Celebrity Deaths

The untimely death of Chester Bennington will leave a void in the hearts and minds of adults and teenagers alike. He created a fictional persona in order to cope with the pressures of media attention and depression as he became an integral part of nu-metal culture. Chester had an altruistic trait in his personality which facilitated his giving millions to charities and on a more personal note, to individuals he met on the street, such as Chester Bennington.

Like many famous celebrities who have died during the past year, there are psychological aspects associated with how we mourn their loss. We know where we were and what we were doing when we learned of the death of Chester Bennington or Chris Cornell, the list is endless. Moments after we hear the news social media is saturated with videos and tributes of the late singer's performances and lyrics.

Ironically whilst we feel the loss we have in fact rarely met these rock idols, we know little about their real lives and intimacies, we know nothing about the reality of the causes of their depression. These feelings of sadness are actually good for us to experience when a celebrity dies. The reason being that it heightens our sense of empathy and understanding of death.

Some celebrities die after a long life of service to entertainment whilst other are taken from us in their early life. Many have pretty normal lives with few major life problems while another struggle with alcohol, depression, suicide or narcotic abuse. Much of these can be attributed to a perpetual attempt to please the concert audiences to please their fans on tour and meet constantly higher expectations. When Chris Cornell took his own life he was one of 40 million Americans suffering from depression. There is the constant struggle emotionally to hide behind the mask and put on a brave face. This alone requires a huge effort many fans never realize is part of celebrity culture. Philip Hoffman was a versatile and gifted actor at the peak of his career when he died at the age of 46 in 2014. In all, he was one of some 8,000 people who died from heroin poisoning.



Celebrity deaths help us to understand the nature of addictions and its tragic consequences. Further, it provides us with insight into our own coping strategies or the lack of coping skills when a loved one passes away. In the context of Celebrity culture, it helps fans and viewers to assess their own values and beliefs about death and also helps fans understand the full humanity of celebrities and the problems they have to endure on tour and the struggle to maintain a degree of intimacy about their private family lives and relationships. At the hearing of the late Chester Bennington's death, it became nostalgic for me and many others when we reflect back psychologically to the time and place we heard that song and its lyrics. This can produce bittersweet nostalgia and re-assess what's working properly in our own lives.

When they were making career choices and making serious decisions about their future, for many Chester Benningtons death will bring them back to their late adolescence. These thought or cognitive exercises are helpful in that they help us separate what is important in our lives at the moment and what is not. When we reflect back on Chesters life journey we can see how his image had changed significantly, and this became one of the main reasons why he led a reclusive lifestyle trying to avoid concerts and facing his fans. Coming together in social media is another helpful coping strategy for fans of the late Chester Bennington. Collective mourning between fan groups helps us connect emotionally with others who share similar and feelings and the impact of his musical genius on our own journey.



These strange feelings of sadness may, as a matter of fact, be good for us to experience when a celebrity dies. Some celebrities die after a long life of service to entertainment whilst other are taken from us in their early life. Celebrity deaths help us to understand the nature of addictions and its tragic consequences. In the context of Celebrity culture, it helps fans and viewers to assess their own values and beliefs about death and also helps fans understand the full humanity of celebrities and the problems they have to endure on tour and the struggle to maintain a degree of intimacy about their private family lives and relationships. At the hearing of the late Chester Bennington's death, it became nostalgic for me and many others when we reflect back psychologically to the time and place we heard that song and its lyrics.