Kanye West and the mental illness of the rich and famous

How should we support someone struggling as the world’s watching

 

Over the past two weeks, Ye’s (born Kanye West) activity on social media — particularly the direct and indirect intimidation of his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend Pete Davidson, which has culminated in Ye kidnapping and assaulting a caricature reminiscent of Davidsons in his latest Eazy music video  — has garnered a tremendous amount of attention from the public and the media alike.

While public discourse on the situation has fixated on Ye’s manipulative behaviour towards Kim Kardashian, the lack of coverage surrounding Kanye’s mental state during this period neglects a key aspect in understanding the situation.

In no way, shape or form do I condone Ye’s behaviour towards the Kardashians or Davidson, which is real harassment, but whatever the motivations and intentions are behind his actions are independent of the fact that clearly Ye’s mental health is deteriorating at an alarming rate.

I want to clarify that I have no academic or professional qualifications in psychology, and that this article should not be interpreted as a professional diagnosis.

Ye’s actions are eerily similar to the actions of those close to me that have had similar mental health problems. His use of cropped photographs, entirely capitalized text, and the lack of consistent timing between his posts are all things I have witnessed my loved ones do in similar situations.

The only difference is that Ye is one of, if not the, most public examples of an artist struggling with mental health issues.

It often goes without question that those who thrust themselves into the public eye do so at the mercy of the public — a public eager to strip you from privacy. But in any parasocial relationship, the extent to which we as the public feel entitled to private information and the ethical responsibility that comes with our access to Ye’s psyche has yet to be defined.

The fact that Ye has shared these details of his own volition complicates the issue, but this only shifts the ethical responsibility onto our individual and collective response. Ye has decided to make this situation public, but we have decided to make it a spectacle.

I noticed scrolling through Ye’s Instagram feed that the same people are commenting the same things on every new post. “Amen pastor Ye,” “Ye helping people more than the president. Ye 2024,” “Ye the GOAT no CAP!” Beyond these consistent “Kanye stans,” most commenters have been far less empathetic to Ye. The one sentiment that these Ye stans and Ye haters share is the lack of concern for Ye himself.

Maybe the Ye memes and “shit-posts” are reflective of the larger sentiment that those in positions of privilege and wealth are less deserving of our collective empathy. But if anything, Ye’s sporadic behaviour reveals that no amount of money can provide a substitute for a healthy support system.

On Thursday, Feb. 17, Ye posted a clip to his Instagram from a 2018 episode of Saturday Night Live, in which Davidson made the assertion addressed to Ye that “Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass.” Responding to the controversy, Ye claimed that his latest actions on social media activity was payback for Davidson’s comment.

While I agree with Davidson’s sentiment to a degree, it begs several important questions: is support for someone struggling with mental illness contingent upon their perceived moral integrity? Does the movement to end the stigmatisation of mental illness apply to all, or to the select few deemed worthy?

I’m surprised that the videos of paparazzi provoking Ye to violence in the early 2010’s haven’t been re-examined in our current social climate, especially with the knowledge of his previously undiagnosed mental illness. Even today, headlines like “Kanye Off His Meds and Off His Rocker On Instagram” which are being published in the same era of the “Free Britney” movement, receive mainstream recognition.

It involves a tremendous amount of cognitive dissonance not to connect the two.  Both musicians’ struggles with their mental illness have been exacerbated by media coverage, but where Spears has received a sort of moral reckoning, Ye’s struggles are still seen as appropriate topics of gossip and scandal.

In hindsight, how much can the public’s perception of Ye as a primadonna figure be discerned from misconceptions and prejudices surrounding mental illness?

 

Visuals by James Fay

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