Part I:

A Psychological Autopsy of James Dean--"Death is All Around Us"

 By Warren Beath

"Death is All Around Us"

James Dean

     Most young men who die in accidents in pursuit of an extreme sport have a history of close calls and even minor crashes before a fatal one. That wasn't to be the case with James Dean although he had a reputation for daredevil behavior from childhood. More than one friend was positive that Jimmy's driving was manifestation of his death wish.

   Jimmy's response? "Death is all around us."

     The adrenaline addict is someone who has come to use his own adrenaline as an addictive drug. Every addiction has a payoff, and for the adrenaline junkie it is the thrill of regulating an intoxicating infusion of a chemical more powerful than meth or heroin. As for the shaman, the adrenaline junkie is transported to another level of perception. It is magical and transforming, at once an escape and a mastering of earthbound existence--the pleasure of madness that only madmen know.

     James Dean's devotion to driving fast started with riding a tricycle at around three-years-old. From an early age he was beside or leaning against a succession of bikes, motorcycles and cars.

     Jimmy Dean wanted to drive fast from the moment he had wheels under him. His driving would terrify the many friends who refused to ride with him in later years, but in the beginning, his family only knew that he seemed fearless--if not possessed. "One-speed Dean" they called him, and that speed was full-out.

     For most of his life he had the catlike reflexes and athletic skill to evade killing himself.

     Practioners of extreme sports typically say defensively that they enjoy the challenge of refining their mental and physical skills, extending the limits of their own personal best, and escaping from the constrictions of mundane existence. They love mountains, they love flying, they love race tracks, camaraderie of a band of brothers--"not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us." As paraglider Bob Drury has said. It might be also argued that the states achieved by the experiences are similar to those found in meditation--though to date no one has been gored to death on a yoga mat.

Part II

"Death is A Mother"....

     Death and loss were early unwelcome visitors in James Dean's life. Early loss of a parent is devastating to a child because he has no frame of reference, no language to describe what is happening to him. Nothing is ever the same after a parent dies because children who have sustained such deep personal loss must now find their way in an entirely new and strange world. The profound emptiness they feel seeps out to overwhelm all their experiences. The catastrophic loss of his mother was compounded for James Dean.

     Early loss is a precursor to addictive and compulsive behavior--of which Jimmy had more than his share. He lost his closest ally--his mother--when he was only nine-years-old. Her legacy was a psychic hole he would ever after struggle to fill.

     Adrenaline masks deeper emotions, and most adrenaline addicts learn to use it in childhood. Adrenaline's powerful stimulation action--and the pleasant side-effects of repressing painful feelings--leads to the addiction for some personalities. Adrenaline is the source of intensity for some people, and its generation is their reason for being.

     Father Winton Dean was no help. Many children who lose a parent can rely on the remaining parent to compensate--Dean was dealt an uncommonly hard blow when his remote father shipped him--along with his mother's casket--back to his home state of Indiana from California where they had lived since Jimmy was a toddler, to live with his paternal aunt and uncle, Ortense and Marcus Winslow, and their farm outside Fairmount, Indiana.

     They understood what Jimmy had been through and tried to give him what he needed. From all accounts, they treated him like he was their own son. An early picture shows a nine-year-old Jimmy on his cousin's bike, smiling, his feet barely touching the pedals. His uncle said that Jimmy liked to ride fast but he never fell, never hurt himself and maybe if he had, it would have changed things and he might still be alive.

     But nothing would ever be the same in any way. He lost both parents when his father sent him away, he lost his home, he lost everything familiar in his nine-year-old world.

     Truly, death was all around him.

     Children who lose a parent may also experience varied emotional consequences depending on how the parent died, for instance, a sudden death in an accident versus a slow death from illness. In the latter, a child will see a parent, who had appeared strong and powerful, slowly fade and lose their strength, changing the whole structure of the family. Children don't envision themselves having to take care of their parents. But as the parent gets more debilitated by illness that is exactly what may happen.

     There isn't much data on what occured in Dean's young life as he watched his mother dying of cancer. He may have waited on her in the end, bringing her water, sitting by her bed, trying to comfort her. It is significant that as he accompanied her casket on the train back to Indiana, he ran ran to check on her every time the train stopped. It isn't hard to imagine him  coming home from school and running in the house to check on his gravely ill mother.

     It was from his mother Mildred that he inherited his artistic nature--his middle name, "Byron" was her favorite poet. In initial attempts to break into acting, he chose the stage name "Byron James", perhaps in her honor.

     Dean's father was cut from a different cloth. Practical and with emotions in check, he never approved of Dean's choices to pursue acting and other artistic interests. Perhaps that is why he sent him back to Indiana after his mother's death. Maybe Dean was too much of a reminder of his dead wife. Maybe he wanted the boy to have a down-to-earth experience of growing up on a working farm. Or perhaps raising a child was just too much work without a partner? Whatever the reason, Winton's decision to send Dean away set in moton a series of events and experiences that would lead him to early phenomenal success and early death.

     Mildred's death and the feelings of empiness such a loss creates in all children who lose a parent early in life could explain, at least in part, Dean's subsequent risk-taking behavior. He became known for his dangerous pranks on the Winslow farm, like going to the highest point in the barn and swinging down on a frayed rope. Marcus Winslow told that an early interest in motorsports and driving too fast were all consuming. Residents would say he was the only 15-year old in Fairmount with a motorbike and you could hear him buzzing all over town. He was known for doing dangerous stunts--lying flat with his legs stretched out behind him or standing up to pick up an apple from a low lying branch as he sped by.

According to the Big Book of Adrenaline Addicts (Yes, there is one!), "We are all aware that the childhood feelings of neglect or abuse has been associated with a variety of adult psychological disturbances. As we examine adrenaline as an addictive drug, we discover that these reactions may not be entirely due to parental neglect".

"Using involuntary and metabolic and emotional tools, children in high-tension families erect a self-protective psychological barrier . This natural psychic wall helps safeguard these children, and reduce the damage from potential and actual emotional overload. Unfortunately, that wall also isolates them from other kinds of emotion, including those produced through love and nurturance."

The self-protective mechanism to mask pain and emptiness creates its own pool of suffering. Endorphin is an andrenalin antidote, helping the body to prevent an adrenalin overdose reaction and depression. An excess of endorphin is demanded to still the turbulence of the adrenalin, and the practitioner of an extreme sport has accessed his own internal pharmocpeia without even having to get a prescription.

Continued at top right.

WB 

Part III

The Conscience of the King

     Despite the difficult adjustment to the new surroundings after moving to Fairmount, Jimmy enjoyed success in high school both athletically and academically. It was there that he discovered his interest in drama and speech, eventually competing, but not winning a state contest. He did not suffer losing very well and blamed his teacher, even though he had stubbornly refused her advice, insisting  on his own quirky take on the reading. His performance failed to impress the conservative judges, just as his teacher had predicted. This stubborness and precocious confidence in his own choices would be a pattern repeated throughout his life. Dean insisted on doing things his own way, especially when it came to his two greatest loves, acting and racing.

     When Jimmy turned 13, Winslow bought him a Whizzer motor that transformed his bicycle into a motorbike. He had developed a friendship with the owner of Carl's Garage where he would spend hours tinkering over his motor bike or watching Carl work. In a couple of years he graduated from the Whizzer to a CZ 125cc--a real motorcycle. He would give his friends rides and loved to scare them by going fast on the twisty roads around town. His facination with all things racing led Jimmy to become somewhat of an expert on the Indy 500. One year, his friend Reverend DeWeerd took him to see the famous race and Jimmy couldn't stop talking about racing and the possibility of dying suddenly in a crash. DeWeerd would say later that Jimmy believed in personal immortality and so he wasn't afraid of death.

     If Dean's interest in fast vehicles and speed can be compared to addiction, the addictive substance is adrenaline--a chemical the body produces when it is placed under stress. Some call this an addiction to intensity. Adrenaline is produced when we find ourselves in situations that frighten us, such as those that could cause bodily harm. It also appears in instances of psychological stress--like the stress of performing before a live audience.

     Those who continually seek out experiences that will give rise to adrenaline do so for a purpose. Most people feel discomfort when placed under stress. Some, however, especially those who have deep-seated feelings of loss and abandonment may seek out adrenaline rushes as a way to mask their pain. They would rather accept any form of intensity than face the overwhelming agony of their own emptiness.

One could argue that James Dean, faced with the early loss of his mother and abandonment by his father, chose to pursue intense experiences throughout his short life.

     "Through adrenaline addiction recovery, we finally realize that in hidden parts of ourselves, we would rather generate adrenaline than risk facing our own buried anguish".

     After high school Dean moved out to California to rejoin his father who was now remarried. He wanted to go to UCLA drama school but his father's stern disapproval of such an impractical pursuit pressured him into business school. It was boring curriculum for an adrenaline junkie. Dean didn't last long and his refusal to continue caused another split with his father, this time a falling out he initiated.

     Dean took acting classes in LA and soon moved to New York where he was accepted at the famed Actors Studio. His career was definately moving forward.

     Did Dean's choice of acting as a career support his need for adrenaline? Statistics tell us that a majority of people fear public speaking more than they fear death. And since fear is the basis of all addictions and the trip wire for the fight or flight rush of adrenaline that addicts seek, it isn't much of a stretch to think that acting would be another source for a fix. The actor Rupert Everett writes of life on a movie set, "Once the clapper slams and the director shouts 'Action!' there is a strange electric atmosphere that contracts your chest ever so slightly and shoots adrenaline throughout your body. If you begin to forget your lines, there is no escape, no moment to collect yourself, and you are liable to be carried off by a wave of panic." And so the addict actor comes down from his adrenaline high by having a few drinks at the close of the day. It is interesting that in filmmaking jargon the last shot of the day is called the "martini shot".

Part IV

Adrenaline Junkie

     It might seem a foriegn idea for people who don't like to feel the stress of the fight or flight reaction that someone might actually seek out those uncomfortable sensations. It is certainly the easiest addictive substance to procure. In fact it is only one of several chemicals produced by the body's adrenal glands--others are nonadrenaline, cortisol, and various other catecholamines and corticosteroids. They all play a part in what scientists call hyperarousal, a state characterized by increased blood flow, heightened pulse rate, and incresed physical performance. Adrenaline junkies seek this state of mind and body. They need situations where the state is required, events where performance can be enhanced and made more successful during this state and those where successful performance can mean the difference between life and death.

     Unlike James Dean's time, a typical adrenaline junkie trying to reach hyperarousal has many choices now. The field of extreme sports has exploded--there is even a cable channel devoted to such pursuits as snow boarding, dirt biking, parasailing, and other physical activities with one thing in common--they are all dangerous.

For Dean, there weren't the same choices. Like most middle class midwestern kids, sports like ski jumping or mountain climbing were geographically and economically out of the question. So driving fast, no matter the vehicle became his source for adrenaline, the powerful substance that made him feel alive. And it could be argued that the first time he spoke in front of his classmates he discovered two important facts--he was good at it and it scared him--now he had two drug sources to nurture and love.

WB