“The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized.” Stephen Hawking
One sense of the word “ego” is a distorted self-regard, what psychologist Carl Jung referred to as “inflated consciousness… hypnotized by itself.”
But high level achievement often brings with it fame, which can also lead others to have an “inflated consciousness” that interferes with authentic perceptions of a celebrity, and distorts relationships.
Charles Arthur wrote about some of these issues with respect to the famed British theoretical physicist:
“Ask around, and you begin to get the impression that there are people whose feathers are ruffled by Professor Hawking’s fame.
“Peter Coles, professor of astronomy at the University of Nottingham, says: ‘Coffee-time talks in physics departments often come up with the same topic: it’s very difficult to get anybody to say anything critical of him. But to have somebody like that in an establishment that runs on peer review isn’t healthy. The trouble is, people fear that they will be thought of as jealous.’
“However, Bernard Carr, a friend of Hawking’s who is professor of astronomy at Queen Mary College, London, says: ‘The fact is, he is a great physicist. To say he’s the greatest since Einstein is an exaggeration, but he’s a cult figure with the public, and that has to be good for the subject.’
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Posted in Identity / Self concept | No Comments » | 04.12.08 |
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“The presence of talent is not sufficient. Many people have more than one talent, and wonder what to do with them.”
Jane Piirto, Ph.D. continues in her book Talented Children and Adults, “What is the impetus, what is the reason, for one talent taking over and capturing the passion and commitment of the person who has the talent? A useful explanation comes from Socrates, who described the inspiration of the Muse… Carl Jung (1965) described the passion that engrosses; depth psychologist James Hillman described the presence of the daimon in creative lives.”
She considers this passion and inspiration “the thorn, because it bothers, it pricks, it causes obsession until it has its way, until the person with the talent begins to work on developing that talent.”
The idea of the daimonic has multiple meanings, “from befitting a demon and fiendish, to motivated by a spiritual force or genius and inspired. It can also mean (as a literary term) the unrest that exists in us all which forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery.” [From the Wikipedia page on the Daimonic.]
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Posted in Achievement | No Comments » | 03.08.08 |
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The photo is Oxford scholar, Yale law student, and USC legal professor Elyn Saks, who revealed in her memoir some of the “horrors and demons of schizophrenia,” as described in the article A secret life of madness, by John M. Glionna (Los Angeles Times), who writes that “she wrestled with uncouth visions, violent commands and suicidal impulses..
“In her worst moments, the TV made fun of her, ashtrays danced and walls collapsed. She believed she was single-handedly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. The brains of close associates were taken over by aliens.”
A National Institute of Mental Health study last year found “Most people inherit a version of a gene that optimizes their brain’s thinking circuitry, yet also appears to increase risk for schizophrenia.
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Posted in Mental health | No Comments » | 02.25.08 |
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In his article on the subject, Benedict Carey of The New York Times explores how there are, in fact, problems resulting from some kinds of striving for perfection.
He writes, “Some researchers divide perfectionists into three types, based on answers to standardized questionnaires: Self-oriented strivers who struggle to live up to their high standards and appear to be at risk of self-critical depression; outwardly focused zealots who expect perfection from others, often ruining relationships; and those desperate to live up to an ideal they’re convinced others expect of them, a risk factor for suicidal thinking and eating disorders.”
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Posted in Achievement, Perfectionism | No Comments » | 02.22.08 |
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“I’ve always been the nerdy, geekish outsider who still remembers how a lot of my classmates used to torture me. ..
Actor Sarah Michelle Gellar continued, “Growing up, I always felt different from other kids… All the success that the series - Buffy - has enjoyed has erased a lot of self-doubts that I grew up with. I don’t feel like the nerd or the loser any more.” [From the page Early Life 2.]
Being different, an outsider, and called by others a nerd or other names, can be upsetting to downright painful when we were kids, but how does that kind of label impact our adult identity, and what does it indicate about social attitudes toward creatively and intellectually exceptional people?
In his article Is It Good to Be Gifted?, David Palmer, Ph.D. writes, “For kids and teens, the pressure to conform is often so great that any deviation from the norm can be distressing. We’ve all heard terms like brain, nerd, geek or worse applied to kids who seem too bookish, or too ‘into’ school.
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Posted in Identity / Self concept | No Comments » | 02.15.08 |
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Terri Cheney, a former entertainment lawyer, recounts her decades-long struggle with bipolar disorder in her new book “Manic: A Memoir.”
Hilary MacGregor writes in the Los Angeles Times, “The book is not the first to give an autobiographical account of living bipolar. It joins the ranks of Kay Redfield Jamison’s “An Unquiet Mind,” Carrie Fisher’s “Postcards From the Edge” and “The Big Awful” (two novels based on her life) and Andy Behrman’s “Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania,” to name a few.
“But set in a glamorous world saturated with money and celebrity, the book not only describes Cheney’s individual struggle against this disease — which afflicts 5.7 million adult Americans of every age, gender and social class — it also provides an apt metaphor for the bizarre psychological terrain of Hollywood.”
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Posted in Mental health | No Comments » | 02.02.08 |
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