My thoughts on Karen Carpenter's untimely demise...

When I was a little girl, my dad would play cassettes in the car.  My dad and I have a very complicated relationship, but one thing we have in common is a great love of music.  We're also both singers, though my dad can't sing anymore because his voice was ruined by a tracheotomy and prolonged time on a respirator.  When I was little, he would play music by Jim Croce, Olivia Newton-John, Patsy Cline, and yes, the Carpenters.  As I got older, his tastes turned to Muzak, which I hate with a passion.

Anyway, it was my dad who first introduced me to the Carpenters' music.  I don't remember liking them that much when I was very young.  I was more into Olivia Newton-John.  But as I got older, I started listening to Karen's voice and determined that she had a very unique sound.  Herb Alpert described it as "phonogenic"-- it was as if she were in the room singing to you and only you, even if you were listening to a recording.  I'm not sure if I would describe it that way.  There's something very personal, unusual, and moving about her voice, though.  She had a way of sounding like she'd lived some of the lyrics of her more melancholy songs.  She and Richard also did some very cheesy songs, though, that showed a lighter side.

Karen Carpenter died on February 4, 1983.  She was about a month away from turning 33 years old and had suffered from anorexia nervosa since at least 1976.  She had endured exhausting schedules, a starvation diet, laxative abuse, ipecac abuse, and thyroid medication abuse.  According to Ray Coleman's book, The Carpenters: The Untold Story, Karen was taking about ten times the recommended dose of thyroid medication in an attempt to rev up her metabolism and lose more weight.

Things finally came to a head in the early 1980s and Karen sought help from Steven Levenkron, a New York City based psychotherapist who, in 1978, had written a best selling novel called The Best Little Girl In The World.  Levenkron's novel had helped introduce the American public to anorexia nervosa at a time when doctors didn't know that much about it or how to treat it.  Anorexia nervosa has been identified as a disorder for centuries, but it's only been within the last 30 years or so that people have known much about it.

Anyway, the book made Levenkron famous and in 1981, Aaron Spelling produced a made for TV film based on the book.  If you want to talk about television dramatizations, The Best Little Girl In The World made for TV film is a pretty good example of one.  The TV film doesn't bear that much resemblance to the book.  The lead character's name was changed, as was her family and the circumstances surrounding the way she got sick with anorexia nervosa.  I was curious about it for years because I missed it when it originally aired.  I finally saw it-- mad props to Jennifer Jason Leigh, who had the starring role, though it's definitely an Aaron Spelling creation!  Here's a link to the first part.

Karen read the book and decided Steven Levenkron was the only person who could help her, even though her friend Cherry Boone O'Neill had been successfully treated by Dr. Raymond Vath in Washington State.  According to Ray Coleman, Karen originally told Levenkron that she wasn't anorexic; she just had some sort of intestinal disorder.  He didn't believe her.  He had seen her on TV, though he wasn't a particular fan of her music.  But he took her at her word and wished her well.  Then when one of her agents tried and failed to get an appointment for Karen on her behalf, Karen called Levenkron herself and proposed that he treat her for a year.  She would come to New York and have several sessions with him every week.  Levenkron initially resisted, but finally agreed to treat Karen.  She moved to New York.

According to Coleman's book, Karen and "Steve" got along very well.  He had a very parental style that she seemed to respond to.  She even needlepointed a sign for him that said "You win.  I gain."

Regarding Richard's disdain for Steven Levenkron... I guess I can understand why Richard would dislike him.  Richard and Karen were unusually close and had come from a very close-knit family system.  I got the sense that maybe Richard resented the way Steven Levenkron learned so many personal things about their family.  Levenkron sought to upset the apple cart by teaching Karen how to be assertive and take care of herself.  I think people close to Karen mostly just wanted her to be physically healthy so she could keep making music.  I don't know that they wanted her to change the way she related to them.

Although Richard is a brilliant musician, it was Karen who was the face of the Carpenters.  When she died, his career went downhill.  He has released a couple of solo albums using different vocalists, but none have the chemistry that he had with Karen.  So I can't blame him for being bitter about her death-- not just because he lost a beloved sister, but also because when she died, his livelihood was threatened.    

On the other hand, he did get married after she died (to his cousin by adoption) and has five kids.  And he's made a career out of repackaging Carpenters' albums and greatest hits collections. According to Ray Coleman's book, Karen wasn't above sabotaging his relationships with women.  In fact, she and Agnes supposedly would work together to alienate the women in Richard's life.

I have read most if not all of Steven Levenkron's books.  I used to admire him a lot because he seemed very insightful and caring.  But as I've gotten older and had my own experiences with a therapist and in getting social work training myself, I started to see him as condescending and egotistical.  I have no doubt that he's helped many people with eating disorders, but I no longer see him as a "guru".  Maybe Richard was turned off of him because he saw the same things in him that I see.

As to whether or not Karen got substandard care from Levenkron, I would guess she didn't.  I think there's a good reason why Levenkron is so successful.  In fact, Karen had set a goal to "kick" anorexia in a year.  Levenkron reportedly told her that it would be impossible to do that, even if she got therapy every day.  Karen went back to L.A. after a year in New York anyway.  Even if she hadn't done that, I doubt Levenkron would have been responsible.  She died of medical issues-- she didn't purposely take her own life.  And even if she had committed suicide, any therapist will tell you that a person who really wants to kill themselves will find a way to do it eventually.  

I don't think it's Steven Levenkron's fault that Karen died.  He was working against a lot of things with a client who was used to getting her own way.  And he was not in charge of the medical side of her treatment.

There is another book about Karen's life called Little Girl Blue.  It was published in 2010 and was written by Randy L. Schmidt.  It updates a lot of Coleman's book, which was published in the 1990s.  Unfortunately, having read both books, I noticed that Schmidt borrowed a lot from Coleman's work to the point of including paragraphs that were in Coleman's book.  It's worth reading though, since Coleman's book is now out of print.

Here's a song that I think is pretty poignant, given Karen's situation...

Gotta love the late Tony Peluso's fuzz guitar in this gem, "Love Me For What I Am".