Lucy in the Mind 0f Lennon Take this man with this personality, let him age some, and then give him dozens upon dozens ofdoses ofa powerful hallucinogenic drug whose documented effects include psychotic-like symptoms, destabilization ofidentity and defense mechanisms, and increased access tO long-standing but Oåen suppressed emotional conflicts. Just tO make sure that the man is suffciently stirred up, at the same time as he is regularly taking this drug, stress him further by sub- Jecting him tO massive public criticism, by threatening his li 応 , and by having him stop one of the primary activities that had for years organized his work 1 飛 . Together, the drugs and stresses will increase the strength and accessibility Of the man's beliefs about relationships and his feelings about his mother's death at the very time that he has ℃ r psychological resources than usual tO cope with these conflicts. ln the midst of this confusing and diffcult time, present the man with a picture drawn by a young boy. Have the young boy be the man s son, and have the boy's name be a melding of the man s own name and that 0f his dead mother's. Have the young boy be of approximately the same age that the man had been when he himself experienced the first prolonged separation om his own mother. Top this 0 伍 by having the picture the boy draws be of a girl in the sky, so as to remind the man ofa powerful female who is "above him," diffcult [ 0 reach, or possibly even in heaven. D0ing so will increase the likelihood that when this boy gives the man this picture, the concerns abOLIt relationships and about hiS death that have become increasingly accessible in the man S mind , i11 become even insistent. Add C010r [ 0 the mans reactions tO this picture by bringing to his mind a poem he had read as a child and that he had been 88

T H E P RO B L E M hen the Beatles released their album 2 孕カ 0 〃み 夜召イ in the late spring of 1967 , fans and crit- ics alike were quick to find references [ 0 drugs throughout the LP. The album's deliriously decorated jacket featured mariJuana plants in the garden behind which the Beatles stood. Thelyrics of 曻分ん 4 石なん〃どゆ。外り片 / 法 , カみな , andA Day 切どカ all referred to marijuana, mentioning getting "high" and taking some tea, as well a desire [ 0 turn you on. " And tuned-in listeners easily connected the feelings, sensations, and visions people typi- cally experience while on hallucinogenic drugs to the dreamlike imagery of カ〃ヮ切ど Sky 功 D 0 〃法 . Some clever listeners even pointed out that the song's title shares the initials Of the hal- lucinogen LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). The BeatIes had no doubt contributed to the perception that . 孕ア確 was indeed a piece of hippie propaganda for halluci- nogenic partying ・ Around the time the album was released, Paul McCartney revealed in a カ ~ magazine interview that he had been using mar リ uana and LSD. McCartney even went 0 Ⅱ tO extOl the virtues ofLSD, claiming that it had brought him closer [ 0 God and would yield world peace ifonly politicians would try it. Soon after, JOhn Lennon, George Harrison, and the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein also admitted that they had used LSD. Later that summer, 1

R E C 甲 E F 0 R A S 0 N G egin With a man " hO has been carrying within him since hiS earliest years a particular set ofbeliefs about relationships. His experience with his parents throughout his childhood and adoles- cence taught this man that one cannot confidently rely on rela- tionships, as, for him, painful separation almost inevitably follows from union. At the same time that he holds these beliefs, this man has a more desperate yearning for connection With Other people than does the average person, needing relationships to help soothe him during the many times when he feels bad. And when his rela- tionships failto work well ⅲ this regard, he often turns [ 0 drugs as a means ofnumbing himselfand escaping from his reality. Add to the mix ofthese concerns a deep and abiding sense of IOSS from his mother's accidental death when he was a teenager, an event that reinforced his beliefs about relationships, given that it occurred not long aåer he had regained contact with her following years ofseparation. Ensure that between the norms of his culture, the stoicism and strange responses Of his extended family to his mother's death, and his own tough guy image, the man copes with his grief by continually pushing aside the sadness and anger he feels. Given his particular psychic struc- ture, these attempts at suppression ironically keep those feelings quite alive in his mind. 87

90 Lucy in the Mind 0f Lennon emotional content and is Of the sort that people Often use when they are trying [ 0 protect and distance themselves 伝 01 れ the here and now,. Although the man has 、 vritten about hiS emotions in past songs without using such distanced language, at this par- ticular point in time he is struggling with memories and feelings about his mother and her death, and his long-entrenched strategy for avoiding these concerns emerges. AS such, in the song's lyrics that he previously used when he had explicitly described hiding from his feelings and being fake, and he writes thelyrics in a style that helps him evade the strong feelings about his mother that he has not yet been able [ 0 resolve. Despite these efforts, the diffculties ofthe past few months and the lure of the boy's drawing will have given such strength to the underlying memories and feelings about his mother and her death that the man also finds himself drawn to words he had previously used in songs concerning the IOSS Of relationships and a desire for union. S01 れ e Ofthe words he uses in the lyrics will reflect the ambiv- alence he feels about , 01 れ en , given the way his mother sometimes loved him but at other times ignored and abandoned him. Other words will reflect the loneliness and depression with which he has long struggled. And ⅵⅡ other words will be connected in his mind with the idea ofdeath. And as the man sets his lyrics tO music, his mind will gravitate toward the same kind Of sounds, musical structures, and musi- cal phrases that he had heard, sung, and played on his piano and guitar when he had previously written about the kind ofthemes that were occupying his mind while writing this song ・ As such, he chooses a key signature, background chord progressions, and

26 Lucy in the Mind of Lennon arranging the fundamental ideas back into the order in which they , ould have occurred in real time. 市 ile the scripts that result 丘 om this process might reflect concerns that are pressing a at a particular moment, they can also reveal fundamental themes and ideas that are basic t0 a person's "identity story. " Consider, for example, how Amy Demorest and PauI SiegeI used scripting to understand the iden- tity ofthe famous American behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. Demorest and Siegel began their investigation with the first para- graph of Skinner's three-volume autobiography, ルな / 翩なイ The Susquehanna River, named for an lroquois tribe, rises ⅲ Otsego Lake in New York State. lt flows southwest and south and crosses intO l)ennsylvania a few miles belo 、 the town Of Windsor. AImost at once it meets a foothill of the Alleghenies, which proves unbreachable, and it abandons 1tS southern course, SWings west and north, and returns [ 0 the hospitable plains of New York state. lt flows west past Binghamton and Owego and tackles Pennsylvania again at a more vulnerable POint. ThiS time it succeeds and, picking up the support Of a large western branch, continues south past the state capital of Harrisburg and into Maryland and Chesapeake Bay, and so at last into the AtIantic Ocean. Taking a narrative approach helps one recognize that Skinner started his autobiography with a little story about a river. Demorest and Siegel therefore considered the river to be the

143 and Schaffner ( 1978 ). %ese sources do not agree in every respect, and so I tried tO take the most conservative interpretation Of events and tO note disagreements when they seemed relevant. lfspecific statements 、 vere made by particular biographers but not widely replicated across sources, I have cited them below. Goldman ( 1988 , pp. 29 ー 30 ) claims thatJulia often le 丘 Lennon alone when he は S an infant. Lennon's long quote about Julia'S death and Shottons quote about Lennons emotionalresponse are from Davies ( 1978 , pp. 48 ー 49. ) Cynthia Lennon s quote about how Lennon's family coped with Julia's death is from Lennon ( 2005 , p. 46 ) ; it is reprinted by permission of Random House, lnc. incident about Lennons response [ 0 a Ⅱ 0 " student is reported in Norman ( 2008 , p. 153 ). Attachment theory was firstsystematically presented by Bowlby ( 1969 / 1982 , 1973 , 1980 ) and substantially expanded and tested Ainsworth (). g. , Ainsworth, 1964 ; Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978 ). More recent overviews Of theoretical advancements and the burgeoning empirical literature can be found in Cassidy & Shaver ( 1999 ) and Mikulincer & Shaver ( 2007 ). Some particularly useful sources for specific claims made in this section are Hazan & Shaver ( 1987 ) ; Kassel, Wardle, & Roberts ( 2007 ) ; and Weinfield, Sroufe, Egeland, & Carlson ( 1999 ). Statements ono and Pang made concerning Lennons insecurity can be found, for example, in Giuliano & Giuliano ( 1996 , pp. 168 and 214 ). Cynthia Lennon S perspective on hisjealousy and insecurity can be found in multiple places within her 2005 book, including pp. 3 , 25 , 26 , and 37. Lennon s statement that he needed drugs to survive is 仔 om Wenner ( 1971 , p. 82 ). some important theoretical work on grief and the importance Of expressing one's emotions includes Freud ( 1917 / 1957 ) , Rand0 ( 1993 ) , Stroebe & Schut ( 1999 ) , and Worden ( 2001 ). Specific findings cited here include work by Pennebaker, Zech, & Rime ( 2001 ) and Schut, Stroebe, & van den Bout ( 1997 ). General information about the ways ⅲ which people's SOCial surroundings influence hOW they cope With negative emotions can be found in Cooper ( 1998 ) and Hochschild ( 1979 ). Notes on the Text

THE MAN, HIS RECENT PAST, AND HIS SON'S 円 CTURE 65 His reunion with JuIia did not last long, as within weeks the young Lennon had moved into the quiet middle-class home ofhis childless Aunt 、石 1 れ i. Explanations ofthis event vary,. S01 れ e stories suggest that Julia willingly handed her son over [ 0 Mimi; others portray the change as being brought on by child-welfare offcials disturbed by the boy's home situation; and still others claim that Mimi essentially stole Lennon afterJuIia came to her home b100d - ied 丘 om a beating by Dykins. Whatever combination of events actually occurred, Lennon spent the bulk of his childhood and adolescence living with his stern and structured Aunt Mimi and his passive but affable Uncle George. Aunt Mimi did her best to instill middle-class behaviors and ideals intO her young charge, insisting on regular meals and baths, as well as proper manners. She also exposed him to classi- cal music, religion, and a library ofBritish literature, including the Lewis Carroll books thatlater helped inspire カ 4 ヮ切坊ど Sky ル勗 の and other songs. While he did take in some of what Mimi tried tO teach him, Lennon S mischievous sometimes aggressive streak still emerged in SChOOl and in hiS romps around the neighborhood with friends. He picked up the habits oftres- passing and shopliåing, as ℃Ⅱ as an acerbic, sometimes ViCious, tongue. He was in almost constant trouble at SChOOl for various offenses, Oåen for cutting classes. And as he entered his teen years, he discovered bo 市 sex and popular music. Lennon's burgeoning love for Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and other singers of the early rock-and-roll era was scorned by Aunt Mimi bu い upported by his mother. 市 ile he had seen relatively little ofJulia in the years after he moved in with Mimi and George,

T H E S TO RY umans have claimed any number Of distinctions between our species and Other animals: our upright POSture, our opposable thumbs, our use of complex language, our use 0 001S , our invention ofagriculture, and our self-awareness. Little by little, these supposed distinctions have been eroded by research show- ing that other primates stand upright and use their thumbs like we do; that gorillas, dogs, and some species of birds have reasonably large vocabularies and can comprehend the complexities Of S01 れ e grammatical rules; that chimpanzees, crows, and Otters make and use tOOls; that ants farm and raise livestock; and that bottlenose dolphins, elephants, and the great apes recognize themselves in a nurror. There is one distinction that has thus far StOOd the test oftime, however: human beings are the animals WhO tell fictional stories. our species seems [ 0 have begun creating and appreciating nar- ratives thousands Of years ago When our ancestors sat in caves or around campfires using protolanguages [ 0 share the details of their days. Eventually the tendency tO create a narrative with a P10 [ and characters led tO stories about everything from the origin of the stars in the sky to how the little boy who wandered alone intO the WOOdS was eaten by the bogeyman. Stories like 23

144 Notes on the Text ・ lhe summary Of the literature about grief and anxious- ambivalent attachment comes from Fraley & Shaver ( 1999 , p. 742 ) , and the study cited soon after is Fraley & Shaver ( 1997 ). Lennons quote about the end of touring can be found ⅲ Norman ( 2008 , pp. 454 ー 455 ). Lennons quotes about the effects of LSD on his ego and psyche are from Wenner ( 1971 , pp. 40 ー 41 and 77 ー 78 ). Reviews ofthe effects ofLSD and LSD-based therapy can be found inJohnson, Richards, & Griffths ( 2008 ) and Vollenweider & Kometer ( 2010 ). Less formal summaries are available at http://www.erowid・ org/chemicals/lsd/, and http : / /www..emcdda・europa ・ eu/publications/drug-profiles/lsd, and h[[P://嶬第解 . narconon. ca/LSD. htm. Lennons response [ 0 the ne 、 ofCynthia's pregnancy, her description Oftheir 、 vedding, and her characterization Of Lennon as present but absent" can be found on pp. 91 , 96 , and 150 ofLennon ( 2005 ) ; quotes are reprinted by permission ofRandom House, Inc. Lennon s quote regarding Julian's conception is from Sheff ( 2000 , p. 63 ) , and is reprinted by permission OfSt. Martin's Press. Julian's drawing can be seen on the cover ofhis 2009 EP, カ 4 ヮ (Lennon, 2009 ). lhe poem that came to Lennons mind is from Carroll ( 2008 , p. 245 ). C H A P T E R 8 vacillation described understood numerous ways. example, Freud ( 1923 / 1960 ) would view it as a battle between the expressive desires Ofthe id and the defensive strictures Ofthe ego. MaSlOW ( 1956 ) would see it as a mix ofthe opposing motives towards growth and defense. The idea that ambivalence is fundamental tO the change p rocess is basic tO the approach kno 、 as 0 レ 4 0 〃ツ / 〃レル / 〃 developed and described byMiller & Rollnick ( 2002 ). Finally, these varyingmotives could be understood as reflective Of the defensive, expressive, and restitutive functions ofwriting described by Elms ( 1994 ). I undertookthesameprocesshere as describedin the notes tochapter6 regarding the events 丘 om Lennon's life that are related in this chapter. I relied in particular on Everett ( 1999 ) and MacDonald ( 1994 ) for information concerning the background on the songs described in this chapter ・

ADVANCEPRAISEFORLUCY IN THE MIND OFLENNON " 旧 this unique analysis, Tim Kasser puts a famous and enigmatic BeatIes song under the psychological microscope. Bringing methods to bear from linguistics, cognitive science, music theory, and the study Of attachment, Kasser probes deeply intO the life and the SO Of 」 Ohn Lennon. His little book shines as bright as a diamond in the (strawberry) field Of psychological biography. " Dan P. McAdams, Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology and Director of the Foley Center for the Study Of Lives, Northwestern University, and author of George Ⅳ Bush and the Redemptive Dream "Tim Kasser's in-depth study of Lucy in the Sky ⅲ物 Diamonds brings a fresh and thought-provoking approach tO a well-known and oft-discussed Beatles song. While most scholars and critics have come at this song from the point of view Of musical analysis or biography ()r both), Kasser's readings rely principally on methods drawn from the field of psychology. The interpretations in Lucy in the Mind Of Lennon open up new ways tO think about meaning in popular music. JOhn Covach, Professor of Music, University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music "This is an outstanding work, a wonderfully rich and synthetic portrait. Tim Kasser artfully employs some of the latest scientific methods for studying individuallives tO illuminate the complex meanings behind Lennon's song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds and its place in Lennon's life history. He has an engaging, conversational style Of writing that draws the reader in, SO that we're traveling partners sharing a fascinating journey of exploration into Lennon's inner world. Amy Demorest, Professor of Psychology, Amherst College L U C Y I N T H M I N D 0 P L E N N 0 N KASSER point tO the usefulness of scientific psychology for understanding why a particular person does a particular thing at a particular time, at the same time that they shed new light on this fascinating and controversial man. 料 M KASSER is professor of Psychology at Knox CoIIege. His publications include The High Price of Materialism (MIT Press, 2002) and many scientific articles and book chapters. Tim enjoys playingthe piano (including blues and BeatIes' songs), interpreting dreams, and spending time with his family at their home in the western lllinois countryside. S I N C J 0 H N L E N N 0 N C 0 M P 0 S D Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in early 1967 , fans and music critics alike have argued over the meaning Of the song. it about drugs? itjust a lyrical response tO a drawing given Lennon by his 4-year-old son 」 ulian? there some deeper meaning? Professor Tim Kasser goes beyond speculative explanations by applying innovative psychological methods tO the song's lyrics and music. He deeply analyzes the song's linguistic structure, its basic theme, and the way its words and music had been used by Lennon in earlier songs. As the findings accumulate, Kasser weaves them together with the facts Of Lennon's life and established psychological theories tO provide an integrative (and sometimes surprising) perspective on the psychological processes thatled Lennon tO write Lucy ⅲ the Sky with Diamonds. Kasser goes on tO fOllOW the unfolding ofthese personal dynamics in later Lennon songs like ー am the Walrus, Yer Blues, and Working Class Hero. NO Other bOOk has SO closely examined this periOd Of Lennon's life with such a sophisticated psychological approach. Kasser's methods and perspective OXFORD VNIVERSITY PRESS Ⅵ′、 V 、 V. oup.com 料 M K A S S E R ISBN 978-0-19-974760-3 9 し S. $ 22.95 COVER IMAGE: MARVIN LICHTNER / TIME LIFE 円 CTURES / GETTY IMAGES COVER DESIGN: BRADY MCNAMARA CO UED 0 8 C 日 P