MARILYN MONROE: 1926 - 1962

In the late hours of Saturday, August 4, 1962, the �candle in the wind� burned out. The 36-year-old woman born as Norma Jeane Mortenson, but known to the world as Marilyn Monroe, was dead.

She had been a true Hollywood phenomenon. Hailed for her serious acting as well as her worldwide reputation as the blonde bombshell, the star had nearly 30 films to her credit, including such hits as �Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,� �The Seven-Year Itch� and �Some Like It Hot.�

As with all legends, however, the image left by Monroe�s death is as much fable as truth: a publicly adored but tortured actress who chose the numb, giddy world of drugs and tranquilizers over the burden of reality�so much so that it finally killed her.

But behind the lurid headlines, the facts of Monroe�s life and the tragedy of her final days tell a different story.

Seven years earlier, as she neared the height of her career, an acting coach suggested she undergo psychoanalysis to �tap all her explosive energy.� Beginning in February 1955, Monroe attended analytic sessions with Margaret Hohenberg. Almost immediately, the analysis�with its constant questioning of motives and self�began to take its toll: �I�m trying to become an artist, and to be true, and sometimes feel I�m on the verge of craziness. I�m just trying to get the truest part of myself out, and it�s very hard. There are times when I think, �All I have to be is true.� But sometimes it doesn�t come so easily. I always have this secret feeling that I�m really a fake or something, a phony.�

Monroe�s biographer, Donald Spoto, wrote of her therapy, �Excessive introspection exacerbated her lack of self-confidence. Intuition suffered at the expense of a forced, conscious intellectualism that paralyzed her and pushed her further back into herself.�

The actress eventually saw New York Freudian psychiatrist Marianne Kris, who prescribed the powerful barbiturates that Monroe abused until her death. Kris also tricked Monroe into signing herself into a psychiatric ward, telling her it was for a physical examination and rest. Instead, Monroe was locked into a padded cell for two days, where she pounded the door until her fists were raw and bleeding.

In 1960, Monroe began seeing the psychiatrist who would drive her even deeper into her personal hell, Ralph Greenson. His control over her was swift and all-encompassing. �I was going to be her one and only therapist,� he wrote. He ensured she was maintained on a steady diet of barbiturates. �His tactic was disastrous,� wrote Spoto. �Instead of leading his patient to independence, he did exactly the opposite and effectively made her entirely contingent on himself � he was certain he could prevail on her to do anything he wished.�

On August 4, after spending six hours with Greenson, Monroe was found dead of a drug overdose by her housekeeper Eunice Murray.

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