How to remember Ian Curtis

In the UK today #iancurtis has been trending on social media. Ian Curtis was the lead singer of the post punk Manchester band Joy Division.

He committed suicide 36 years ago today and it is an event worth remembering, but not for much of the sentiment that had him trending on Twitter this morning.

The years since have turned this group and its singer into legends. But in truth they produced only a few great songs and one memorable album (Unknown Pleasures), and that mostly because of the talent of its producer Martin Hannett.

They weren't all that great live and Ian Curtis wasn't much of a singer, and I know that because I saw them in 1979. Although it’s certainly true that he was vastly more talented than his bandmates - his lyrics certainly remain powerful.

But since his death a mythology has grown up around him and the circumstances around his suicide. It's seen as somehow poetic, the doomed romantic grasping at the hemlock like Chatterton. But Ian Curtis should not be viewed as a tragic role model.

So why am I remembering him and why I’m putting this unusual and personal post on LinkedIn? 

Because the anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis serves as a reminder that he was not unique, he was no superman.

He was an ordinary man suffering from mental illness and he killed himself for a a reason that people not suffering would be able to cope with.

LinkedIn is full of a lot of garbage right now about people following their dreams and becoming winners, being their best, achieving their goals, reaching for the sky - all that baloney.

In the real world, work life isn’t like that - even for the supposed winners.  Most people are making the best of what they have and sometimes they can't cope and simple surmountable problems can become life threatening ones.

People in your workplace right may be going through what Ian Curtis was. They don’t need to “pull themselves together”, they help and support.

Ian Curtis needed help and didn't get it. In the thirty six years since his death, things have improved but not as much as they should.

There is still a stigma attached to mental illness, which leads people to shun help. We all need to fight this.

At it can begin in your own workplace.