not provide him the cushion he so much needed. His resort to drugs offered a short term escape to reality and the world he so much desired in adult life.

Kurt Cobains entire life seems to be a flash of what a troubled and confused childhood and teenage life would be. With the world moving fast and parents resorting to busy schedules in recent years, the relation to the Cobain story and life can be remarkable. In many cases one may argue that he ever had a life that many would admire, but he had a real life  a depiction of what divorce, sibling rivalry and loneliness can bring to a person. To a drug addict drugs may offer the psychological and emotional high that slowly but surely seduces many to being addicts. In Kurt Cobains case, he became an addict of heroin. The words in Kurt Cobains journals depict pain and death and a need to get out of the world of pain. Kurt Cobain seems to have been a man on a mission to attain inner peace  the kind of peace that only the psychological mind can be able to comprehend.  

THE ART CHOICE OF MUSIC - KURT COBAINS HARD METAL ROCK CHOICE
Kurt Cobain grew and readily portrayed great and unique talent in lyric writing. The combination of these talents with his bands determination and motivation were a great way to explore the ways out of a past that continually plagued him. As Cloninger (2004) notes, Kurt may have been trying to escape the fear of abandonment, stemming undoubtedly from his parents emotional and sometimes physical abandonment (p.108) that left him a vulnerable and deeply hurt man. In a lot of ways, rock music can be taken to have been Kurt Cobains most preferred channel of expressing his deep rooted desperation, need to tear and separate himself from the multitude of his family as well as the past troubles and pain. It was his only way to express the feelings he had suppressed and kept deep down, feelings that fully controlled his psychological foundation.

Kurt Cobains life can be characterized as a great trial to escape from the casting of low self esteem and the need to escape from his past life. The need to grow and become better is one goal that every human being desires. From his past life, Kurt developed a deep rooted inferiority complex that nothing in his adult life seemed to be able to take away. From the fear of abandonment (Cloninger, 2004, p. 108) to the threat of losing the protective love of both his parents to the eventual reality of divorce, Kurts self-image was affected and changed to think lowly of himself and losing confidence in his future. Kurt Cobains sense of self worth can be viewed as the most suppressed of all his emotional being.

Kurt Cobains choice of lyrics for his music can only be a depiction of what Kurt Cobain was going through deep in his heart and mind. In simple description one would have said that personality not only has the capacity to heal itself but also becomes enlarged through experience (Corsini et al., 2007, p. 120) and Kurt Cobain struggled to heal his personality and regain it through music.

With unstable emotions ones stability whether psychological or social can highly be affected. Kurt Cobains sense of family, his relations with his family as well as his view of the future life he would have with both parents separated, led him to become more and more neurotic. Carl Jung, a renowned psychoanalyst denotes that neurosis tends to appear when a person slights or shrinks back from some important worldly or developmental task (Corsini et al., 2007, p. 120). Kurt Cobain had slighted and shrunk from his real true self image to become a young man who suffered from devastating psychological downs. His emotional maturity suffered the setbacks of life. Concentration in school could not be attained and his concentration in family matters seems to have suffered as well since he seemed to have a distorted image of his wife  treating her with motherly image and needing her to cater for his yearning for motherly love.

In some cases inferiority may result from physical handicaps, family dynamics, or societal influences that are overwhelming (Cloninger, 2004, p.108). In Kurt Cobains case, his family divorce and his eventual marriage that he deemed to be more maternal than marital are all a prediction of the family dynamics that seemed to overwhelm him. The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, depicted that genes and the human genetic disposition can determine the human brains biological drives.

According to Freuds theory of id may shed a light on why such a famous and seemingly successful musician or rock star would choose to kill himself despite the surroundings of goal attainment.
In Freuds description of the Id concept, life and death instincts exist in all humans and in Kurt Cobains case, this may be true. Though he so much wanted to live his life of music and be happy, he never attained this goal and in the end, death instincts seem to have taken control of his mind. Kurt Cobain lost grip on his care for self and his health, as proven from his use and abuse of illegal substances such as marijuana. Kurt had finally realized that the maturity -  a progressive increase in social radius leading to integrity and wisdom (Cloninger, 2004, p. 190)  he needed to attain in his life.

Cobain exhibited self defeating tendencies in his constant meddle and interference with his body caused by the abuse of psychoactive drugs. Kurt Cobains continual use of destructive drugs such as heroin might have been the natural good feeling force that he possibly would have supposed drugs provided. Kurt Cobains regularly overdoses of various substances reached its peak when the Nirvana band had to cancel a long planned tour in Europe because Cobain had an overdose of the lethal drug heroin. In Kurt Cobains quest to find his place in every environment he lived in, he sought to find his identity in the music society. Rebellion was his escape from the pressures he got from his father  first to play sports and to live in the atmosphere that was much different from his past stable family life before the divorce.

In the psychological perspective, if an adult faces a challenge in their life, they are better equipped to tackle it. However, when children go through these phases of challenge in their life, they do not know how to efficiently handle them, so their sense of identity and self develop as rather wounded psychological components of their lives. In Kurt Cobains case, he never grew up to overcome the past and his wounded psychological makeup turned to anxiety, which then led to devastation and fear of loneliness, turning to rebellion and rock music for solace. Kurt Cobains career choice in rock music seems to have been his way to attain his puerile nurturing that seemingly was never provided by his parents when he needed it most. The gap in the provision of love that Kurt Cobain experienced may have been due to the parents lack of understanding for the indirect yearning for psychological, ethical and emotional support that he demanded. In the end, through his music, Kurt Cobain expressed his distresses and deep rooted needs that were never met even when he was an adult lead band singer.

In his attempt, Kurt Cobain felt that he could cope with the pressures of his past though his life through school and at home didnt give him the atmosphere of nurturing that would fill the emotional gap he had developed. As he quit school and joined the band, hard work became a way of covering for the shortcomings in his psychological stability. His emotional needs, as he assumed, would on the other hand be catered for by the lady he finally married. The question one would ask in this case is did Kurt Cobain eventually attain the goals he so much sought Did he find the joy and happiness that he sought with his time and energy Life through the eyes of his music may have seemed as one of the hardest he would live. Recalling the past through his lyrics and living his present and past through his real life were challenges that not even his success would help resolve.

Kurt Cobain always seemed not to appreciate his work, a sign that he may have had deep rooted low self esteem that not even the cheer from fans or success of the music band would recover. Kurt Cobain always preferred to be examined through his art (Molanphy, 2003, p. 8), rather than try to explain anything to anyone in public. On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, Kurt Cobain seemed to be self defeating. At one point he would want to be evaluated using his art while on another hand his art also included the way he carried himself  onstage, in photographs, on MTV  the way he looked away from fans, and then, at a key moment, stared intently back (Molanphy, 2003, p. 8). In so many ways, his looking away may have been a strategy not to directly get the judgement of others, though in a way to keep them interested and curious he looked intently at them. This was Kurt Cobains way of avoiding questions yet staying in the atmosphere of fame and success.

Despite his internal struggles, in the external world, Kurt Cobain was seen as the most famous thing to come out of Aberdeen (Molanphy, 2003, p. 12). The fame the success and the limelight lifestyle seem to have drawn much media attention that Kurt constantly struggled with. The more the media attention he got, the more and more depressed he may have got due to his disapproval of attention. As shown earlier, Kurt Cobain would look away from the crowds, meaning he was a man who deeply disliked being given too much attention. With the seemingly higher than can be handled, use of drugs, Kurt may have sought an escape that would never be achieved hence his decision to take his own life. Kurt is described as having been often just defiant (Molanphy, 2003, p. 12).

Kurt Cobain had his life struggles laid out right from his childhood and no form of success in his future would take the gap away. From his childhood to his adolescence and adulthood, Kurt Cobain knew no solace to his troubles. From rivalry with his younger sister, Kurts struggles with emotional stability were founded at a tender age. His desire for motherly love that was never given after the divorce can only be seen as an addition to his depression and sudden defiance in school and at home. After dropping out of school, marrying and succeeding in music, Kurts gap in the heart and desire for the motherly affection was portrayed in the strange yet unique relations he and his wife nurtured. Kurt saw his wife from his mothers perspective and expected the wife to give the nurture the mother would give.

As it may be predicted, the wife may have not known how to handle the role of her as wife and mother to the now grown grunge rock music star. In his deeper quest to fill the continual gap, Kurt may have found his short-term solace in drugs, and his eventual death may have been his final and planned way to escape the world once and for all. With a click on the trigger, Kurt Cobain is said to have taken his life  a life that, with struggles and challenges, had not given him the breathing space to mature emotionally, psychologically and socially. The life of Kurt Cobain can therefore almost always be likened to a child, abandoned at a tender age to fend for himself and eventually turning to be a life that could not shoulder the depression, stresses and challenges of the role of maturity he may have not attained.