HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ 1

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ 1 / HaCKeRz Kr0nlcKLeZ.iso / anarchy / essays / schoolsucks / kcobain1.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1996-04-27 | 11.7 KB | 248 lines

subject = Psychology title = Kurt Cobain papers = Psychology 41G Report Aberdeen, Washington, a small town southeast of Seattle is 108 miles long, and outlined by an endless amount of trailer parks; past them are many acres of timberland, blemished by stubbly scars, where loggers have been clear cutting. From east the first thing seen is the unattractive Weyerhauser lumberyard leading to the Wishkah River. These days, the streets of Aberdeen, Washington are looking like empty or boarded up storefronts. Business is booming for only local pawnshops. One of the biggest growth industries in the country presently is the cultivation of Marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms, which people grow in order to boost their meager or nonexistent incomes. It wasn╣t always this bad. Aberdeen used to once be a bustling seaport where sailors used to stop off at. Truth is, the town used to be one big prostitution centre. This is where on February.20th 1967 Kurt Donald Cobain was born. To homemaker Wendy Cobain(nΘe Fradenburg) and mechanic Donald Cobain. His early influences who soon became mentors to him were, his mothers siblings Chuck and Mary. From the day of his birth to the day of his death Kurt Cobain had problems, psychological and otherwise. The problems just could not leave him alone. The Cobain╣s didn╣t live in the best part of Aberdeen and were not wealthy. They were basically │white trash posing as middle class▓ according to Kurt when asked about his early childhood upbringing. Kurt╣s major problems began at the age of 8 in 1975. This was when his parents divorced. His mother admits that both she and Don used the kids(sister Kim 5 at the time of divorce) in the divorce and fought for custody. It╣s been described as that a îlight went out╣ in him, a light that he tried to recapture, but couldn╣t. Kurt became angered at his parents for not being able to sort out their problems. Throughout most of his childhood he was ashamed of his parents After the divorce Kurt continued to live on with his mom in Aberdeen, for a year, but his mom soon decided that she could not handle him. To cope, she shipped him off to his dad in Montesano a smaller logging community 20 miles east of Aberdeen. Even with his dad Kurt was unhappy. They didn╣t get along to well because Don pushed Kurt into sports which Kurt was not good at, which caused more pressure on Kurt because Don was a jock. Don did not let Kurt be a kid, he wanted him to be a little adult. He╣d get irritated quickly, and would whack Kurt over the head. One time when Kurt was 6, he threw Kurt across the room Basically, Kurt had no father figure to look up upon. Despite all of this Kurt was spoiled by Don and showered with material things that Don could offer. Kurt was then shattered again when Don got remarried in February of 1978. Kurt and his step-mom did not get along. The longer Kurt lived with Don the worse things got. Don was determined to make Kurt accept the new family, so he got legal custody in attempt to make him part of the family. Don then gave up on Kurt because he was convinced that his mom brainwashed him. Eventually, Don couldn╣t deal with Kurt. Kurt was passed between 3 different sets of Aunts and Uncles and his Grandparents on his dad╣s side. In school Kurt did not do well. He was seen as an outcast, being shifted around between 4 schools in Aberdeen and Montesano. While still in school, Kurt was friends with Myer Loftin, an openly gay student. He enjoyed the conflict he caused. He thinks it was then, that he almost found his identity true identity. Around Grade.11; the moving around a lot was only a small part of the problems What led to his eventual drop out of school in May of graduating year, was his intense hate of the teachers. He would fantasise killing them in front of the class. Wendy seeing all of this decided that her traumas were worse than Kurts, because she had just dumped an abusive boyfriend. She was still focused on doing good by her son. So, she simply passed her son on to live with her brother Chuck. Kurt by then was distraught about moving from relative to relative. In May of 1984, when Kurt was 17, Wendy was remarried to Pat O╣Connor. Wendy once again decided that she was worse off than Kurt, because Pat was an alcoholic. She again she felt incapable of taking Kurt . After months of emotional phone calls and crying, Wendy took Kurt back. Kurt rebelled at home when back with his mom. Wendy╣s patience with Kurt wore thin with Kurt because she was mad at Pat for drinking. She often used her anger at Pat towards the kids One morning while living with Wendy and Pat, Pat came in smelling like a girl. With Pat being an avid gun collector Wendy attempted to load one of the guns, but found she couldn╣t. She had Kim gather up all the guns and bullets and dump them in the Wishkah River. Kurt witnessing all of this from his room, recruited some friends to dig out as many guns as they could out of the river and then he sold them. Wendy abandoned Kurt again. She sent him to live with his friend Jesse Reed, whose parents were born again Christians. The Reeds weren╣t too fond of Kurt. He was considered a bad influence on their son. The final straw with the Reeds came when they locked Kurt out of their house, and Kurt kicked in the door. Mr. Reed told Kurt in no uncertain terms that he was a lost cause. That was the end of life at the Reed house. After this incident Wendy decided to try îtough love╣, which was just becoming recognized. Kurt moved into an apartment in Aberdeen with Jesse Reed. In 1985 Kurt was evicted from his apartment. Wendy keeping up with the tough love had nothing to do with Kurt. With nowhere to sleep Kurt would sleep on a cardboard box on his friend Dale Crovers porch, or under the North Aberdeen Bridge. Wendy, then dropped the îtough love╣, and allowed Kurt to stop by her house and she╣d make him lunch. In fall of 1986 Kurt hurt his hand while making french fries, and severely burnt his hand on the grease. Kurt was told by the doctor that he╣d never play the guitar again. In 1987 Kurt developed a piercing pain in his stomach. The condition plagued Kurt for the rest of his life. It baffled even the best specialists. From 1987 on Kurt was heavy into the music and drug scene. He was plagued by psychological problems, and stomach pain as well as drug addiction. These problems persisted on through to 1992 and then through to his death while he and his constantly changing band were frustrated by the setback of trying to make it big in music, and then coping with fame. Kurt being naive about drugs, started taking percodan, not being aware of the addiction factor involved. Eventually percodan led to heroin. Then, very unexpectedly in 1992 Nirvana finally made it big. Nirvana skyrocketed to fame at a quick pace. Kurt never fully recovered from this fame. He didn╣t like and couldn╣t cope with the fame and public limelight. February. 24th, 1992 in Waikiki, Hawaii Kurt was married to Courtney Love. Like Kurt, Courtney was also from a broken home. 6 Months after their marriage their first and only child was born. A girl, Francis Bean Cobain. Kurt struggled with parenthood, and with the fact that the Seattle branch of Child and Family services was trying to take away Francis with charges of unfit parenting. With the onset of a new child and marriage, Kurt became severely depressed. The depression lasted up until his death. In March of 1994 Kurt collapsed in Rome. A near fatal combination of champagne and tranquillisers. On April.8th 1994 at the young age of 27, Kurt Donald Cobain was found dead in the greenhouse on top of the house he shared with Courtney. His death has never, despite media coverage, been proved as a suicide. Kurt╣s main outlet for his pain was music. If you analyse his songs you can read the pain that he╣s trying to express. Music helped Kurt communicate the pain that he was going through. A less noble outlet was drugs. Not to sensationalise or condemn drug use, but in your teens it╣s confusing enough without the added on troubles of both parents abandoning you. In some ways Kurt did try to stop his downward spiral of destruction. When Kurt was nearing 18 his father feared his could loose Kurt forever, he made an ultimatum of music or living with his dad rent free. So Kurt sold his guitar, and tried the Navy test. He ended up getting one of the highest scores Aberdeen had ever seen. However Kurt never did enlist in the Navy. Kurt tried many times to stop his drug abuse. Shortly before he was found dead Courtney tried an intervention. Successfully, Kurt enrolled in the Exodus Rehabilitation Centre. One of the finest and established places in Seattle. Unfortunately, Kurt left before his treatment could really start to help. My evaluation of Kurt Cobain is that he was an almost over comer. His life was worth a lot to many people. If he had not died when he did, he would have been an over comer. In Kurt's short life he matured a lot. He stopped taking his anger out on society in every way he could. He found love in his wife and child. He was determined to be there for Francis the way his parents were not there for him. The effect of Kurt╣s music was tremendous. He managed without a lot of a lot of words to touch his fans, in a way no other rock star had before. He was different than the average star. Not everything to him was a greedy money game to him. He tried as hard as possible when he was famous, to lead a modest life. Kurt╣s brutally honest approach to life will never be forgotten. He was not only a songwriter, but a poet. My thoughts on Psychological nature are that sometimes your environment that you grow up in, does not have to dictate the rest of your life. Kurt had bad surroundings and role models but, he made a lot out of his short life. Freud was somewhat right with his theory of your childhood. Kurt had a very bad childhood, and it stayed with him right up until the end. He was always afraid of abandonment, and desertion. Yet, in the same breath you can say that he almost broke the cycle of abandonment, by being a good father to Francis and not abandoning her in the same way his parents abandoned him. Kurt did not fully break the cycle of abandonment, because now Francis will only have memories of her departed father, although at least they will be mainly good memories. It╣s important to remember, that when you idealise and put rock stars up on pedestals as much as Kurt was you also have to give them space and privacy, like so many stars want to have. Kurt should be an example to all that rock stars are not superhuman beings. People may say if you don╣t like public attention, then quit music. It╣s a catch 22, easy to say but not to do. Even if Kurt did quit music, he would always be │that guy from Nirvana▓. If Kurt did in fact commit suicide, he should not be a hero or selfish but a lost soul, wondering amongst the dead, who should not be forgotten. In closing my theory is that; yes, your childhood can ruin you but only if you let it. In the words and memory of Kurt Cobain │PEACE, LOVE AND EMPATHY▓ The above line quoted from the │alleged▓ suicide note found by his body. My main question and confusion about human behaviour is why was Kurt so deeply affected, and his sister Kim not?