Bruce Springsteen Battled Depression, Author Asserts
Bruce Springsteen has battled depression, wrote author David Remnick in a New Yorker profile. In the 1980s, "The Boss" struggled with suicidal feelings and major depression- facts confirmed by Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa.
Bruce's depression "didn't scare me," Scialfa told Remnick, "because I suffered from depression myself. I knew what that was about. Clinical depression-I knew what that was about. I felt very akin to him."
Springsteen's skyrocket to fame was what potentially caused the depression, biographer Dave Marsh told the New Yorker.
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"The depression wasn't shocking, per se. He was on a rocket ride, from nothing to something, and now you are getting you're a-- kissed day and night. You might start to have some inner conflicts about your real self-worth," Marsh explained.
Of course, one other factor that could have influenced Springsteen's mental health was his family history. Springsteen told Remnick he was afraid of being linked to "the thread of mental instability that ran through his family … that fear, he says, is why he never did drugs."
According to Springsteen, his father seemed to have bipolar tendencies and refused to take medication.
"My parents' struggles, it's the subject of my life," he explained. "It's the thing that eats at me and always will … Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose."
In order to deal with the intense feelings and events in his life, Springsteen turned to music and therapy. He has met regularly with a therapist since 1982, Remnick asserts, and has used his concerts as another outlet for his emotions.
"With all artists, because of the undertow of history and self-loathing, there is a tremendous push toward self-obliteration that occurs onstage," Springsteen explained. "There's a tremendous finding of the self while also an abandonment of the self at the same time. You are free of yourself for those hours; all the voices in your head are gone … There's no room for them."
Springsteen will have the opportunity to free himself while on his latest tour, which will kick off in Boston on Aug. 14.
