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| Ten Thousand Motels |
PSYCHOLOGIST LANDY DIES
Psychologist-to-the-stars EUGENE LANDY has lost his battle with lung cancer in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was 71. Landy's celebrity clients include ALICE COOPER and RICHARD HARRIS, but he's perhaps best known for his treatment of BEACH BOYS star BRIAN WILSON. Landy was hired to take control of Wilson's life in the mid 1970s after the GOOD VIBRATIONS singer concerned family and friends by withdrawing socially to an alarming degree. A year of monitoring the rocker and luring him off casual drugs and junk food gave Wilson his life back, but Landy was later fired by the Beach Boy's manager over a fee dispute. Landy was rehired in the early 1980s after Wilson had regressed to drugs and obesity. He worked with Wilson for three years.
The California Board of Medical Quality Assurance later accused Landy of "grossly negligent conduct," alleging that his business dealings with Wilson had caused the singer "severe emotional damage, psychological dependence and financial exploitation". Landy denied the charges.
30/03/2006 03:04
contactmusic
OBITUARIES
Eugene Landy, 71; Psychologist Criticized for Relationship With Troubled Beach Boy Brian Wilson
By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 29, 2006
Eugene Landy, the psychologist who was denounced as a Svengali for his controversial relationship with Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, has died. He was 71.
Landy died March 22 in Honolulu of respiratory complications of lung cancer, said William Flaxman, a longtime colleague.
A pioneer of what he called "24-hour therapy," Landy was known for a show-business clientele that at one time included rocker Alice Cooper and actors Richard Harris and Rod Steiger.
He earned notoriety in the late 1970s after he began treating Wilson, the songwriting genius behind the iconic California band, whose career had disintegrated in a haze of drugs and phobias after a decade at the top of the musical charts.
Hired in 1975 by Wilson's wife, Landy took control of the rock star's life, monitoring him 24 hours a day with a team of assistants to keep him off drugs and junk food; Wilson's weight by then had ballooned to more than 300 pounds.
Landy grew so close to Wilson that he participated in Wilson's comeback as his manager and artistic collaborator — an ethical breach that eventually caused the psychologist to give up his license to practice in California.
Born in Pittsburgh, Landy was the only child of Jules, a physician, and Frieda, a psychology professor. He claimed to have dropped out of school after the sixth grade because of severe dyslexia and worked odd jobs, eventually winding up in radio as producer of a program aimed at teenagers. He later became a record promoter.
He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s and shifted career goals. He studied chemistry at Los Angeles City College before earning a bachelor's degree in psychology at Cal State L.A. in 1964. By 1968 he had a master's degree and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Oklahoma.
He did postdoctoral work in marathon group therapy in Rancho Santa Fe with the movement's co-founder, psychologist Frederick Stoller. Stoller's brand of group psychotherapy lasting a day or more inspired Landy's "24-hour therapy," developed at Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Center in Echo Park, where he ran a program for teenage drug abusers.
By the time he met Wilson, he had a Beverly Hills clinic and a celebrity clientele. Dr. Solon D. Samuels, a former director of Gateways, told The Times in 1988 that Landy was a maverick who did "things that no other psychologist has done in treating the psychotic and the drug addict."
Wilson seemed to fit the clinical profile to a distressing degree. He rarely got out of bed or talked to anyone. He went weeks without brushing his teeth or taking a shower, believing that "blood would gush out of the sink faucet and snakes would spring out of the shower head," he wrote in his 1991 memoir "Wouldn't It Be Nice."
His mind was so wasted on drugs — including cocaine, LSD and heroin — that he even tried to give them to his two young daughters.
Landy insisted that he have total control of Wilson and his environment. He also was adamant that Wilson had to request treatment himself. According to Wilson's autobiography, the musician caved in after a two-month campaign — orchestrated by Landy — in which his then-wife, Marilyn, and eventually many of his close friends, pretended to be in therapy with the psychologist and told Wilson how much they enjoyed it.
His first session with Landy took place in Wilson's bedroom closet, the only place Wilson said he felt safe. Landy gradually gained his trust and helped him regain enough physical and mental health that the pop idol performed at the Beach Boys' 15th anniversary concert Dec. 31, 1976.
Landy, however, had been fired earlier that month by Beach Boys manager Steve Love, largely in a dispute over fees.
He was rehired six years later, after Wilson had regressed again into drugs and obesity. The 24-hour therapy was resumed from 1983 to 1986. During that time, Landy said, he was paid $35,000 a month.
In 1987, Landy entered a business and creative partnership with Wilson called Brains and Genius to share profits from such ventures as recordings, films, soundtracks and books.
In 1988, Wilson released his first solo album, called simply "Brian Wilson." Its success was tinged by controversy over Landy, however, who that year became the subject of an investigation by the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance.
The state board accused Landy of "grossly negligent conduct," including the sexual abuse of a female patient. Most of the accusations concerned his relationship with Wilson, alleging that his multiple business entanglements had caused the singer "severe emotional damage, psychological dependence and financial exploitation."
Landy was listed as executive producer of Wilson's solo album and was credited as a co-writer of several tracks.
One of the sources in the state's investigation was songwriter Gary Usher, who worked with Landy and Wilson for 10 months on the album and described Wilson as a virtual captive, manipulated by a man who frightened and intimidated him.
Landy denied the charges. Wilson issued a statement defending Landy, attributing his new solo career to his successful treatment.
"Dr. Landy saved my life," he said.
In 1989, however, Landy admitted to a single charge of unlawfully prescribing drugs and surrendered his license to practice psychology in the state for at least two years. Landy continued to work with Wilson on his music, and he contributed to a 1991 album called "Sweet Insanity."
Although they had formally ended their therapeutic relationship, they remained so close that Wilson's family brought legal action in 1991 to appoint an independent conservator in an effort to stop Landy from unduly influencing him in personal and financial matters.
The action was dropped when Landy agreed to stop seeing or talking to Wilson for 90 days.
In his book, Wilson suggested that they both understood the split to be permanent. Landy eventually moved to Hawaii.
The book was discredited by many close to Wilson who thought its content had been guided by Landy; he shared in the book's profits. Wilson had dedicated the memoir to his former psychologist, writing: "without you there'd be no music."
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
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| Gazza |
thanks for posting. Didnt know he was ill.
His relationship with Brian is too complex to really sum up in pure black and white terms. No doubt he saved his life and got his career back on track, but in doing so he exploited Brian's vulnerability in a pretty outrageous manner.
Still find it amazing that Brian seems to be outliving all these experts as well as his brothers.... |
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| Break The Spell |
Interesting article, had no idea that the Wilson family had to take action against him in the early 90's from having too much influence on him. |
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| corgi37 |
You know Gazza, maybe we should all install sand pits in our bedrooms and get fat as pigs. |
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| Gazza |
I'm halfway there already, - and I'll be having builders in in the next few weeks so that'll take care of the sand - but without the coke stash!
[Edited by Gazza] |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Now only if they could get Mike Love into therapy or outright committed for delusions of granduer. |
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| Break The Spell |
quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
Now only if they could get Mike Love into therapy or outright committed for delusions of granduer.
Is his band still touring as the "Beach Boys" even though he's the only original member left? |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
Break The Spell wrote:
Is his band still touring as the "Beach Boys" even though he's the only original member left?
Mike Love IS the Beach Boys. If you don't believe me, just ask him. |
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| nanatod |
quote:
Break The Spell wrote:
Is his band still touring as the "Beach Boys" even though he's the only original member left?
According to their respective websites, there are no upcoming tour dates for Brian Wilson; Mike Love and Bruce Johnston are touring as the "Beach Boys" this summer.
Voodoopug and the other Chicagoans on this board should avoid Love and company when they play Ravinia this summer.
What is depressing is that the Beach Boys are not the worst concert coming to Highland Park this summer. |
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| Break The Spell |
quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
Mike Love IS the Beach Boys. If you don't believe me, just ask him.
I know, I've seen several interviews of him in the past few years and couldn't believe the arrogance. You'd think the Wilson brother's never had any input musically and he wrote everything!! |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
RESERVED FOR MAD MIKE
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
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| nanatod |
"What is depressing is that the Beach Boys are not the worst concert coming to Highland Park this summer."
Isn't anyone going to take the bait? |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
nanatod wrote:
"What is depressing is that the Beach Boys are not the worst concert coming to Highland Park this summer."
Isn't anyone going to take the bait?
OK. So who's the worst show coming to Highland park this summer? I wouldn't even think that this particular band that Mike Love has is that bad. I mean they probably sound pretty good on Beach Boys tunes, but that's not the point. |
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| glencar |
Macca is going to Highland Park? |
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| jb |
http://www.sciencebase.com/images/elephant_penis.jpg |
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| glencar |
Chortle! |
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| nanatod |
quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
OK. So who's the worst show coming to Highland park this summer?
Amy Grant. |
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| Gazza |
What - no Bon Jovi?
Amy's hair is nicer
And she probably doesnt have wolf puss, either.... |
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| nanatod |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
What - no Bon Jovi?
Gazza, here's why: Highland Park, Illinois is a wealthy suburb twenty miles north of Chicago, and contains Ravinia Park, an outside amphitheater with a vast lawn. From the lawn, you can hear but not see the music in the pavillion. Because of its quiet exclusivity, the town of Highland Park is not going to allow hard rock/ metal shows at its facility. (Although I've never been to Ireland or the UK, a web search leads me to conclude that mileau of Highland Park is similar to what you would get in Wimbledon, England or Rathgar, Ireland.)
Up until some years ago, the Ravinia summer season only had the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and folk acts like Peter, Paul & Mary. The town has eased up a little, and now Ravinia gets mainstream pop/rock acts like the Nevilles, the Bodeans, Bonnie Raitt, etc. The "hardest" rock act in the past was Tull. The "hardest" rock act this year is the Steve Miller Band. Unless Jon Bongiovanni plays acoustic, he's not playing Ravinia, ever.
[Edited by nanatod] |
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| Gazza |
Pray that he remains "plugged in" ! |
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| purrcafe |
I do believe that Landy saved Brian's life and for that I (and I'm sure many share the sentiment) are grateful. However, I'm glad the fucker's dead. His exploitation of Brian went beyond outrageous, to the point where he had Brian changing HIS WILL to make the good doctor a beneficiary. |
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| Stray Cat UK |
Check out Brian Wilson -Live at the Roxy.
One of my favourite live albums records a once broken,fragile man returning to live performance.
You can actually hear his confidence come back as the crowd react to each song.
I can't listen to it if I've been drinking;it makes me blub.
Love and Mercy tonight. |
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