Reality TV. Celebutantes. YouTube. Sex
Tapes. Gossip Blogs. Drunk Driving. Tabloids. Drug
Overdoses.
Is this entertainment? Why do we keep
watching? What does it mean for our kids?
In the last decade, the face of entertainment has
changed radically—and dangerously, as addiction specialist
Dr. Drew Pinsky and business and entertainment expert Dr. S.
Mark Young argue in this eye-opening new book. 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, exploitativeness, 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.
Informed and provocative, with the warm and empathetic
perspective that has won Dr. Drew Pinsky legions of fans,
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.
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