I think Kurt Cobain craved recognition for his talent, he worked very hard for it and revelled in it (check out Nirvana’s Reading festival performance on YouTube circa 1992). Ever since he was a boy he craved his parents’ affection and he developed habits that would gain him attention. One of these things was music, he was also a gifted artist from the get go.
Through his hunger for feeling wanted he sometimes crossed the invisible line between right and wrong, which brought him a lot of shame but he always stayed true to his own path - he had a determination that in the end prevailed.
There was a lot of reckless self destruction but in equal measure self preservation. If his hunger failed him, he would die with it.
His teenage storytelling often had elements of truth - but he would exaggerate the suffering he went through. He was telling a version of a story that would pay off bigger (as he would have liked it), instead of telling a story as others would see it, he was telling the truth insofar as he was telling the truth about how it felt.
He was an artist, he was a lover. Learning his intimate story you get the impression he spent every waking minute creating; he was thinking bigger and beyond the moment of his lifetime. He was thinking about forever.