“Cobain: Montage of Heck” and “Amy” -- two documentaries

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

The problem of substance use/abuse in young people as a way of dealing with depression/emptiness has once again reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.  It is an extremely difficult problem to “solve” even with professional help, and often entails a life-long battle.  Two recent documentaries painfully illustrate this issue:  “Cobain: Montage of Heck” and “Amy.” 

Painful to watch, the movies offer largely unfettered views of Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse’s emptiness/soul searching which, combined with their wonderful voices, allowed them to be stars—but also proved their ultimate undoing.   

Both movies are worth a view, IMO, if only to witness what is going on now, minus the stardom, all over the country.


Richard

[Ales2]

Interesting. I have not see the documentary "Amy", Ive seen trailers, but did see a documentary on BBC/Ch. 5 about her. That documentary basically explains her soul searching started with music and after she fired her managers she lost weight, got tattoos, did the beehive/eyeliner look and found the guy who led her into drinking and drugs. When he went to jail, she could not cope alone. That started her downward spiral ending in her death.  I saw it about a week after getting the "borderline personality diagnosis" and maybe I'm biased, but thats what I felt Amy was - a classic borderline. Emptiness, insecure sense of self, self harm/cutting, multiple substance addictions, eating disordered, mood unstable, unstable relationships, angry outbursts, impulsive behavior and in such extreme ways on a daily basis.

Dr. G - did you get any sense she was borderline? As a guess, I know you can only offer a limited opinion since she was not a patient.

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi Ales,

From the documentary, IMO, there is no way of discerning whether Amy Winehouse had a Borderline Personality Disorder.  Empty, yes.  Prone to attach to people who appear to have Narcissistic Personality Disorders?  Yes.  Bulimic?  Depressed?  Yes.  Prone to substance abuse?  Yes.

For me, the quality of a person’s attachment to others is one of the keys to “diagnosing” Borderline Personality Disorder.  There is a black and white quality to these attachments:  the other person in the relationship can shift from all good to all bad, and then back again.  There is no nuanced, good and bad characterization of other people.   As a result, a person with Borderline Personality Disorder frequently wreaks havoc on the lives of the people they are closest to.

If we were shown in the documentary more of what went on in Amy’s relationship with her mother, friends, and brother--who, perhaps (since we have no way of knowing) were the "healthier" people in her life--we might be able to make a more educated guess.

I hope this helps.

Richard

[Ales2]

Hi Dr. G,

Thanks for the response and your comments. I respect your opinion.

I saw the documentary tonight and what impacted me was the very clear abandonment by the father at age 9, she was bulimic, on anti-depressants already at 15,  bored with school,  was promiscuous and using drugs already as a teen, long before the pressures of fame.  I also thought the lyrics in her music had the black and white quality of relationships and how quickly she fell apart when the relationships ended. The father bothered me, first he abandons her and then shows up when there was extra money and exotic vacations included.   That was sickening. Of course, documentaries are not psychiatric evaluations, so only a guess.

Have a great weekend, thanks Dr. G.

[Meh]

Haven't watched them but will keep them in mind if I feel up for it. There were some video clips about Amy and some articles I read that are just terrifyingly sad to me.