High achievers with f**ked up childhoods

[XidiouX]

Hi All,

I'm not enough of a social psychologist to theorize confidently, not even at the peak of Mt. Stupid on the Dunning-Kruger graph, about this. And what is this? Well, it's an observation I've made that many of my musical heroes have had severely f**ked-up childhoods, I mean really severely, often involving the death of one or more parents/other close family members and/or some kind of abuse. Just off the top of my head we have David Bowie, Madonna, Siouxsie Sioux and Nick Cave. And how often do I hear about such and such a celebrity having been abused or had some other truly awful experiences when they were a kid? And then there's Andrew Eldritch. Publicly known details are sparse but by all accounts his childhood was thoroughly rotten.

My question is: is this just me being a pattern-seeking organism doing my pattern-seeking thing, or is there a genuine phenomenon here? Is there a link between having had a ghastly childhood and later going on to be a high achiever, especially in the arts? I do feel a cod-psychologist temptation to suggest that these are highly-damaged people who are desperate for the love they were denied as children. Could be? I don't know, I'll just offer that as a possibility. What do you think?

[GC]

Hi All,

I'm not enough of a social psychologist to theorize confidently, not even at the peak of Mt. Stupid on the Dunning-Kruger graph, about this. And what is this? Well, it's an observation I've made that many of my musical heroes have had severely f**ked-up childhoods, I mean really severely, often involving the death of one or more parents/other close family members and/or some kind of abuse. Just off the top of my head we have David Bowie, Madonna, Siouxsie Sioux and Nick Cave. And how often do I hear about such and such a celebrity having been abused or had some other truly awful experiences when they were a kid? And then there's Andrew Eldritch. Publicly known details are sparse but by all accounts his childhood was thoroughly rotten.

My question is: is this just me being a pattern-seeking organism doing my pattern-seeking thing, or is there a genuine phenomenon here? Is there a link between having had a ghastly childhood and later going on to be a high achiever, especially in the arts? I do feel a cod-psychologist temptation to suggest that these are highly-damaged people who are desperate for the love they were denied as children. Could be? I don't know, I'll just offer that as a possibility. What do you think?

My first thought (and quickly written - in my defence) is that you could search and find a damaging episode in most people's childhood. I would also suggest that Nick and AE etc did not have ghasty childhoods just a bit of bad luck. As another counterpoint how many people have had a s**t childhood and have not become artists.

You do raise interesting questions though.

[Whenevernight]

I am f**king up my children's childhoods: harsh love - when they achieve greatness I expect gratitude for all that I denied them.

[eastmidswhizzkid]

i had a f**ked up childhood and i am famous for 'acheiving' as little as i possibly could.

@Whenevernight welcome to Heartland.