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Charles Bukowski - Intake interview with a celebrity |
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Normative data Henry "Hank" Charles Bukowski is a middle aged German American male currently residing in Southern California. He is employed by the United States Postal Service as a letter sorter, a job held for 8 years. However he considers his true profession as a writer and poet, published in several underground literary magazines, which has given him a cult-like following of young aspiring writers. He has been married once for about 2 ½ years, which ended in a divorce. He has one daughter out of wedlock from a previous relationship with whom he corresponds with through letters and occasional visits. Charles is not in any relationship currently. Summary of presenting problem Breaking the trust of a close father-son-like relationship, Neeli Cherkovski has referred Charles to me for therapy concerning recent suicidal tendencies that came up one evening while he was severely intoxicated. Apparently Charles is a heavy and reckless drinker, going on several day binges of mass quantities of alcohol and reckless behavior. Charles has had a long history of exhibiting behavior to Neeli, friends and authorities which has been described as chronic and destructive alcohol abuse in the form of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. This particular incident was unique however that Charles exhibited noticeably different attitudes of distaste with his life and suggested suicide by "slashing his neck with a dirty razor blade". After an eventful night of babysitting Charles, Neeli decided that perhaps the best thing for Charles was to talk to a professional. Summary of family history Charles "Hank" Bukowski was born in Andernach, Germany to an American Serviceman and a German National just after World War I. The only child in the family, he moved with his father and mother to Los Angeles when he was three years old. Both parents were very demanding and strict with Charles, regulating his dress, diet, behaviors and friends under strict confines. Living a very orderly life, coupled with the lack of parental affection, Charles reported not being close to either of his parents, or any member of his extended family. His mother know little English upon first arriving in America, so she was totally dependent on Charles’s father for support and guidance, which was demanded indefinitely with much verbal force and hostility. He had several uncles and aunts on his father’s side of the family, but his father did not get along with many of them, so his contact with his extended family was limited. Charles’s paternal grandfather was known to have a drinking problem, and his wife Emile was a conservative Baptist. Charles never saw his relatives back in Germany, but heard frequent stories about his maternal great-grandfather, an accomplished musician and a heavy drinker who would play at the local halls for just enough money to keep drinking the remainder of the night away. Charles mentions feelings of detachment from all his family members, especially from his parents, forcing him to become independent at a very early age. Summary of personality traits and interpersonal style Charles is generally a soft-spoken yet articulate man who would initially not give the impression of a reckless alcoholic. Normally very quiet and reserved, he does emit a strong personality that is deeply opinionated and unafraid to speak out if provoked. Extremely independent, Charles is what we might call a "bitter old man" cynical and self-centered, misogynistic and extremely blunt and vulgar at times. He is one that offers several insightful comments and observations on his own life and the world around him, offering at times a taste of his opinionated stance in fiery fashion. He seems to be a thinker, a sort of disgruntled professor, silently observing and assessing situations and interactions. Overview The incident that provoked Neeli to bring Charles to therapy was a drinking bout following an expressive and obscene poetry reading during which Charles had consumed a large quantity of beer and whisky. Charles expressed suicidal plans to Neeli in a drunken stupor and ran into a crowd of pedestrians exposing himself and taunting them to a fight, yelling obscenities. This incident was not too much unlike the several other alcohol binges that Charles has been associated and known for, several years ago he was hospitalized for severe peptic and rectal ulcers caused by chronic alcohol use. Talking with Charles in several sessions revealed a definite motive behind his visible problem of reckless alcohol abuse is his desire of positive human relations. Specifically Charles desires to be close to others, creating mutual relationships based on honesty and trust. Referring back to the night in question that brought him to therapy, Charles stated that he has always felt like an outsider, a “dark horse”, one that cannot be totally understood or accepted by society and people in general. His inability to create mutual caring and loving relationships between his parents and peers has established a definite countering force of rejection. His defiance to authority and personality of detached apathy is one that has reinforced his initial fears of rejection and disapproval. Though he stresses that he doesn’t care about the opinions of others and his acceptance in greater society, his drinking, is all but one of his numerous coping methods that he has developed over the years dealing with this fear. Charles seeks to form close relations to other people (PHR) but has been discouraged by rejection socially, physically and emotionally throughout his life. He has considered himself an outsider since a very early age in many facets of life that has affected his outlook and attitudes, prompting him to develop several coping methods that have their roots in his childhood. 1) A defiant and rebellious attitude (HO) tempered by a controlling stance of cynical apathetic detachment (DM). 2) Self-medicating denial through heavy alcohol use, coupled with projection (HO) through lowered inhibitions. 3) Seeking acceptance and enjoyment from literature (ADAC; neutralization) and projection of his frustrations (HO) through composing prose and poetry. Childhood Childhood for Charles was one that he described as living under an iron curtain of a totalitarian patriarchal system without parental nurturing and love. He attributes his feelings of isolation and neglect as the result of a tyrannical overbearing working class father, and a passive non-confrontational mother. This relationship with his primary caregivers influenced his interactions with peer groups, and especially figures of authority in institutions. The very first form of interpersonal rejection began in his relationships with his parents. His Father was a man of regiment discipline and order, who was very critical about his son’s progress and appearance. He would beat Charles with a belt on a regular basis as punishment for any flaw, or less-than perfect chore or task being completed, such as mowing the lawn less than straight. Charles noted here that it was his father’s way of taking out his own failures in living through is son; when Charles would fail, his father would feel like he had failed as well. In addition to his father’s dominance, his relationship with his mother was deemed as nonexistent; Charles reports that his mother in her timid nature always sided with Charles Sr., and tolerated the verbal and physical beatings throughout. The beatings were frequent to the point that Charles became desensitized and cold to the pain. He learned to cope with this rejection from his own father and mother through reaction formation, namely being cold and apathetic to any abuse, physical, emotional or spiritual. From this state of mind, Charles realized that he could confuse his attacker into doubting the effectiveness of his abuse; and when the opportunity arose, Charles would lash out with carefully placed insults. In High school Charles developed a case of chronic acne vulgaris on his face, neck, back and arms that was medically diagnosed as severe, prompting experimental acne treatments at the county hospital. So severe was his condition that he dropped out of school and for the time being avoided any contact with any of his few friends. Charles notes that he was appalled by the insensitivity of the Medical doctors who handed him like a specimen, a freak, making snide comments about his ugliness. Eventually the UV light treatments and salve started to take effect, notable is Charles’s fond memories of gazing at himself in the mirror, his entire face covered with bandages. Here it appears that Charles sought to cope with his feelings of social rejection as a form of adaptive activity, namely as insight and acceptance of his status as an outsider, never to be fully accepted or understood by the norm. This identity was one that did not seem to fully bother Charles at the time; it was more of a sense of identity that he had been searching for. Charles reports that he started drinking in High school shortly after his acne started to improve, his scarred face made it easier for him to gain access to bars where he associated with older strangers who accepted him much more freely and openly than counterparts his own age. For Charles, alcohol use was no doubt a coping method in response to his desire for positive human relations in light of fear of rejection. He would sneak out of the house and go downtown bars with the regulars, coining the attitude of "I don’t care about anything or anybody, nothing matters". His drinking was a method of escape, an attempt to dull the harsh feelings as an outsider to the world, and specifically his family. Charles recalls that he eventually drank heavier and heavier, deliberately dropping hints to his parents of his late night ventures almost to evoke a response from them. With his drinking came lowered inhibitions driving him to challenge his overbearing father to a physical confrontation. Striking back at his father for the first time in is entire life shocked Charles Sr., and provoked Charles’s mother to attack Charles scratching his face with fingernails, repeatedly drawing blood. Charles responded to this new abuser in the same method of indifference and apathy as he did with his father’s beatings, taking the punishment without emotion until his mother had decided that it was enough. Current life College life for Charles represented an extension of the mundane mindless drabble of institutionalized education, where he challenged his professors and questioned the classes he took. He opted to write for the student newspaper because it was a form of writing, and he enjoyed writing, however he changed his mind last minute after seeing the staff writers slaving over their columns day after day to meet deadlines. Knowing that he could never adapt to that sort of credo, and would then be rejected as a journalist, Charles reverted to his already familiar coping method, detachment. Disillusioned by the promises of a higher education in the ivory tower and convinced that true education could only be sought on the streets, Charles dropped out of college and moved to skid row. As a post office clerk and a part time writer, Charles has been independent; both of his parents have past on, even though many of the old demons that haunted him come back from time to time. Although the menacing presence of his father and indifference of his mother are not longer looming overhead, he has continued to use the same coping methods as before to solve the same dilemma of seeking positive human relations. He states that he his current job at the post office sorting letters is a mundane job that he despises, but it spares him the effort of thinking during the day, leaving his mind free to compose poems in his spare time. One of his major complaints about his job is the level of loyalty to the job that he sees in several of his co-workers, which he attributes to fear. "People are frightened by social and economic conditions into accepting humiliation and defeat", he said leaving them in vulnerable positions in low-paying jobs, targets for abuse and rejection. This sort of environment has inspired his autobiographical novel Post Office which he plans to publish in the future. Through his characters in his writings he is able to project out his frustrations and fears of rejection; he is the master of his own world. Charles was able to finally establish trusting relationships with people later in his life, partially overcoming his fear of rejection. However he seemed to take the deaths of these people as an ultimate form of rejection not from the person, but from the world in general. In his coping with the death of loved ones close to him, Charles once again turns to not only the bottle, but also his writings. The pain of indifference toward the death of his mother and father were expressed in his poems and stories, depicting characters that resembled his parents. Even years after rejection, Charles still longs for acceptance and caring from his parents. In coping with the recent death of his live-in girlfriend and long term drinking companion Jane, Charles once again wrote a poem touching his anger at the world for taking someone who had accepted him; his poem is symbolic of hostility directed outwardly towards the world and god as a means of coping with the pain of his loss. Still remnant is Charles’s coping method of defiant apathy, as seen in his spending of the inheritance money left to him from his father. Charles spent all $16,000 at the racetrack and at the liquor store in defiant protest as a result of rejection from his own father. With regards to the incident that had brought him into therapy, Charles talked about his concerns about becoming a known literary figure, cult status was something that he never really had anticipated or even openly desired. The night of question he had been sitting on top of the stage severely intoxicated and realizing that there were strangers in the crowd who actually came to hear him recite his work. The fact that he didn’t give a damn about a single person in the audience struck a sour note with him. When he continued his regular habit of getting trashed afterward with Neeli he felt guilty, triggering the ever-present fears of rejection from positive human relations. He then turned to his coping method, hard liquor, unleashing a character so vulgar, so obscene and angry that it had to have come out of one his novels. For Charles, alcohol is used as a bridge between both of his coping methods, as a means of escape, living his stories, his fantasies. Therapy relationship Although rocky at first, the therapist-client relationship between Charles and I eventually progressed from one of great strain and tension to one of mutual understanding and insightful conversation. It should be noted that the majority of the insights and analysis of dilemmas, countering forces and coping strategies outlined in this report were the fruits of countless, long, unpleasant sessions of therapy. Charles expressed his defiance toward authority figures and powers of higher institutions specifically channeled to me, constantly taunting me and attempting to rip at me personally. The high intelligence and observant nature of the postal worker/poet aided him in picking out several of my personal flaws, which he attacked with cold sarcasm. At times I wondered which one of us really playing the role of the therapist? There was no doubt that Charles did not want to be here in therapy, nor did he want to talk to a stranger authority figure who had not proven himself worthy of respect from the great Charles Bukowski. Charles came to every session either drunk or hungover, showing an overall disregard for the initial purpose of therapy, namely to address his drinking problem. It seemed as though his insistence on constant drunkenness was in a sense a statement of independence and control; he seemed to pride his drinking as his own personal choice, a sort of defensive expression of power. There is no doubt that the abuse inflicted on Charles as a youth by his father is an underlying cause for not only the dilemma presented of desiring positive human relations, but also as a cause for his coping method of alcohol abuse. Charles has stated several times that he to this day not resolved his conflicts with his father, even after his death. Writing, he mentioned has been his primary way of coping with the pain of the memories as well as the lack of a loving relationship with his father. The predominant coping method I observed in my therapy sessions with Charles was his method of emotionless cynicism and appearance of cold apathy toward authority figures in the form of hostility directed outward. During one of our first sessions he was especially defiant in his attitudes toward the profession of psychology saying that it was a product of the controlling vice of academic thinking and conformity. Stemming from his experiences at a city college shortly after high school, he viewed the University as being another regiment of control and discipline, not unlike his household. After attacking me as nothing more than a product of a archaic and mundane institution of farce education and conformity, he drew from his personal experience receiving an "F" on a paper he wrote as a college student predicting the fall of Germany after WWII and the possibility of a greater threat of communism taking the US by storm. Another instance he was very verbal and insistent on reminding me about his experience with a clinical psychologist back in 1943 when he received a physical evaluation for the draft. Charles bad-mouthed and criticized the doctor in very descriptive and witty insults ranging in many levels of vulgarity and obscenities. Apparently there was something about his meeting with this psychologist that had spared Charles from the draft, even though Charles had openly lied to the psychologist at the time and said that he would willingly go to fight the war. Pulling his draft record produced a noteworthy comment the official had made after his evaluation of Charles before exempting him from the military draft: "hides extreme sensitivity under a poker face." Both of these examples represent to me Charles’s initial attempt at making contact with me beyond the level of a psychologist. Noting the patterns in his life and with relationships with his parents, especially his father, Charles approaches new relationships with a defensive attitude, remaining aloof and emotionless until the right moment. Our interaction is confrontational because I represent an authority figure on several levels which Charles has a history of distrust: 1) as a medical professional referring to his maltreatment as a teenager with acne. 2) As a product of an institution of higher education which he considers as the "ultimate death of the soul" 3) as a father figure delegating authority to the ungrateful. Charles in my opinion is an insightful man who has had a rough and impartial life, who has developed coping methods that are by no means adaptive and healthy for him in whole. He seeks to find positive human relations with the people he meets provided they prove themselves worthy of his trust, and are not prone to reject him. I hope that I have helped him gain some insight in his own life, although as a poet and writer, he probably strives on his misery and sorrow. Bukowski, Charles, Living On Luck Selected letters 1960s-1970s Cherkovski, Neeli, Bukowski: A Life Richmond, Steve, Spinning Off Bukowski |