Having sold 83 million records does not seem to be protective factor for Britney Spears’ mental health. In recent times she’s shaved her head, treated worldwide viewers to a peformance which was described as likely “go down in the history books as being one of the worst to grace the MTV Awards” and lost custody of her children. The celebrity site TMZ.com files many of her stories under ‘Train wrecks: Britney Spears’ and has described her behaviour as being ‘nothing less than a meltdown’ In the world of celebrity she is not alone her problems. On July 24 2007 actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine and driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. Her life relentlessly chronicled by tabloids and gossip magazines, it was well known that she had been going about her business the previous week wearing a device to monitor alcohol levels in her body.
How do rich, pampered, beautiful – and occasionally talented – people can end up in such difficulties? Here are just some of the ways in which celebrity lifestyles can destroy your personality:
Celebrities are a self selecting group
The tribulations and humiliations required to launch oneself as a celebrity may exclude many of the mentally stable.
Celebrities tend to be young
Spears is 25, Lohan is 21
Celebrities are often young, immature and impressionable
Exhaustion
Easy availability of drugs
Pressure to attend succession of parties and events
Itinerant lifestyle
Community and relationships
When entering the world of celebrity people swap their previously supportive community for one where one’s standing is based on the shifting sands of media profile and ‘bankability’.
Previously confiding relationships become strained and are often replaced with those that are superficial and sycophantic
Sycophantic friends will encourage narcissistic behaviour whereas constructive opposition from secure friendships and family leads to constant reevaluation and greater stability.
Constant media intrusion and intense scrutiny into private lives
High media and public visibility brings with it relentless assaults on the ego.
Celebrities careers very vulnerable to the evaluations of other people.
Simply being in the public eye gives them a public forum to act out attention-seeking behaviour when things aren’t going well, and this could exacerbate the other issues
In cases like Spears they have never known life out of the public eye. Media attention is closely aligned with their sense of self.
The conflict of personal and commercial career goals.
In his Kurt Cobain’s suicide note, he wrote that he was not being honest with his fans and feared that he had lost all authenticity
If you are interested there is a book published on the subject Illusions of Immortality: A Psychology of Fame and Celebrity by David Giles
Added 17 February 2008:
There’s an entertaining arcticle in the 17 February Observer Music Monthly about why rock stars ultimately disappoint us.
‘Wankerdom of one sort or another is almost unavoidable, if you have that many people thinking you’re great’ nicely sums up the inevitable personality development.
Addendum 11 September 2009
Questions, questions Guardian 25 October 2008 Does celebrity status make you ill?