Upping Your Ziggy

How David Bowie Faced His Childhood Demons - and How You Can Face Yours

Oliver James

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781782204909
  9780367329556
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429909443
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

David Bowie was one of the most famous men of his generation, and remains one of the greatest rock stars of all time. But while his flamboyant career in the public eye has been well documented, much less is known about his family history. In this new book psychologist the author, bestselling author of They F*** You Up, Affluenza and Not in Your Genes, explores the mental illnesses that afflicted members of Bowie's family, and Bowie's fear that he too was destined for insanity. Three of his aunts became psychotic and his grandmother declared the family cursed. His half brother Terry also became psychotic, hallucinating a visitation from God, the famous 'crack in the sky and a hand pointing down to me' about which Bowie sang. These family crises left Bowie afflicted with a fear of madness. His music and stage personae during the 1970s were his way of eluding it. Born David Jones, he dubbed himself Bowie.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• One Lyrical — rather than actual — madness
• Two 'Bad seed'
• Three The unfavoured brother
• Four The favourite son
• Five From children's play to madness
• Six From Jones to Bowie to Ziggy
• Seven From multiple normal personas to multiple personality disorder
• Eight 'Tis a pity she was a whore: from the manipulator's sexploits to emotional health
• Nine Upping Your Ziggy: persona therapy and the power of pretence
• Notes
• References
• Index