# Psychology (in) Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308 "2008-01-28T14:47:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/21 "2008-01-28T18:49:49Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] Roky Erickson & the 13th Floor Elevators – similar issues with mental illness and drug use, with the added elements of Satan-worship (at least for Roky himself) and liberal use of the water jug as a musical instrument. '60’s Texas psychedelia was never more complex – or delightfully strange – than this. No particular songs to recommend OTTOMH, though. [/QUOTE] There’s always Roky’s “You Drive Me Crazy” or “Crazy Crazy Mama.” 🙂 Oo, google says Britney Spears has a song called “You Drive Me Crazy.” Bet it’s not a Roky Erickson cover. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/22 "2008-01-28T19:32:16Z")
The entire Alan Parsons Project/Eric Woolfson concept album [“Freudiana”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freudiana) is about the life, theories, and patients of Sigmund Freud. Pretty much every song on it applies to psychology in one way or another. A number of Assemblage 23’s songs are to some degree or another about psychological disorders. In addition to the previously mentioned “Cocoon,” there’s also “Disappoint,” “Bipolar,” and probably more. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/23 "2008-01-28T19:32:20Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] Syd Barrett: this original member (and songwriter) of Pink Floyd ended up in a mental hospital… for life. Barrett’s perhaps the epitome of the '60’s acid casualty, but lots of people did a lot of acid without ending up in the nuthouse. You might want to check out a solo album of his, **The Madcap Laughs**. I’m not familiar enough with his music to know whether his songs are at all about mental illness or rather manifestations of mental illness (however reductive that formulation is). [/QUOTE] Pink Floyd’s \*Shine on You Crazy Diamond _is about Syd and his breakdown. Here is a sample: \* Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light. Shine on you crazy diamond. Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the steel breeze. Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!_ ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/24 "2008-01-28T19:57:35Z")
The Alan Parson’s Project also had Psychobabble. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/25 "2008-01-28T20:19:15Z")
[QUOTE=ShadowFacts] Pink Floyd’s \*Shine on You Crazy Diamond \*is about Syd and his breakdown. Here is a sample: [/QUOTE] Just about everything from Floyd’s middle period is about mental illness. (And the craziness of the music industry.) Gentle Giant’s _Knots_ was inspired by the poetry of psychologist RD Laing. All in all each man in all men All men in each man. He can see she can’t, she can see she can see whatever, whatever. You may know what I don’t know, but not that I don’t know it and I can’t tell you so you will. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/26 "2008-01-28T21:58:07Z")
“. . . a victim of Munchausen syndrome my whole life I was made to believe I was sick when I wasn’t 'til I grew up . . .” –rapper Eminem, in “Cleaning Out My Closet” ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/27 "2008-01-28T22:31:01Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] A couple of quick-'n-dirty references (in-depth song researches extra!): Syd Barrett: this original member (and songwriter) of Pink Floyd ended up in a mental hospital… for life. [/QUOTE] Incorrect. > [@](#): > > The circumstances of his final return to Cambridge were rightly interpreted by his family as a ‘cry for help’ and he agreed to spend a spell in Fulbourne psychiatric hospital. (It has often been said, on the grounds that he has an ‘odd’ mind, rather than a sick one.) He continued for a while as an outpatient at Fulbourne, with no trouble. > > Barrett has never been sectioned. He has never had to take drugs for his mental health, except after one or two uncontrollable fits of anger, when he was admitted to Fulbourne and administered Largactyl. However, he has received other treatments. In the early 80s, he spent two years in a charitable institution, Greenwoods, in Essex. At this halfway house for lost souls, he joined in group and other forms of therapy, and was very content. But after an imagined slight, he walked out - again all the way to Win’s (his mother’s) house. The increasingly frail Win moved in with her daughter Roe and her husband Paul Breen, according to Mary Waters, ‘because she was so scared of his outbursts’. [Link](http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/artsandentertainment/story/0,,804958,00.html). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/28 "2008-01-28T22:35:55Z")
[QUOTE=pravnik] “Synchronicity” by the Police, about Jungian theory. [/QUOTE] Also **“Shadows in the Rain”** by **The Police** , based on the [Jungian concept of the shadow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)). And from **“Bitch”** by **The Rolling Stones** : _Yeah when you call my name I salivate like a Pavlov dog_ Oh yeah, and [“I Think I’m Paranoid”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMmoXoJkojA) by **Garbage**. ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/29 "2008-01-28T22:40:08Z")
Peter Gabriel’s “Mercy Street” for Anne Sexton. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/30 "2008-01-28T22:46:54Z")
For pyromania, there’s [While the City Sleeps](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0k-qRDSno) by **MC 900 ft. Jesus** And from **“Industrial Disease”** by **Dire Straits** : _He wrote me a prescription he said “you are depressed but I’m glad you came to see me to get this off your chest come back and see me later - next patient please send in another victim of Industrial Disease”_ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/31 "2008-01-28T22:47:46Z")
_The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)_ Fun Boy Three ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/32 "2008-01-28T23:06:00Z")
Radford “[Therapy (I Don’t Need You](http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=32693))” is about resenting the need to be helped through medication & a therapist. \*Medicate my world And everything in between So much for the time that we spent in my head So much for the life that you told me to get I don’t need you To tell me who I am \ I just need you To catch me if I fall\* Jimmy Eat World “[Bleed American](http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=32693)” _I’m not crazy cause I take the right pills everyday_ All “[Scary Sad](http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3530822107858536180)” is about trying to deal with a suicidal girlfriend _None of the doctors could find a cure Just a scary, sad girl in a scary, sad world None of the shrinks could make her think About anyone else but her_ ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/33 "2008-01-28T23:12:27Z")
[QUOTE=SiXSwordS] Nick Cave has a song called, Christina the Astonishing, about the saint. She had some issues! [/QUOTE] Also by Nick Cave, the [http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/n/nickcave10713/themercyseat343540.html](http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/n/nickcave10713/themercyseat343540.html) doesn’t mention a specific mental illness but the POV character has serious issues indeed. I’d bet a lot of Nick Cave’s work falls into this category. On another note, [They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!](http://it.stlawu.edu/~x0tsing/takeaway.htm) is a “funny” novelty song that I’ve always found disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Redfrost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@Redfrost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redfrost)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/34 "2008-01-28T23:21:30Z")
Many of the songs by Tool are based on Psychology-AEnema, Forty-six & 2, Third Eye, Lost Keys (Blame it on Hoffman), Rosetta Stoned, The Grudge (also mixes in alchemy). ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/35 "2008-01-28T23:27:43Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] Also by Nick Cave, **the [http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/n/nickcave10713/themercyseat343540.html](http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/n/nickcave10713/themercyseat343540.html)** doesn’t mention a specific mental illness but the POV character has serious issues indeed. [/QUOTE] **The Mercy Seat** ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/36 "2008-01-29T00:37:33Z")
You’ll love Robyn Hitchcock’s “Uncorrected Personality Traits,” which begins _Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child may prove to be ugly in a fully grown adult. Lack of involvement with the father, or over-involvement with the mother, can result in lack of ability to relate to sexual peers_ …and goes on in this vein. In “Dark Streets of London,” Shane MacGowan of the Pogues takes a more serious look at electroshock than the Ramones: _And every time that I look on the first day of summer Takes me back to the place where they gave ECT And the drugged up psychos with death in their eyes And how all of this really means nothing to me_ Townes Van Zandt (hospitalized for manic depression) wrote the “Sanitarium Blues”: _They hose you down, make sure you’re clean Wrap you up in hospital green Shoot you full of Thorazine The sanitarium blues…_ Singer and artist Daniel Johnston is bipolar, the context is there in a bunch of his songs. Try “Devil Town,” or “Sorry Entertainer”: _I’m a loner I’m a sorry entertainer Drove those demons Out of my head With an organ and a pencil full of lead And when I’m dead I’d like to have it said He drove those demons out of his head_ I highly recommend the documentaries about Townes and Daniel, _Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt_ and _The Devil and Daniel Johnston._ ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/37 "2008-01-29T03:23:51Z")
Joni Mitchell’s **Troubled Child** which segs nicely into **Twisted** (by Ross & Gray): _My analyst told me That I was right out of my head…_ Also, **Mad Mad Me** by Wendy Waldman. ---
**Author:** ![MrFantsyPants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MrFantsyPants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFantsyPants)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/38 "2008-01-29T04:06:02Z")
There’s a great Meryn Cadell song about being in a room with a big mirror, making faces at it, chasing her reflection along the length of it, generally acting a bit goofy. Of course it’s a one-way mirror. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/39 "2008-01-29T05:36:51Z")
What about _Lithium_ by **Nirvana**? Can’t believe I’m the first to mention it. Pretty accurate first person potrayal in metaphysical poetry. If it’s good enough for everready, it must be good for me… Oh, let the Bell Labs Lithium ionsrevitalize me. The shit is like an alchemist’s worst nightmare, psychiatrists should be ashamed of prescribing that. FDNH ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308/40 "2008-01-29T11:45:21Z")
\*\*Mad World \*\*and several others by \*\*Tears for Fears \*\*were about Primal Therapy, some early 1970s **John Lennon** ( **Mother**?) was also influenced by this. Not to mention - **Paranoid - Black Sabbath**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-in-songs/435308.md?page=3)