I’m a huge fan of Placebo and I’m a member of the Institute of Psychosynthesis, a branch of Human Psychology, founded by Roberto Assagioli in 1926. I’m studying to be a counselor.
Since the beginning of their careers I’ve loved the music of the band and thought that somehow Brian represents kind of “psychosynthetic Man”. Very briefly Psychosynthesis refers to the integration and harmonious expression of the totality of our human nature, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. The synthesis occurs around a personal center, the conscious ego, the “I”, so that it is possible a formation or reconstruction of a personality around this center, through the correct use of the will.
In other words, a human being who is in control of every side of his/her personality and through his/her will can direct the whole of the parts towards one common goal, can achieve the task to make the synthesis of the different sides inside, very often opposite each other.
But what is the best way to take the control of the sides if not giving them a voice, listening to them, telling of them, singing of them, expressing them, looking at them as you would be another person, experiencing a kind of empathy for them, finally accepting them and integrating them?
Watching the documentary in the new Placebo dvd “We come in pieces” that intuition about Brian grew even more inside me. When I heard him say the words:
“…The way I can communicate with the world and the way that I communicate with it best, I think, is through the songs. It starts off as a conversation with myself, a sort of self-therapy, an active catharsis. But it’s more than just an exorcism, it’s me trying to understand these emotions, which are troubling inside of me. Somehow I manage by turning it very, very much in on myself, in a very navel-gazing kind of way….”
….suddenly I realized I was the same, the reason I love him so much is that we both pursuit to find the truth in ourselves.
So I started to write this article…
I’m always surprised and puzzled when I hear here and there some people say the last Placebo album, Battle for the sun, is the best album of them because it’s the most optimistic.
This may also be true, but I think Brian and Stefan don’t like to hear the thing. And they surely are right, because saying that last Placebo album is more beautiful because is more optimistic is like to say depressed, lonely, sad, abused people can produce only ugly stuff, or even they haven’t the right to share their lives and their feelings because they are pessimistic then ugly. They better remain silent to not bother happy people. There is the beauty in everything and I personally think the reason for the last album being better is because Placebo are growing as artists and human beings. And let me say that the literature is filled with pessimistic masterpieces (think of novels and poetries written at the war’s periods) and to be optimistic doesn’t assure an artist to make a beautiful work.
Once, when my daughter was only six, I let her listen to Meds. After only a minute she looked at me and said: ”Mum, I’m sorry for you, you are a looser.“ This really left me dazed. She barely knew English so I thought she had learnt that English word “looser” from some Hanna Montana’s stuff she was used to watch.
Saying that sad, depressed, stuck people are loosers and that happy, combative, self confident people are winners is not completely wrong, but… this doesn’t mean one has to deny his/her feelings of weakness or the less pleasant ones just to not look like a looser.
I think it’s part of some culture, which starting from the basic statement that optimism is the foundation for victory, which I agree with, ends with the dangerous statement that everything sad, or depressing, ugly, painful has to be referred to loosers.
Denying a part of us is never a victory. If we have to win, we have to win with all of your sides, positive as well negative.
When you share your feelings and show yourself as you are, when you recognize your weakness, when you are aware of your fears, when you know that you are a looser, you are a winner!
I can understand that at the beginning of his career Brian’s sides which mostly urged to be expressed were the most suffering, the angriest, the most repressed.
If you grew up as abused or alienated child you’ll likely feel stuck in a bad mental frame. It’s not you choose to be pessimist, it’s your experience of life that makes you have a pessimistic vision of the world outside and inside you. With commitment and love, however, you can change your own life and your vision of life. That is you can turn more optimistic.
All the work Brian does on himself, trying to understand the emotions which are troubling inside of him “in a very navel-gazing kind of way” as he says, is likely similar to the work that psychosynthesis suggests.
By listening to his own feelings, discovering every side of his personality and by giving them a voice, by accepting them with the tenderness of a mother, he managed to have the control of them, to synthesize the opposites in order to walk together towards a common goal, his success, that is the full expression of his potential as artist and as human being.
Brian has managed to deal with the conflict of personalities and the unmet needs he experienced in his youth.
You can choose to be optimistic, you can’t choose to be pessimistic. This just happens.
Brian didn’t choose to be pessimistic to look cooler. Depending on his past experiences, since as he referred he grew up as an alienated child, he was likely to reach the age of twenty feeling a pessimistic, angry and sad young man. This doesn’t mean a depressed person doesn’t have the right to share his pain and his negative vision of life, because sharing is a good way to heal one’s wounds. Again he doesn’t do that to look cooler, but because he needs to share to be accepted. Once he has shared he is able to heal himself and gradually is vision of life turns to be more optimistic and positive. Again, he doesn’t choose optimism to be cooler or increase his audience.
Brian never chose to be pessimistic. He just was like that because his heart was hurt and filled with anger. He felt a looser, but never meant to be a looser forever, for in fact all their albums are a search for a way out. And he found it! So he’s a winner, because he felt a looser but at some point he chose to be a winner.
For that reason I disagree with that clinical psychologist who told him once, as Brian says in the documentary, “that because I was an artist, it was likely that I would never be happy, completely.”
This sounds quite a weird thing to say from that psychologist because who can be totally happy forever? As artist Brian wants to share his feelings, he just wants to show himself as he really is. He has some needs, like to receive recognition, to be accepted, to be considered as any other human being, to be loved.
Once he gets respect, appreciation, and he feels reworded and accepted for what he is, once he learns to cope with music industry’s pressures, the press’s attacks, the rock’ n’ roll lifestyle’s false rules, once he gets love from his son, friends and fans, once he gets more freedom through the money honestly gained, once he learnt to cope with his latent sides and the self-sabotage, why shouldn’t he feel happy?
As artist he may be unrest as sitting on a volcano, but this is the foundation for creativity and the urge to always set new goals in life, that is great!
So Brian and Stefan, go on! We love you!
Alexia Meli
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