"I hate being bipolar, it's awesome!" - An analysis of Kanye West's mood disorder and how we perceive celebrity mental health

Arihant Hemendra

(TW: Mentions of suicide, depression, mental illness)

Perhaps no modern artist has been as disruptive to the mainstream media/pop culture industry as rapper Kanye West. Known for his trademark cocky attitude and diss-like lyrics and experimental music, West has also made a name for himself in peripheral industries like record production and fashion. It is well known that Kanye also suffers from one of the world’s most common yet confounding mental illnesses - Bipolar Disorder (Murphy, 2019). While Kanye has historically shown symptoms of acute mental illness, he hadn’t been formally diagnosed until 2019. This blogpost aims to analyse West’s mental health over the years, and correlate it to the public perception of celebrity mental health.

Bipolar disorder, known erstwhile as “manic depressive disorder” is characterised by periods of extreme depression and paranoia followed by random periods of super - elevated self-worth hyperactivity. Kanye was recently diagnosed with the illness at age 39 but has often been the centre of controversies related to his (often) out-of-the-blue ultra-personal rants, claims and barrages of comments, either in person or via social media. From his long-running feud with fellow musician Taylor Swift to his recent messy separation from ex-wife Kim Kardashian, most of his public controversies have more or less painted a vivid picture of the anxiety, paranoia, depression and suicidal ideation that a mentally ill person might face. He shows behaviour that fits very strongly into the “manic” bracket of bipolar disorder - such as scheduling way more events in a day than can be humanly achieved (Rosenbaum et al., 2016), or having massive spending sprees or surges in ego (often shown in his social media posts as well as music and/or public statements) (Kanye West: 'I'm the Greatest Human Artist of All Time', 2019). As learnt in this course, a sizable chunk of mental illness patients get their primary counselling help from clergypeople or related societies. Kanye West has been known to be a devout Christian - having released several songs, public statements and now, even albums on his faith (Schaffstall, 2019).

The scope of generalised acceptance of mentally ill people in daily life sadly remains limited to their “mild” and “palatable” variations (Burton, 2020). As long as something isn’t disruptive not just to the patient but also to their surroundings, it is seen as an acceptable challenge and the patient is seen as a hero continuing to live a “normal” life despite such circumstances. However, not all mental (or even physical, for that matter) illnesses are hunky-dory. They can be severe and sometimes outright debilitating, such as in Kanye’s case where he had to be hospitalised multiple times for heavy opioid usage, and cut his November 2016 concert short abruptly after paranoidly begging good friend and rapper Jay-Z to not send an alleged squad of hitmen out to kill him. Traumatic events in his life such as surviving an armed robbery while in Paris in 2016, and undergoing an extremely messy (albeit partly due to his own behaviour) divorce from ex-wife Kim Kardashian have also been known to elevate his exhibition of symptoms. Mainstream media has also sadly made these serious issues sound like trivial, if not funny, news events which run on channels for hours and contribute to miles of scrolling on Instagram. His behaviour towards women including Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian have also proved highly misogynistic, harassing and problematic - further complicating the media and public portrayal of his mental illness in particular

The public and media portrayal of Kanye’s mental illness have more often been more “in-awe”; much like spectators’ reactions at a zoo rather than supportive or even understanding. Large media outlets have effectively minted entire threads of “sensational” news and people have gone as far as proposing boxing matches between him and Kim’s current boyfriend Pete Davidson (Wells, 2022). The media has done this time and again, not just Kanye but also with popstar Britney Spears’ long history with mental health, and Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Juice Wrld’s depression fuelled suicides. Closer to home, actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide was widely inflated with conspiracy theories ranging from murder to drug related crimes. Indian as well as global news outlets and media houses need to realise that their portrayal of celebrity mental health issues usually does much more harm than good, especially by polarising the opinions of their viewers and thus vicariously even laypeople who enter such discussions. Mental health issues ideally should be seen as similar to their general physical counterparts rather than as something exotic and taboo. Promoting a culture of acceptance and destigmatising the taboo around mental illness are the need of the hour instead of making a huge show out of the unfortunate happenings in said celebrities’ personal lives. In Kanye’s case, the fact that he can afford to come out to the public about his mental health, albeit often in far less than savoury ways shows that he has fought the stigmas of being an African American man, an independent and successful artist as well as a public figure while being mentally ill. African American people have had a history of social and financial persecution which makes even acts like being a successful black artist, let alone being openly mentally ill - extremely hard (Burton, 2020). It is, therefore, high time that mainstream media, which plays an important role in shaping public opinion; mends its ways and focuses on a more problem- solving approach instead of stigmatising and portraying mentally ill people as lustful, ignorant and dangerous creatures. In the case of public figures this becomes even more important as sometimes entire generations of people and sections of society look up to the said public figures and get inspired by their actions and subsequent reactions to their reception. The media needs to spread awareness rather than focusing on TRP ratings and promoting gossip.

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References

Burton, N. (2020, July 28). I'm a Black bipolar woman. The way we talk about celebrities like Kanye West shows how much we still need to fight stigma around severe mental illnesses. I'm a Black bipolar woman. The way we talk about celebrities like Kanye West shows how much we still need to fight stigma around severe mental illnesses. Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/im-a-black-bipolar-woman-the-way-we-talk-about-celebrities-like-kanye-west-shows-how-much-we-still-need-to-fight-stigma-around-severe-mental-illnesses-/articleshow/77224515.cms

Kanye West: 'I'm the greatest human artist of all time'. (2019, October 25). RTE. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2019/1025/1085722-kanye-west-im-the-greatest-human-artist-of-all-time/

Murphy, H. (2019, May 28). Kanye West Gets Candid About His Bipolar Diagnosis, Says at One Point He Had to Be Handcuffed. People. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://people.com/music/kanye-west-opens-up-about-bipolar-diagnosis-episode-handcuffed/

Rosenbaum, S., Valentine, L., & Li, D. K. (2016, November 21). After onstage meltdown, Kanye cancels tour. Page Six. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://pagesix.com/2016/11/21/kanye-west-cancels-remaining-saint-pablo-tour-dates/

Schaffstall, K. (2019, October 25). Kanye West Unveils New 'Jesus Is King' Album; Talks “Cancel Culture” and “Christian Innovation”. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 19, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/kanye-west-jesus-is-king-album-cancel-culture-christianity-1250025/

Wells, A. (2022, March 15). Jake Paul Offers Kanye West, Pete Davidson $30M Guaranteed Each to Have Boxing Match. Bleacher Report. Retrieved March 17, 2022, from https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10029848-jake-paul-offers-kanye-west-pete-davidson-30m-guaranteed-each-to-have-boxing-match

Additional Readings

Srivastava, K., Chaudhury, S., Bhat, P. S., & Mujawar, S. (2018). Media and mental health. Industrial psychiatry journal, 27(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.4103/ipj.ipj_73_18

Mark Pearson, Tom Morton & Hugh Bennett (2017) Mental health and the media: a comparative case study in open justice, Journal of Media Law, 9(2), 232-258, DOI: 10.1080/17577632.2017.1375261

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