The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America

A buzzkill worth reading
Other reviewers have, correctly, pointed out that this book is not a breakthrough. The same message, or at least a very similar one, has been shown in other research and stated by other people long ago (you’ll find that Pinsky and Young cite plenty of them). Even Pinsky and Young’s major contribution to the peer-reviewed literature on narcissism, their scientific study on celebrity narcissism, was published more than two years ago in October of 2006 and was widely publicized by the end of that year.I will even go a step further and say that this book is a buzzkill. In reading the first chapter, “Modern Celebrity: From Marilyn to Miley,” unless you have been living in a cave you will probably find that Drew has some harsh criticism for people, things, or behaviors that you’re a fan of or have indulged in. For that matter he would probably find some fault with voluntary modern-day cave-dwellers, if only because they would be a great topic for a reality TV show. In fact, sex advice columnist Dan Savage recently described Dr. Drew as “a BDSM-o-phobe, a premarital-sex-o-phobe [and] a three-way-o-phobe” going on to say, “when it comes to human sexuality, there’s not a lot of daylight between Dr. Drew and Pope Benedict XVI.”All of these, of course, are horrible reasons to ignore Drew’s message, and if you do, it is at your own peril. Drew isn’t asking anyone to wear a hairshirt, preform prostrations or to avoid having sex before marriage (although it may be healthy to wait until after your 18th birthday before having sex, and long after that before marriage). The point here is that narcissistic traits are transmitted generationally and that the conditions creating them (such as childhood trauma and modeling of narcissistic behavior in media) are increasing. Drew demonstrates convincingly that high-levels of narcissism are not only unhealthy for the people with them, but also shows when these traits become pervasive in a society they create a toxic culture.The real value of this book, however, isn’t in it’s description of narcissism or in documenting the increasing prevalence of narcissism, it’s that it provides a meaningful vision. It’s not glib advice, Drew never says anything like “stop with the three-ways, BDSM and drugs.” It’s not about that. Chapters Nine and Ten give valuable advice to parents and to the rest of us in terms of things to do rather than things to avoid. In Chapter Ten Drew lists them in seven steps: strive for increased self-insight and embrace the concept of something greater, practice rigorous honesty, keep things simple and live up to commitments, spend time with a broad range of people, share your feelings, learn to appreciate the feelings of others, and be of service.Longtime Loveline listeners will appreciate the commentary about Dr. Phil in Chapter Four, and Adam Carolla in Appendix A.

Must read for parents of adolescents and young adults
Here is my premise, please feel free to skip: To be honest, I don’t don’t really like Dr. Drew very much, but I do think that he is a good physician. I also feel that educating the general public on the disastrous repercussions of drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, and other self-destructive behaviors that effect millions of people is paramount in addressing these problems. However, it is my opinion that television shows such as Celebrity Rehab and 16 and Pregnant are actually detrimental, considering the target audience. By sensationalizing chronic drug abuse among celebrities and other peers of the target audience, not only does the care of the patients suffer, the intended message of the dangers of drug abuse is diminished. As a medical professional, I feel as though all of these shows undermine the severity of these disease, and are more about entertainment and ratings than rehabilitation and care.Now, as for the book: I think this book is very well written and makes some excellent points about how celebrities’ behavior and constant media coverage of such behavior is become destructive to children, adolescents, and families. The emergence of “celeb-utants”, who derive fame from drug use, sex-tapes, and other late-night antics set an awful example for young people. Added to the fact that their celebrity status leads to essentially no legal consequences (such as less than hour in jail), impressionable young people are imprinted with the notion that success and irresponsible behavior are not mutually exclusive. I know that this sounds like a ridicule by a cynically, out-of-touch loser, and maybe that is true. But I am also a medical professional and am younger than most of the people referenced in the group.I feel as though though this book takes an important step away from sensationalizing the abhorrent behavior exhibited by many celebrities and takes a more realistic and pertinent reflection on how manage them. It is also appropriate for young adults, who are the primary beneficiaries of the book. I would recommend this book for parents; read it, and then give it to your teenage kids to read. It’s not a “shock and awe” book meant to instill fear in readers, but rather provides relevant educational content that is useful to a large demographic.

This was an engrossing read and also a little scary for those of us who are parents,but also a useful read for any child care professionals.Dr Drew Pinsky along with Mark Young look at what they call the Narcissistic Personality and the prevalence of those characteristics amongst many of those in the Public eye and how ‘normalising’ some of their behaviour e.g. heavy drinking, sexualised behaviour, substance abuse etc. can effect our children by changing what they consider to be normal behaviours. The more we see and read about it in celebrity/gossip magazines and on the Internet the more normal and acceptable to behaviour becomes, without realising that often we are witnessing the incredibly difficult/torrid behaviour and breakdown of some very damaged individuals. A Fab Read