Behind the Mask (song)

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Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of an author, artist or composer when they create a certain work?

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Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of an author, artist or composer when they create a certain work?
It could be defined as the efficient use of psychological theory to turn a subject’s life into a coherent and enlightening story.

In his article The Psychology of Artistic Creativity: With Reference to Arthur Miller and The Crucible, he shared that the playwright was well aware of the personal burden he had placed in his work.
His famous work, The Crucible, tells a story that takes place during the 17th-century trials of women accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
By that time, Miller, who was married, had already met Marilyn Monroe and was fascinated by the actress.

In the story, a father harshly sentences his son to death by drowning, a wish that the son fulfils by throwing himself into the river.
In his Letter to his Father, published a few years later, Kafka reproaches him precisely for the emotional abuse he suffered, among other things.

He usually did so by making mistakes in the lyrics or by laughing while singing it.
In other words, the mistakes Elvis made seemed to have a psychological explanation behind them: Elvis was protecting himself.
The singer was very afraid of loneliness throughout his life, and this made it difficult for him to sing the song.

In my psychobiographical research on the figure of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), it was very difficult to find an obvious transfer of his story to his work.
Beethoven suffered multiple illnesses, some more serious than others.
Although he treated all of these with a stoic attitude, on one occasion he did believe that he was dying.