Kurt+Cobain

**Kurt Cobain** **By: Margaret Tuite** ** Biogr **** aphy **  Kurt Donald Cobain was born on February 20, 1967 in Hoquaim, Washington to Wendy and Donald Cobain. Growing up in the small town of Aberdeen, Washington with his younger sister Kimberly, Kurt was initially a highly energetic and happy child who engrossed himself in musical and artistic endeavors. However, Cobain’s behavior dramatically changed when at the age of eight, his parents divorced. Cobain immediately became withdrawn, anti-social, and rebellious, as he felt unloved by his parents. This behavior worsened with his parents’ remarriage to different partners and was so bad that his father was forced to send Cobain to live with various relatives and friends, even leaving him homeless at one point. To escape from the hardships of his life, Cobain turned to drugs, as he began abusing marijuana at the age of thirteen and heroin at the age of nineteen. Along with drugs, Cobain found solace in the punk rock scene, which he immediately became enthralled with after seeing the Melvins in concert. Soon after, Cobain had hopes of making it into the music scene and in 1986 the band Nirvana was formed.  In 1991, Nirvana broke out into the mainstream music scene with their album //Nevermind// which sold over twenty-six million copies worldwide. Cobain was astounded by the album’s success and was unable to cope well with his new rock n’ roll lifestyle. At this point, Cobain dealt with the pressures of his life by abusing heroin more often than usual, as he now used it everyday. Furthermore, Cobain also used heroin to bond with his girlfriend, Courtney Love, who he met in 1990 and married just two years later. Cobain and Love had a daughter together whom they named Francis Bean, and one year later Nirvana released another album entitled //In Utero//. In 1994, realizing the severity of Cobain’s addiction, his friends and family arranged an intervention in an attempt to get Cobain off of drugs. This attempt failed, however, as Cobain escaped from the recovery center and quickly hopped on a flight back home to Seattle. It was here on April 5, 1994 where Kurt Cobain committed suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, a tragic end to the brilliant rock star’s life.

**Neo-Analytic and Ego Perspectives**  In analyzing the life of Kurt Cobain, the Neo-Analytic and Ego Perspectives give further insight as to what motivated Cobain to act out in such a volatile and self-destructive way. Much of Cobain’s life seems to have been influenced by society, mainly from his relationship with his family. Psychologist Carl Jung developed a theory that the mind consists of three parts, the conscious ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious, the latter of which contains Jung’s various archetypes. Jung’s persona and shadow archetype can be found in Kurt Cobain’s personality because his socially acceptable front, or persona, is his life as a famous rock star in which he pleases his fans through his music. Cobain’s socially dark and unacceptable front, or shadow, is his troublesome family life that eventually led to his drug use and suicidal behavior. Jung’s theory also suggests that Cobain is somewhat of an extrovert since he tends to focus his energy toward the outside world by exerting all of his energy into his creative endeavors, such as composing music and creating artwork for his band Nirvana.  Alfred Adler was another psychologist who contributed many theoretical constructs that can be attributed to the life of Kurt Cobain. Adler’s inferiority complex states that an individual has feelings of personal incompetence that result from a sense of helplessness or an experience that leaves him powerless. This can be attributed to Cobain because he felt he had no power over his parents divorce, as he was unable to do anything to prevent them from separating. Because of this, Cobain developed a superiority complex, which is an exaggerated arrogance that an individual develops in order to overcome an inferiority complex. Cobain’s superiority complex would be his success as a musician, in which he escaped from the difficulties of his life by achieving fame and fortune. Additionally, one would say that his career as a musician would be an example of an occupational task, in which one pursues a career that makes him feel worthwhile. So, while Cobain’s home life was suffering, he tried to make up for this inferiority complex by becoming a successful rock star, which he thought would give his life meaning and purpose.  Karen Horney’s feminist viewpoints can also relate to Kurt Cobain’s life. Horney’s theory of basic anxiety states that a child’s fear of being alone, hopeless, and insecure arises from problems with one’s parents. Thus, this theory could be applied to Cobain’s relationships with his parents because after their divorce, he developed an aggressive style in which he relied on fighting to get by. Cobain’s aggressive behavior became evident early on when he attended middle school, as he began bullying another student. This aggressive behavior continued throughout Cobain’s teenage years, as he began abusing drugs at this time, and was even arrested for spray-painting trucks in his town. Cobain was also continuously kicked out of his father’s house for his erratic behavior, and therefore Kurt was acting out in protest against his parents divorce.  Erik Erikson developed his own theory of identity formation in which he believed that an individual develops one’s own personality throughout their entire life and that they change as they age. Erikson claimed that there are eight stages of identity, each dependent on the outcome of the previous one, and that an individual can develop an ego crisis, or a conflict within oneself that must be resolved in sequence for growth to occur. Erikson’s stages of identity relate to Kurt because he was stuck in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage because it was at this point in his life that his parents got divorced and in response, he rebelled. Because of this occurrence, Kurt expressed his feelings of inferiority, as he felt embarrassed to tell his friends at school that his parents were no longer together. Additionally, Kurt’s grades suffered at this time and this behavior continued to affect him throughout high school, as he continuously skipped classes and eventually dropped out just two weeks before graduating, after realizing he did not have enough credits to graduate. Although Kurt performed poorly in school, he got over his feelings of inferiority and developed a sense of industry, as he realized later on in life that he accomplished many things with Nirvana through his musical talent.

**Trait Perspective**  When looking at Kurt Cobain from the Trait Perspective, one could relate his behavior to the Big Five, which consists of five personality dimensions: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. Kurt Cobain has a moderate level of extroversion because he exemplified both extroverted and introverted behavior throughout different stages of his life. One would argue that Cobain is extroverted because he was very energetic and enthusiastic in his performances with Nirvana and often made jokes with the audience. However, it could be argued that he was also introverted, as he became withdrawn from his parents and was less sociable with his peers, who he thought would look down on him after his parents divorce. As for agreeableness, Cobain tends to be moderate for this trait as well, since much of this depends on whom he is interacting with. Cobain tends to be friendly to his fans and friends, but he appears mistrusting and standoffish to his parents.  However, there could be several reasons for Kurt’s changing behavior, as he is high on neuroticism. Neurotic people, like Kurt, tend to be nervous, moody, tense, and worrying. Kurt was high on neuroticism because he was mentally and emotionally unstable, as he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder as an adult. Kurt’s bipolar disorder could be the real reason behind his mercurial behavior, and his suicide as well. Due to Kurt’s impulsive behavior, one would also argue that he is low on conscientiousness, or dependability and cautiousness. Cobain shows this behavior because he had such a lack of concern for his own life that he was usually irresponsible in making decisions, such as his own drug use in which he overdosed several times and made no genuine effort to recover. Additionally, he was also known for being unreliable because he often cancelled concerts simply because he did not feel like performing. Finally, Kurt Cobain is high on openness because he shows creative behavior throughout all of his musical and artistic endeavors with Nirvana. Cobain is very imaginative and artistic because he created a majority of Nirvana’s music and lyrics, along with creating music videos for the band. Clearly, Cobain’s personality traits go hand in hand with his career because people high on openness are known for being artists, and that he certainly was.  Whereas some psychologists believe that there are five trait dimensions, others, such as Hans Eysenck, believed in only three traits that were at the core of an individual, and that other traits were derived from the main three. Thus, Eysenck’s Big Three traits were extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. Since Eysenck’s traits of extroversion and neuroticism are similar to those in the Big Five, Cobain would have the same levels of moderate extroversion and high neuroticism in Eysenck’s model. The last trait of psychoticism includes impulsivity, cruelty, and tough-mindedness. Cobain seems to be moderate in psychoticism because he is very impulsive because of his bipolar disorder. He was also cruel and tough-minded because he bullied others at a young age. However, Cobain did not demonstrate this cruel behavior in his later years, as he rarely got into fights with others. As for Henry Murray’s needs, Kurt Cobain demonstrated the need for Exhibition, which is the need to show one’s self before others and to entertain, amuse, shock and excite others. Kurt exemplified this behavior because of his need to show his creative side by composing songs and making music videos for Nirvana. It seems that Kurt’s needs were for others to recognize and praise his talent, since he lacked this approval from his troublesome relationship with his parents.

**Discussion**  By looking at the Neo-Analytic, Ego, and Trait Perspectives, one can gain insight into Kurt Cobain’s personality and the factors that influenced his life choices. By looking at the Neo-Analytic and Ego Perspectives, one can see that much of Cobain’s behavior was influenced by his parents divorce. After his parents separated, Cobain’s life began to fall into a downward spiral, which he could not seem to get himself out of. Immediately after his parents divorce, Cobain lashed out in retaliation by bullying others and abusing drugs in order to fight his basic anxiety. Additionally, he also tried to get past his inferiority complex of feeling powerless over his parents divorce by forming a superiority complex in which he achieved success as a musician with Nirvana. Finally, he developed a persona and shadow archetype in which his persona was the rich, successful rock star while his shadow was the abhorrent drug abuser. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%;"> By looking at the Trait Perspective and the Big Five, one can see that Cobain’s parents divorce also affected his extroversion and agreeableness as he became more aggressive and withdrawn toward others. As a result, he became neurotic, displaying moody and unstable behaviors at particular points in his life. As for Cobain’s openness, he was high on this trait because of his creativity and interest in music and art. When looking at Eysenck’s Big Three, Cobain also demonstrates psychoticism because of his impulsive and cruel behavior, especially in his early years. Finally, when looking at Murray’s needs, Cobain has a need for exhibition because he feels he has to show his musical side to others in order to entertain them. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Although Kurt was unable to recover from his parents divorce, perhaps he would have in the future had he not committed suicide. Cobain died at such a young age, at only 27. Kurt had been planning his suicide for quite some time and began expressing his thoughts about it to many people, including his sister Kim, by saying that he would one day join the 27 Club, which is a group of musicians who all died at the age of 27. It seems that Kurt could not get out of this mindset, as he still expressed his suicidal behavior throughout the remainder of his life and even in his music. In one of Nirvana’s songs, “Come As You Are,” Cobain wrote “And I swear/That I don’t have a gun” and yet in the music video for this song, various guns are filmed. This music video had a hidden message, as Cobain committed suicide with a gun. Additionally, Cobain even wrote a song entitled “I Hate Myself and Want to Die” which from the song title shows how unhappy he was with his life. Despite all of his success with Nirvana, Cobain was still unable to cope with the struggles of his life and foresee a brighter future. So on April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain committed suicide, finally putting an end to his short-lived life.

<span style="color: #0606db; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 200%;">**References** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px;">Cobain, K. (1991). Come As You Are [Recorded by Nirvana]. On //Nevermind// [CD]. Van Nuys, California: Sound City Studios. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 200%;">Cross, C. R. (2001). //Heavier than heaven: a biography of Kurt Cobain//. New York: Hyperion. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px;">Cross, C. R. (2008). //Cobain unseen//. New York: Little, Brown and Co.. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px;">Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2009). //Personality: classic theories and modern research//. Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px;">Kurt Cobain Biography - Biography.com. (n.d.).//Biography.com//. Retrieved April 18, 2011, from http://www.biography.com/articles/kurt-cobain-9542179. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 24px;">NirvanaVEVO. (2009, June 16). Nirvana - Come As You Are [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabnZ9-ex7o.