While watching a story on Narcissim in America this morning, I realized that every one of my reader’s probably knows of someone who falls into that category.
The interview was with Dr. Drew Pinsky and Dr. Mark Young, co-authors of the book entitled “The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America”. (Please go to the BookStore page to order a copy)
This really is becoming an epidemic in our society. I notice with my teenage girls and their friends that they are CONSTANTLY taking pictures and videos of themselves with their cell phones and cameras and then posting them all over their MySpace, Facebook or YouTube pages for the whole world to see. Some of the photos/videos are taken from an arm’s length, pointing down toward themselves and tend to reveal more than they should for children their age.
This generation is obsessed with themselves. I have never seen anything like it. There is not a mirror that does not get a second glance when they or their friends walk by.
There are a myriad of ways that they are learning this behavior: Reality TV, Young Celebrities, YouTube, Gossip Blogs just to name a few. And how do you stop them from watching shows like: “The Secret Life of An American Teenager?” How can watching a show about a pregnant teenager possibly help?
From the book review:
“In the last decade, the face of entertainment has changed radically—and dangerously. The soap opera of celebrity behavior we all consume on a daily basis—stories of stars treating rehab like vacation, brazen displays of abusive and self-destructive “diva” antics on TV, shocking sexual imagery in prime time and online, and a constant parade of stars crashing and burning—attracts a huge and hungry audience. As Pinsky and Young show in The Mirror Effect, however, such behavior actually points to a wide-ranging psychological dysfunction among celebrities that may be spreading to the culture at large: the condition known as narcissism.
The host of VH1′s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and of the long-running radio show Loveline, Pinsky recently teamed with Young to conduct the first-ever study of narcissism among celebrities. In the process, they discovered that a high proportion of stars suffer from traits associated with clinical narcissism—including vanity, exhibitionism, entitlement, exploitiveness, self-sufficiency, authority, and superiority. Now, in The Mirror Effect, they explore how these stars, and the media, are modeling such behavior for public consumption—and how the rest of us, especially young people, are mirroring these dangerous traits in our own behavior.
Looking at phenomena as diverse as tabloid exploitation (“Stars . . . they’re just like us!”), reality-TV train wrecks (from The Anna Nicole Show to My Super Sweet 16 to Bad Girls Club), gossip websites (TMZ, PerezHilton, Gawker), and the ever-evolving circle of pop divas known as celebutantes (or, more cruelly, celebutards), The Mirror Effect reveals how figures like Britney and Paris and Lindsay and Amy Winehouse—and their media enablers—have changed what we consider “normal” behavior. It traces the causes of disturbing celebrity antics to their roots in self-hatred and ultimately in childhood disconnection or trauma. And it explores how YouTube, online social networks, and personal blogs offer the temptations and dangers of instant celebrity to the most vulnerable among us.
The Mirror Effect raises important questions about our changing culture—and provides insights for parents, young people, and anyone who wonders what celebrity culture is doing to America.
Tags: Narcissism
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