Born in August, 1958 to Joseph Jackson and Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson was the seventh child in the family (Chopra, 2009). Upon turning five years of age, Michael joined his brothers in a music group where he was the lead singer, and they would later become to be known as The Jackson Five (Chopra, 2009). The childhood experience for Michael was not rosy as the father was always violent as he pushed them to perform in order to succeed in their career and life. Owing to the pressure from the father, Michael would extensively miss on his childhood and only focus on singing and performing something that would later have effects on his life. During his life, he was modeled by a Jehovah Witness where he would grow up as a shy and quiet individual, a trait that he never exhibited on stage (Bailyn, 2008). In 1968, with the group, they would release their first album known as the Jackson Five. At the age of thirteen, Michael would begin advancing his solo career and he released an album known as Ben. Later, he would release other albums which include Off the Wall, Thriller and Dangerous.

In 1984, Michael would be involved in an accident at a soda commercial that resulted into burns on his head and face (Chopra, 2009). The accident would be a defining moment in the life of Michael where he would take advantage of plastic surgery and change his nose. Michael would later create his retreat, known as Neverland, which was more of amusement park with exotic pets, numerous rides and several games. Later, he was accused of child molestation at his ranch and had to be tried and later the charges would be dropped. Michael was a father to three children through artificial insemination. Through his life, Michael received a lot of criticisms concerning the strange things that he did in public. In order to redeem his personality, Michael was to carry out the last performance that he called, This Is It, however he did not do it due to an overdose of acute propofol intoxication which ultimately led to his demise in June 25, 2009(Schulte, 2000). Owing to this background, this paper seeks to carry out psychoanalysis of his life and personality.

Personality Structure

The approach is given by Freud in terms of personality entailed disintegration of the mind structure. In his analysis, Freud broke the structures in three main parts which included the identity, ego, and the superego (Gaffney & Perryman, 2011). Within the structures, Freud posits that there are principles, desires and controls that enable individuals to control their instincts, as well as motivations (Freud, 1937). According to Freud, the identification is more of the trait that is undifferentiated from one individual to another. In the identity there are facets which include pleasure principle that is mandated to drive after each human desire (Freud, 1937). In relation to Michael Jackson, we get that he had a very powerful identity where all his desires resided as much as he was a child and at the same time being in a position to experience everything that a child goes through. Given that in his childhood he lost most of the childhood plays and pleasures like visiting amusement parks, making friends at his elementary stage, having sleepovers, he apparently fulfilled his desires when he was an adult (Schustack& Friedman, 2006). His life would then be criticized in public as he lived his childhood in adulthood.

Using psychoanalytic approach by Freud to analyze Michael gives us a chance to comprehend that the reason why Michael did not clearly understand or even acknowledge that he was acting so weird before the public. The reason behind his action was mainly because his ego was underdeveloped and weak (Freud, 1937). The ego of an individual is the segment that is meant to understand and deal with the real world hence the principle that defines and comprehends reality is located there. The reality principle is meant to deal with situations that are real and the real problems that present themselves to the society. In general, the ego then helps to strike a balance between Id so that an individual acts in a normal way in the society.

Biologically, the ego of Michael was not really strong thus his Id easily took over and this could be referred by Freud as gratification being the pivotal part and at the core of Michael’s personality the other example of identity of Michael overpowering his ego is evident when he creates the fantasy amusement park called Neverland (Freud, 1937)his lifestyle; treating it as abnormal (Schustack& Friedman, 2006).

When Michael’s third son was born, his fans demanded and gathered around the place where he was demanding to see his son. Upon giving in to the demands of his fan, Michael lifted the newborn baby high over the balcony. The gathering was enraged and demanded that the protective services of the child take his kids away. According to Freud, Michael lacked the ego that would deal with real life problems and hence he did not even think that hanging the baby over the balcony was a problem (Freud, 1937). Thus, Michael can be said to have thought instantly to do this and so he did it.

According to an analysis by Freud, Michael suffers from anxiety which arise from the challenges from the outer environment and inner desires (Freud, 1937). There are numerous defense mechanisms that individuals turn to solve their anxiety problems. For example, Michael uses regression as his form of defense where he diverts to his earlier safe stages in life. Obviously, for Michael, the safest place for him to be is to act like a child (Schultz &Wachter, 2008). With very few childhood experiences, Michael got he yearns for more and often regresses back to them.

In the public, Michael Jackson fit Freud’s traditional analytic theory as it identifies with narcissism in that he fit Freud’s meaning of the ego perfect (Freud, 1937): he was beguiling and guaranteed in realizing that his ability was remarkable. Then again, it appears his ego perfect was set up as an aftereffect of (and to ensure) his cracked personality (Munter, 1975).

In the early years, we are all narcissistic. As the youngster develops, the ego and super-ego begin to create. The kid’s attributes and qualities be impacted by nature, which impacts neuronal pathways. Kolb &Whishaw (1998) found that the encounter (sustain) fortifies neuroplasticity. Basically, how folks captivate and treat their tyke is an encounter that influences how neuronal pathways are mapped and, henceforth, view of the truth is framed. Case in point, in light of the fact that Michael Jackson’s guardians were centered around their kids accomplishing what they could not accomplish, they were to some degree activist in how their youngsters practiced and (re)acted (Schultz &Wachter, 2008). As being what is indicated, when Michael Jackson was musically captivated, “Dopamine, the neurotransmitter connected with passionate regulation, readiness, and state of mind, is discharged, and the dopaminergic framework helps in the encoding of the memory follow” (Levitin, 2007). Thusly, Michael’s dopaminergic pathways Gershon, 1992).

Defense Mechanisms

The ego adjusts the id, the superego and reality so as to keep up a sound state of consciousness. It in this way responds to secure the individual from any stressors and uneasiness by twisting reality. This anticipates undermining unconscious musings and material from entering the consciousness (Modell, 2008). The diverse sorts of defense mechanisms are Repression, response arrangement, refusal, projection, relocation, sublimation, relapse, and legitimization.

As of late, it has gotten to be undauntedly clear that the affection Michael Jackson got from his guardians had a ton of conditions connected (Schultz &Wachter, 2008)captures that, “Dreadfully a large portion of us needed to learn as youngsters to hide our particular emotions, needs, and memories skillfully so as to live up to our guardians’ desires and win their ‘adoration.’” (Miller, 1997 (Miller, 1997). It appears evident that not just did Michael Jackson’s guardians fizzle in providing mental security; however that Michael Jackson needed to learn as a youthful tyke to hide his feelings, needs and memories with a specific end goal to live up to his guardians’ desires and win their affection. Where Michael seemed happiest – where he could express his feelings – was the spot he got his most noteworthy awards: on the stage singing and moving.

Neo-Analytic Approach

Neo-analytic approach fan out from the psychoanalytic approach with the stress of identity being more impacted by social factors rather than biological factors. Michael and his siblings were mishandled by their father, Joe, all through their youth (Epstude&Mussweiler, 2009). Their father’s method for pushing them to strive for achievement was to keep them from having a genuine youth and to be rough with them. As indicated by Alfred Adler, this made Michael create the sub-par quality complex. The mediocrity complex is the exceptional emotions of the individual ineptitude that come about because of powerlessness or a certain encounter that leaves an individual weak. Michael’s affliction of ill-use as a tyke came about him to turn to his ability of music, singing and performing. Singing and performing would then turn to turn into his predominance unpredictable, overstated haughtiness that Michael created to defeat his inclination of second rate quality. Michael demonstrated to the world that he was the best artist, dance specialist, lyricist in his era and Adler would dissect this has his prevalence mind boggling over beat his missing adolescence and ill-use from his father (Schultz &Wachter, 2008).

In 1993 youngster molestation assertions against Michael emerged. A thirteen-year-old kid blamed Michael for having him stay overnight at his Neverland farm and spend the night. Michael was never demonstrated liable, and the charges were dropped. A bit later on British columnist, Martin Bashir, was making a TV narrative called “Living with Michael” in which he asked Michael for what reason he let the youngsters rest in his cot. Michael reacted with “Why would you not be able to impart your bunk? That is the most cherishing thing to do, to impart your cot to somebody.” According to Karen Horney, Michael acts along these lines as a consequence of the extreme fundamental uneasiness as a tyke. Fundamental nervousness is a kid’s dreaded of being separated from everyone else, defenseless and unreliable (Mitchell, 1995). Michael never developed out of this and still experiences essential nervousness. Michael seems to the general society eye as somebody who is persuaded he is still a youngster regardless it alright to have other kids sleepover, which makes him show up like a crazy person. Horney would likewise say that Michael’s “genuine self” is harmed. True self is the internal center of identity that we see about ourselves, and this gets to be harmed by parental disregard and detachment (Miller, 1997). Plainly Michael’s father was not a decent father figure to Michael and dismissed seeing him as being a child; he treated Michael like a grown-up and put weights on him that Michael should not have taken care of as a kid.

Conclusion

of disregard from his father and feedback from people in general. Michael was a greatly gifted artist, nicknamed the “King of Pop” who was cherished and underpinned by a large portion of his fans (Elber, 2009) (Schustack& Friedman, 2006).

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