Psychology. Watching that Beatles doc, (see previous post), made me reflect on my college years when I studied Psychology. I started as an English major, thinking I wanted to be a writer, but then, I got totally burned out reading books that left me bored and lifeless. I was casting about, I thought that I really needed to try to understand Human Beings, I mean if I was gonna write, didn't I need to know what made Human Beings tick? Why did they do the crazy, contradictory, soul-killing things they did? How did Human Beings get so fucked up?
So I ended up majoring in Psychology. I dipped my toes in the subject and got a little bit of Freud, Jung & B.F. Skinner. Lots of pigeons pecking away in little Skinner boxes. That seemed sort of "mad." Probably my favorite class was Abnormal Psychology. Pretty much right on target. And, well, it has come in handy over the years.
I never did anything with my Psychology degree, except, well, live the rest of my time matriculating with Human Beings. It's been an on-going education. Safe to say, abnormal is the normal. Don't really think there are any normal Humans on the planet. We are all twisted and messed up to various degrees.
Some of us are more functional than others. Some of us are supremely dysfunctional. All that is on display in the Beatles doc. Gifted, charismatic, amazing characters, spinning out in various ways. I think it is safe to say that inflated egos with too much money, too much success, too many drugs, no guide-rails, little discipline, no real purpose, way too much time on their hands is just not a healthy way to spend your days.
Great music may still emerge. But there is a cost. Lots of aimless, purposeless Human Wreckage. Funny. Most of the chaos, bad blood, bad behavior, tom-foolery & idiocy is completely unnecessary.
There is the good work to be done.
Sometimes you just have to be humble, do the work, try to be the best you can be, and realize it's not all about you (see Ringo for a good example of this mode of working). Sometimes less is more. And then again, I suppose, more is more too. Hard to argue with The Beatles. They conquered everything in their path. But the doc exposes the wreckage; they really were imploding. Most of their wounds were self-inflicted, but being sealed in the long-running Beatle-mania bubble had psychological consequences. You know they were "captives" of being the "Fab-Four." A blessing and a curse. The end-result, the album "Let It Be" (1970) had some fine moments, but, it's undoubtably the weakest album of their recording career. Abnormal Psychology on display in living color.
