The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America - Tapa dura

"When it comes to judging celebrities and their behavior, it might be best to take a good look in the mirror." -- New York Post "Pinsky spells out a theory that stars are predisposed to narcissistic personality disorder long before they become famous...[The Mirror Effect] becomes a psychology lesson with celebrities as examples." -- Wired "Drew and Mark [talk] about the changing perception of celebrities, the hidden narcissism in all of us, and what parents can do to save their kids from the cult of Miley Cyrus." -- Babble.com "A compelling and intelligent study of the repercussions of today's fame-obsessed society." -- Flavorpill.com "The Mirror Effect is a smooth read...It stresses the importance of learning empathy, and how to pass that on to impressionable young people...a how-to guide for social change that promotes individual progress." -- LAist

Why are we so deeply interested in celebrity lives and loves, their endlessly repeated journey from rising star to inevitable flame out? In spite of extreme fame, fortune, and opportunity, why do their lives always seem so steeped in drama? And-most important - how are their lives changing ours? In this shattering new book, authors Drew Pinsky and S. Mark Young offer an eye-opening new look at our celebrity-crazed culture - from what drives people to seek fame in the first place, to how our obsession with celebrity is changing the emotional landscape. Drawing upon an unprecedented academic study of celebrity personality they recently published in "The Journal of Research in Personality (Sept: 06)" - the first such study to collect in-depth research data from actual celebrity sources - Pinsky and Young explore the widespread prevalence of narcissistic behavior among celebrities from all walks of fame, from actors and musicians to comedians and reality TV stars. Their core finding was that individuals who become celebrities are more likely to have certain kinds of psychological damage - narcissistic personality issues, often rooted in childhood trauma, with attendant mood disturbances, melodramatic tendencies, and substance abuse problems. And those issues, in turn, lead to the private-and increasingly public-struggles of celebrities that ultimately command public attention. They also press further, exploring how these celebrities' constant public exposure (in every sense of the word) is being modeled on a 24-hour basis to the rest of our culture-and especially our children.