An Analysis of the Concepts of Fame as a Psychological Self-Destruction Essay

For many people fame has lead to physical and psychological self-destruction. The physical aspect of the self-destruction is usually brought upon by drug andor alcohol abuse. The psychological destruction is not so easily accompanied with a reason. The result, however, is commonly a drastic change in both personality and social behavior. Combining information from several studies and articles, this paper discusses the possible reasons and results of the psychological destructiveness of fame.Fame is, as described by The Random House College Dictionary(1982), "widespread reputation, especially of a favorable character," and also gives the synonym, "celebrity." In a study done by Mark Schaller(1997) three famous people were investigated. One of these people was Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and writer for a popular band called Nirvana. Another person was Cole Porter. Porter was one of the most famous songwriters in the United States in the early twentieth century. The third person was the fiction writer, John Cheever. Cheever obtained the Pulitzer Prize in 1978.The reason Schaller chose these three people is that they all had self- destructive tendencies in the forms of drugs and alcohol and also had psychological problems sometime during their period of fame. Each of the three were also writers which was a vital part of Schaller's study. Schaller wanted to show that fame increased the self-consciousness in each of these people. To do this he analyzed the songs and stories written by these authors and found an increase in the amount of first-person singular pronouns from before to after their achievement of fame.According to Phillip L. Ackerman(1997) defining personality would take up a whole chapter in a book. Some would say that a personality includes such things as temperament, attitudes, interests, needs, physiology, morphology, and aptitudes. In order to keep it simple Ackerman labels personality with temperament, needs and attitudes.Social Behavior is simply how one chooses to act in a community or environment one is in or how to respond to the actions...

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