The tortured artist

Jun 26, 2009 at 10:20 AM
12 comments

Had dinner with some friends last night, and by some astounding miracle, they had not heard that Michael Jackson was dead. They are neither Americans, but of course, Jackson had been iconic in their youth as well.

As we talked about it, I lamented that his childhood was so messed up and wondered, "What might he have done if he hadn't had such a controlling father?"

My friends disagreed, saying maybe he wouldn't have done anything great without his father to browbeat him and his brothers. Mozart, they proffered, was another example of this.

Except...what might Mozart have done if his father hadn't been an emotionally abusive asshole?

After all, plenty of artists do just fine with loving parents. In the two biographies published of him in his lifetime, there's no suggestion that Michelangelo had a miserable childhood and he turned out some amazing art.

I dunno? Is it true that misery makes better art? Or is it that talent attracts misery?

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He certainly wouldn't have turned out a disfigured Peter-Pan wannabe freak who thought it was okay to have kids sleep with them in their bed and feed them Jesus Juice.

[this is good]

I think that if he had had a happier, healthier childhood with a non-abusive father and brothers that didn't screw groupies right in front of him at the tender age of 8,9,10 effective sexually abusing him themselves, he wouldn't have grown up to be a sexually unhealthy person with the lowest self esteem on the planet.

But he still would've been a musical genius with a business savvy to be envied. IMHO, this is a time where I think the life has nothing to do with the art or talent.

My random-ass guess is that miserable childhood does not = talent, but it does often correlate with artistic achievement. Talented but well-adjusted people maybe don't need an artistic outlet quite so much as the more messed-up folks. They just go on happy family picnics and live nice lives and stuff. In this scenario, your happy genius Michelangelo would be a relatively rare exception. I wonder if anyone might have any stats on this either way.

It is a good question. Sometimes I think that people who are artists have a deeper connection with the emotional and spiritual and a side effect of this is a lesser ability to tolerate the abuse and pain inflicted on them by others.
Sometimes I think that Art is the way some people deal with/cope with the abuses inflicted on them.

I agree with what you are saying - it feels right, even if I have no data to support it. makes sense that for a talented person who gets no support or succor from her family will go outside to get it, and at a higher level of need.

within this scenario is sad to think to those who also grow up abused and deprived but have no talents - where do they go, what do they do?

See, I don't think it's necessarily true. I think talented people don't have to suffer or that art has to be their outlet from suffering. It's that assholes are always trying to cash in on their talent, causing them to suffer. I mean, do we really believe that Jackson wouldn't have been a talented singer and songwriter, if he'd had a happy childhood? Really? He'd just have gotten a job as an accountant and lived a quiet suburban life? Consider that by Tito's own admission, his initial urge was to hide his and his brother's musical leanings from their father. Why? Asshole factor. They were afraid of what he'd do. Imagine if they'd just had a normal supportive father, whom they weren't afraid to show off their singing and playing to?

a talented person who gets no support or succor from her family will go outside to get it, and at a higher level of need.

Exactly my thought. I think about the class clown who goes on to be a rich/famous standup comic. When they give interviews it often turns out that besides the obvious talent, there's always some kind of emotional need that's getting filled. Usually related to a family trauma of some kind. At the very least a parental divorce. Someone else might be just as funny/talented, but that happy well-adjusted person is making everyone laugh around the dinner table at Thanksgiving. She's not compelled to kill herself in bars across the country trying to get drunk strangers to laugh, because her parents were abusive/neglectful freaks.

I agree completely. All this man's abuse did was create a downward spiral...and it's fortunate that MJ was able to rise above it professionally, his brothers not so much. It's just too bad that his personal life had to suffer, if anything partially by the hands of people who were equally doomed by that jerk of a father. A vicious vicious cycle.

If crappy childhoods equate to success later in life, I will rule the Universe...

"Better" art? I doubt it. But misery will make the victim look inwardly - for some sort of escape - and from that source will come creativity, and from there, art. Art is self-expression - physical or mental - and without that expression, misery will take over and envelop like a parasite.

I think encouraging a talent is the only thing a parent needs to do. You might need to remind them of *practice* but even that shouldn't be forced down their throat.

[this is good]

Late to this party, sowwy... Papa Mozart's reputation as an abusive parent is undeserved and vastly exaggerated, but thanks to the popularity of Amadeus, it has stuck. You might find this article I wrote a few years back interesting.

The tortured artist

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