Mental Disorders: Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould

People face anxiety many times in their lives; this may be before a new experience or while making big life decisions. Imagine a person’s career being a major reason for their anxiety for over ten years. Glenn Gould was a remarkable man whose constant struggle with anxiety and narcissistic behavior led to unconventional coping methods. Glenn Gould started to experience anxiety every time he played the piano on stage starting in his pre-adolescence and throughout the rest of his life (although he stopped playing in public at the age of thirty-one). Considering Glenn Gould played in many piano concerts, this proves to be a huge accomplishment. However, Gould’s anxiety and social phobia was heightened by his narcissistic behavior. These behaviors combined with maladaptive coping mechanisms damaged his mental and physical health. Although Gould did eventually stop playing in public at the age of thirty-one, his challenges with paranoia, social withdrawal, perfectionism, insomnia, and hypochondria continued. Some of Gould’s negative behaviors were developed in his childhood and he did not learn how to adaptively cope with these behaviors throughout adolescence and adulthood.

Gould’s upbringing had a great impact on his life in various aspects; his mother Flora had a greater influence on him than his father Bert. He had a close relationship with his mother, whose influence on him resulted in both positive and negative behaviors. Some of the positive influences on his life were the introduction to the piano, sculpting him to become a perfectionist and famous pianist. Furthermore, it seems as though he was an obedient child although he may have been a bit rebellious when he argued with his mother about different pianists an...

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