Week 5, Assignment 1-3-2. Journal Article Analysis

This article speaks about the loss of fame, and how fame affects the famous. People who are self aware of themselves are constantly monitoring their behavior. When celebrities have a sense of being self-focused, they would begin to feel self-unpleasant when people begin to know that they are not upholding their standards as a celebrity. The celebrity’s natural reaction typically would be to find escapism. The main strategy that they use to escape this is by alcohol and drug abuse (Brehm, Kassin, and Fein 1974). Failure to escape persistent self-focus and the resulting inner voice of criticism, can lead to depression (Pyszczynski and Greenberg 126) and possibly suicide (Baumeiser 90), even if the celebrity remains famous throughout their life such as Marilyn Monroe, and  Elvis Presley. There are three possible reactions to the loss of fame, they are as follows: clinging, reinventing, and downward spiraling. In general, some celebrities shift from one category to another. I do agree with the authors main points because it is likely known to happen with famous celebrities that the longer they had fame, the more difficult it would be for that celebrity to relinquish that fame. A long famous individual would likely react poorly to the loss of fame and would probably end up in the downward-spiraling category. Also adding that I also agree with the author in reference to celebrities, that it is known to be a fact that many celebrities have gone to drug and alcohol abuse because it is a way for them to escape real life situations. This article is important because, it mentions different movie stars and celebrities that loose fame. Most of the times because of drugs and alcohol from the 1950’s to present. It mentions about their psychological implications and their loss of fame in which most times it is true. Many times, the news media would say something such as unknown causes or natural causes, or that the celebrity had/was administered the wrong or excessive dose of heavy medication. In other words, you still hear something like this celebrity was chased down by a paparazzi or something similar to that. More often, it is heard that it is related to drug and alcohol abuse. Most of these celebrities that fall into this category are young to mid age. From their 30’s,-50’s, maybe mid 50’s.

                                                            References

Baumeister, R. (1990). Suicide as Escape from Self Psychological Review 97, 90-113. Retrieved from Franklin Library.

Brehm, Sharon S., Kassin, S. (1999). Social Psychology. 4^th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved from Franklin Library.

Pyszcynski, T., Greenberg, J. (1987). Self-Regulatory Perseveration and the Depressive “Self-Focusing Style: A Self-Awareness Theory of Reactive Depression”. Psychological Bulletin 102, 122-38. Retrieved from Franklin Library.