He had a “breakdown” at some point in his career, which sounds like a psychotic break.
He was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
He admitted to having auditory hallucinations. I think we understand what that means.
He had emotional and family problems.
He accepted treatment, meds and therapy.
He was the consummate superstar. Would be nice if the family discussed his SZ, to help dispel the stigma and encourage others with this disorder to seek treatment.
But I’m not holding my breath.
If you want to learn more about him and his struggles, I recommend the movie “Love and Mercy”. It’s a fairly unvarnished look at his highs and lows.
I actually got a message from his late wife Melinda many years ago because she had some concern for me, and believe it or not she actually pretty much guessed what my problem was believe it or not. Brian Wilson sent me a message once too. I had the chance to meet him and have a chat with him, but I decided against it. I did exchange one sentence with him “Great show Brian!” and he replied “Thank you very much!” after the Smile premiere in 2004.
Brian Wilson is an example of everything that can go wrong when a person with severe mental illness becomes famous and everyone takes advantage of them. For those who are unaware, for many years Brian’s life was complete taken over by a doctor who had been appointed to try and save him death. It took massive efforts from his family to get a conservatorship. At one point his cousin Stan Love (who passed away just a few weeks ago) took a hit for the team and filed an action as a decoy to open the rest of his family to take the real follow up action that got Brian out of the hands of the dreaded Dr Landy.
From what I understood from the UK megafans that mixed in his circles, it was thought that there was some considerable damaged done to Brian by the medications Landy prescribed him. When he married Melinda there was some concern that she had a more control over Brian that was appropriate. Whatever happened, I am not sure if Brian had the capability for full autonomy by the 90s. People around him like Darian Sahanaja and the late Jeff Foskett encouraged him to be musically productive. He found a good group of people that loved his music and wanted to be his band (and according to Al Jardine they used to go around and sing for him every Tuesday night). At the Pet Sounds and Smile shows in 2002 and 2004 he seemed to be having his last peak. He didn’t seem quite as with it after that.
When I nearly got famous years ago, I took Brian Wilson’s example as a reason to avoid it. It is not a good idea to be mentally unwell and be famous. There were so many hangers on, and many of them were trying to encourage him to be on drugs. His cousin Mike Love often gets slated, but I have always thought he was a protective cousin. Since being a carer for someone with Schizoaffective Disorder I have seen even more how he could have been portrayed as the bad guy, whilst actually being the good guy.