Was John Haunted By His Inner Emptiness? | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Billy Rhythm said

John was a Dreamer, he dreamt away to escape from the reality of his life (“Living is easy with eyes closed, Misunderstanding all you see”).  The ability to physically manifest his dreams through his art and music was his therapy, the Primal Scream Therapy was just a temporary extreme measure that helped get him back on track after being somewhat forced to “face his demons” after being finally freed from the chains of being someone that he wasn’t for a very long time, and being just John as opposed to being Beatle John for the first time since his youth in 1970 (“I was the Walrus but now I’m John”) was quite a traumatic experience for him, as any abrupt change if even for the better can be (such as quitting smoking).  Psychotherapy likely wouldn’t have worked out at all for John Lennon , any Psychotherapist could learn far more from John then he could ever from them because Lennon learned his valued life lessons from unimaginable experiences that they could never learn through any Psychology Educational Institution.

 

His “Inner Emptiness” drove him, he channeled it through positive means for both himself and countless others, I’m not sure that “Haunted” is the right word here.  If some of John’s best work appears to be dark or reflections of his “Inner Emptiness”, it’s perhaps that because when things were going well for him he was too busy enjoying himself and couldn’t be bothered to stop and write it all down.  I’d reckon that he was quite fulfilled inside on many fronts and made conscious efforts to counter his shortfalls or mistakes made along the way.  When Sean was born, he knew deep down that he had to do a better job at Fatherhood, and knew full well exactly the negative impact of playing the game as a Beatle had had on his strained relationship with Julian, he vowed to do it differently right from the outset and turning a negative experience into a positive is absolutely a sure sign of someone who’s come to terms with himself.  He appeared to learn from mistakes made during his first marriage as well and chose to do things differently with Yoko.  Many believe that his Peace Campaigns were inspired from his pension for violence at an earlier age, this appears to me to be a man who not only didn’t require professional help, but could help show many others a thing or two about “confronting your demons” as effectively as he did…:-)     

I thought of clipping out some of BR’s post in my quoting of it, but, dang, it works so well as a whole.

Perhaps no one could have be a psychotherapist to John, but imagine if you could have given John some help when he “opened up the doors” and asked someone to please, please help him to get his feet back on the ground. How would you have helped him? What would you have said to him? Suggested to him to do?

This thread fascinates me.

Not sure where to place this, anyone with a better idea please let it be known and i’ll get it it shifted.

A shanghaidaily.com feature looks at a new book titled ‘The Making of John Lennon ‘ (to be published on the 28th November 2014) which examines John’s childhood and all that happened as he grew up, and how much it contributed to his and the Beatles success.

In a recent Billboard interview, Paul had this to say about John and the song Help !

After two years of breakneck recording and touring, Lennon was unhappy in his marriage to his former college sweetheart and stuffed with drugs. Tasked with writing a song for The Beatles’ second film, he began to erase the band’s merry, dashing veneer with “Help !” “I turned up at John’s house for a writing session,” recalls McCartney, “and saw the opportunity to add a descant [melody in the second verse]. We finished it quite quickly; we went downstairs and sang it to John’s wife at the time, Cynthia, and a journalist he was friendly with called Maureen Cleave. We were very pleased with ourselves.”

Lennon later said, “I was fat and depressed, and I was crying out for help,” though he also masked his misery with the song’s chirpy tempo. Adds McCartney, “He didn’t say, ‘I’m now fat and I’m feeling miserable.’ He said, ‘When I was younger, so much younger than today.’ In other words, he blustered his way through. We all felt the same way. But looking back on it, John was always looking for help. He had [a paranoia] that people died when he was around: His father left home when John was 3, the uncle he lived with died later, then his mother died. I think John’s whole life was a cry for help.”

Yes, I think he was haunted by his inner emptiness. Often. Strongly. Sadly.