Addiction to Fame and Celebrity

Art and Entertainment - Question :  Are Narcissists addicted to being famous? 

Answer : 

You bet. This, by far, is the predominant drive. Being famous encompasses a couple of important functions: it endows the narcissist with power, provides him having a constant Supply of Narcissistic Supply (admiration, adoration, approval, awe ), and fulfills important Ego functions. 

The image the narcissist projects is hurled back at him, reflected by those exposed to his celebrity or fame. This manner he feels alive, his very existence is affirmed and he acquires a sensation of clear boundaries (in which the narcissist ends, and the planet begins ). 

Addiction to Fame and Celebrity

Addiction to Fame and Celebrity

There‘s some narcissistic behaviors typical towards the pursuit of celebrity. There‘s almost nothing the narcissist refrains from doing, almost no borders that he hesitates to cross to obtain renown. To him, there isn‘t any such thing as "bad publicity" – what matters will be in the general public eye. 

Since the narcissist equally enjoys all kinds of attention and likes just the maximum amount of to become feared on be loved, as an example – he does not mind if What‘s published about him is wrong (so long as they spell my name correctly). The narcissist's only bad emotional stretches are during periods of insufficient attention, publicity, or exposure. 

The narcissist then feels empty, hollowed out, negligible, humiliated, wrathful, discriminated against, deprived, neglected, treated unjustly, etc. Initially, he tries to get attention from ever narrowing groups of reference (supply scale down). But those feelings that he‘s compromising gnaws at his anyhow fragile self-esteem. 

Sooner or later, the spring bursts. The narcissist plots, contrives, plans, conspires, thinks, analyses, synthesizes and does whatever else is essential to regain the lost exposure in the general public eye. The greater he fails to secure the eye from the target group (always the biggest ) – the greater daring, eccentric and outlandish he becomes. Firm decision to get known is transformed into resolute action after which to some panicky pattern of attention seeking behaviors. 

The narcissist Isn‘t curious about publicity per se. Narcissists are misleading. The narcissist appears to adore himself – and, really, he abhors himself. Similarly, he appears to become curious about learning to be a celebrity – and, in reality, He‘s worried about the REACTIONS to his fame: people watch him, notice him, point out him, debate his actions – therefore he exists. 

The narcissist goes around "hunting and collecting" the way in which the expressions on people's faces change once they notice him. He places himself in the center of attention, or perhaps like a figure of controversy. He constantly and recurrently pesters those nearest and dearest to him inside a bid to reassure himself that he‘s not losing his fame, his magic touch, the eye of his social milieu. 

Truly, the narcissist Isn‘t choosy. If he will become famous like a writer – he writes, if like a businessman – he conducts business. He switches in one field to another with ease and without remorse because altogether the strategies He‘s present without conviction, bar the conviction that he has to (and deserves to ) get famous. 

He grades activities, hobbies and other people not based on the pleasure they give him – but consistent with their utility: will they or can't they create him known and, in that case, as to the extent. The narcissist is one-track minded (to not say obsessive ). He is a playing field of black (being unknown and deprived of attention ) and white (being famous and celebrated ). 


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Mistreating Celebrities - An Interview 

Granted to Superinteressante Magazine in Brazil 

Q. Fame and TV shows about celebrities usually have an enormous audience. This is understandable: people like to discover other successful people. But why people like to discover celebrities being humiliated? 

A. As much as their fans are concerned, celebrities fulfill two emotional functions: they give a mythical narrative (a story the fan can follow and identify with ) and that they function as blank screens onto which the fans project their dreams, hopes, fears, plans, values, and desires (wish fulfillment ). The slightest deviation from these prescribed roles provokes enormous rage and makes us wish to punish (humiliate ) the "deviant" celebrities. 

But why? 

Once the human foibles, vulnerabilities, and frailties of the celebrity are revealed, the fan feels humiliated, "cheated" hopeless, and "empty." To reassert his self-worth, the fan must establish his moral superiority during the erring and "sinful" celebrity. The fan must "teach the celebrity a lesson" and show the celebrity "who's boss ." It‘s a primitive defense mechanism - narcissistic grandiosity. It puts the fan on equal footing using the exposed and "naked" celebrity. 

Q. This taste for watching somebody being humiliated has something related to the attraction to catastrophes and tragedies? 

A. There is usually a sadistic pleasure and also a morbid fascination in vicarious suffering. Being spared the pains and tribulations others undergo helps make the observer feel "chosen" secure, and virtuous. The higher celebrities rise, the harder they fall. There‘s something gratifying in hubris defined and punished. 

Q. Can you believe the group put themselves inside the spot where the reporter (when he asks something embarrassing to some celebrity ) and turn to be in a roundabout way revenge? 

A. The reporter "represents" "the" "bloodthirsty" public. Belittling celebrities or watching their comeuppance is that the modern equivalent from the gladiator rink. Gossip designed to fulfill a similar function and in fact now the mass media broadcast live the slaughtering of fallen gods. There isn‘t any question of revenge here - just Schadenfreude, the guilty joy of witnessing your superiors penalized and "it right all the way down to size" 

Q. With your country, that are the celebrities people adore to hate? 

A. Israelis prefer to watch politicians and wealthy businessmen reduced, demeaned, and slighted. In Macedonia, where I live, all famous people, no matter their vocation, are subject to intense, proactive, and destructive envy. This love-hate relationship with the idols, this ambivalence, is attributed by psychodynamic theories of personal development towards the child's emotions towards his parents. Indeed, we transfer and displace many negative emotions we harbor onto celebrities. 

Q. I might never dare to ask some questions the reporters from Panico ask the celebrities. Do you know the characteristics of individuals like these reporters? 

A. Sadistic, ambitious, narcissistic, lacking empathy, self-righteous, pathologically and destructively envious, having a fluctuating sense of self-worth (possibly an inferiority complex ). 

6. Can you believe the actors and reporters want themselves to become as famous like the celebrities they tease? Because I believe this is almost happening... 

A. The line is extremely thin. Newsmakers and newsmen and ladies are celebrities merely because they‘re public figures and no matter their true accomplishments. A celebrity is famous for being famous. In fact, such journalists will become prone to fall prey to up and coming colleagues inside an endless and self-perpetuating food chain... 

7. I believe the fan-celebrity relationship gratifies each side. Do you know the advantages the fans get and do you know the advantages the celebrities get? 

A. It comes with an implicit contract between a celebrity and his fans. The celebrity is obliged to "act the part," to fulfill the expectations of his admirers, to not deviate coming from the roles they impose and she or he accepts. In return, the fans shower the celebrity with adulation. They idolize him or her and produce him, or she feels omnipotent, immortal, "larger than life" omniscient, superior, and sui generis (unique). 

Do you know the fans were getting for their trouble? 

Above all, a chance to vicariously share the celebrity's fabulous (and, usually, partly confabulated ) existence. The celebrity becomes their "representative" in fantasyland, their extension and proxy, the reification and embodiment of the deepest desires and the majority secret and guilty dreams. Many celebrities will also be role models or father/mother figures. Celebrities are proof that there‘s more to life than drab and routine. That beautiful - day, perfect - people are available which they do lead charmed lives. There is hope yet - this is the celebrity's message to his fans. 

The celebrity's inevitable downfall and corruption are that the modern-day equivalent of the medieval morality play. This trajectory - from rags to riches and fame and rags or worse - proves that order and justice do prevail, that hubris invariably gets punished, which the celebrity isn‘t any better, neither is he superior, to his fans. 

8. Why are celebrities narcissists? How is that this disorder born? 

Nobody knows if pathological narcissism is that the outcome of inherited traits, the sad results of abusive and traumatizing upbringing, as well as confluence of both. Often, inside the same family, with a similar group of parents and an identical emotional environment - some siblings grow to become malignant narcissists, while others are perfectly "normal". Surely, this indicates a genetic predisposition of a couple others to develop narcissism. 

It might seem reasonable to assume - though, at this time, there Isn‘t a shred of proof - the narcissist is born having a propensity to develop narcissistic defenses. These are triggered by abuse or trauma throughout the child in infancy or during early adolescence. By "abuse" I‘m referring to some spectrum of behaviors which objectify the child and treat it being an extension from the caregiver (parent ) or like a mere instrument of gratification. Dotting and smothering are as abusive as beating and starving. And abuse could be dished out by peers along with by parents, or by adult role models. 

It's not all celebrities are narcissists. Still, a few of them surely are. 

All of us look for positive cues from people around us. These cues reinforce in us certain behavior patterns. There‘s nothing special in the undeniable fact that the narcissist-celebrity does a similar. However, there will be two major differences involving the narcissistic and also the normal personality. 

The very first is quantitative. The standard person is prone to welcome a moderate level of attention – verbal and non-verbal – as affirmation, approval, or admiration. An excessive amount attention, though, is perceived as onerous and it is avoided. Destructive and negative criticism is avoided altogether. 

The narcissist, in contrast, is that the mental equivalent in an alcoholic. He‘s insatiable. He directs his whole behavior, actually his life, to get these pleasurable titbits of attention. He embeds them inside a coherent, completely biased, picture of himself. He uses them to be able to regulate his labile (fluctuating ) sense of self-worth and self-esteem. 

To elicit constant interest, the narcissist projects onto others a confabulated, fictitious version of himself, referred to as False Self. The False Self is everything the narcissist Isn't: omniscient, omnipotent, charming, intelligent, rich, or well-connected. 

The narcissist then proceeds to harvest reactions for this projected image from relations, friends, co-workers, neighbors, business partners and from colleagues. If these – the adulation, admiration, attention, fear, respect, applause, affirmation – aren‘t forthcoming, the narcissist demands them or exports them. Money, compliments, a favorable critique, an appearance in the media, a sexual conquest are converted into a similar currency inside the narcissist's mind, into "narcissistic supply."

So, the narcissist Isn‘t curious about publicity per se as well as being famous. Truly He‘s worried about the REACTIONS to his fame: how people watch him, notice him, point out him, debate his actions. It"proves" to him that he exists. 

The narcissist goes around "hunting and collecting" the way in which the expressions on people's faces change once they notice him. He places himself in the center of attention, or perhaps like a figure of controversy. He constantly and recurrently pesters those nearest and dearest to him inside a bid to reassure himself that he‘s not losing his fame, his magic touch, the eye of his social milieu. 

I think it's enough all about Addiction to Fame and Celebrity. Thanks so much :)

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