Mariah+Carey

=Mariah Carey=

By: Chelsea Dellano



“All I know is I just want one day off when I can go swimming and look at rainbows and like eat ice cream. And maybe like learn how to ride a bicycle” –Mariah Carey during an infamous crazy outburst while surprising an audience at TRL. She was admitted to a mental hospital a few days later. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KFRdWch9gw) =Biography:=

Mariah Carey was born on March 27, 1970 in Long Island, New York to a Black and Venezuelan father and a Caucasian mother. Her parents divorced when she was three. Mariah started taking singing lessons at age 4, so she was seemingly destined for stardom for basically forever. After graduating high school she opted out of a tradition choice of college or a normal career and moved to Manhatten and worked during the day (as a waitress, coat check girl), studied cosmetology and pursed music career at night. Mariah Carey went on to make many hit singles during the 90’s however the 2000’s weren’t as good to Mariah. In 1993 Mariah Carey got married to Mottola, the man who signed her record deal with Columbia records, despite the fact that he was about 20 years older then her. This marriage, however, did not last and she got divorced in 1997. She went on to have a string of bad relationships until she eventually married Nick Cannon. After she signed an 80 million dollar deal with Virgin records (the biggest record contract ever) in 2001 she experienced a very public and crazy professional meltdown. It was common knowledge during the time that Mariah was going through a nervous breakdown. This nervous breakdown included different types of rambling, suicidal messages on her website, Glitter (which did horribly critically and commercially). After these different sorts of failures, Virgin records and Mariah Carey ‘parted ways’. Mariah Carey had a few years where she was out of the lime light while she recovered from her mental breakdown. She went on to produce more records that did incredibly well. It also seems like Mariah Carey finally found love in an unlikely partner, Nick Cannon, who is 12 years her junior. She is quoted as saying “I definitely feel more complete than before. There’s a void you have when you don’t feel you’ve found the other part of who are, so I’m in a different place now and that’s nice to experience”. While Mariah Carey is undoubtedly a superstar, there are some questionable aspects of her personality that should be observed. Given the fact that she has had 18 number one singles in the 20 years plus she has been a preformer, there are still some aspects of her life that should be looked at in a psychological way. ( http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1567613/mariah-carey-tommy-mottola-was-restrictive.jhtml) ( []) = Freudian Psychoanalytic Perspective =

It might be interesting to view Mariah Carey’s personality from a Freudian perspective. Freud stresses the important of early childhood experiences on personality. There is much evidence that shows that Mariah Carey seems to be what Freud would have termed ‘anal’. Reasons it would be assumed that Mariah Carey might potentially be stuck in Freud’s anal stage would seemingly be her need to control her environment and the anxiety that has come out of not being able to control her outcomes and not succeeding the way she anticipated. Her nervous breakdown is a perfect example of Mariah Carey showing a sort of ‘passive aggressive’ way of getting back. Mariah was admitted to the hospital for over exhaustion from seemingly working too much. This can be interpreted as a quality of anal retentiveness: not overly saying anything about being too tired, but getting to the point where she needed to be hospitalized for being too tired (passively attacking, making her managers and such look bad when she could have easily said something). The potential reason for her being stuck in this anal retentive stage, Freud might suggest, would be her parents divorce at age 3, during which children are in the anal stage. Another thing Freud might look at in terms of Mariah Carey’s personality is the idea of and how Mariah Carey might have show cased some signs of this. Mariah Carey didn’t really see much of her father after her parents divorced and her mother worked a lot. Mariah might have interpreted this as her mother having to overcompensate for her father’s not being around and found a subconscious need for an older father like figure in the house. Mariah might have exemplified projection. Projection is taking unacceptable impulses in yourself onto someone else. From a psychoanalytic perspective, Mariah’s not having a father like figure in the house might have forced her to project her desires for a father like figure into her marrying a man much older then her who seemingly treated her like a daughter figure. Mariah Carey has often described Tommy Motolla as ‘restrictive’. Mariah Carey was quoted as saying ”Maybe it’s for my own good that I wasn’t “allowed” to do those things, but that’s not how it felt. It felt suddenly like I had a strict father..”. This quote really makes it seem like she was projecting her lack of a father figure sort of desires onto her husband, Tommy Motolla. ( http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1567613/mariah-carey-tommy-mottola-was-restrictive.jhtml) = Neo analytic Perspective (Jung, Adler, and Erikson) =

If Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, or Erik Erikson were to analyze the personality of Mariah Carey from a neo analytic perspective it would be very different from the psychoanalysis of Freud. Jung looked at personality in terms of its goals, and Mariah Carey definitely had a lot of goals. Mariah’s personality would be interesting to examine in terms of Jung’s archetypes. It seems like she has some clear archetypes that can be seen, despite attempts to make them hidden. The persona and shadow can be seen in Mariah Carey. Her persona would be the ‘diva’ that she has always presented herself as. Mariah Carey liked to make it seem like she was always composed and put together, and did a good job putting on that mask. However the shadow archetype was shown when Mariah eventually checked into a mental hospital. The shadow is the unacceptable side of personality (shameful desires and motives that we would rather not admit tot and these impulses eventually lead to socially unacceptable thoughts and actions. Mariah’s crazy ramblings and suicide thoughts could definitely be seen as unacceptable thoughts and actions. Another part of Carl Jung’s approach is describing two different types of attitudes people might have: extroversion and introversion. Extroversion is described by Jung as directing the libido, or psychic energy, towards things in the external world whereas introversion is seen as directing the libido towards things in the inside world. It would definitely be evident through Mariah Carey’s ability to sing in front of millions of people that she is a highly extroverted individual. Alfred Adler is another neo-analytic psychologist discusses complex one such complex being a superiority complex. Superiority complex according to Adler is an exaggerated arrogance that an individual develops in order to overcome an inferiority complex. It seems like Mariah Carey definitely has a superiority complex. Mariah Carey has made references to being of different races and not exactly fitting into any one crowd. She also lacked the usual image of a father figure and she seemingly suffered from this. Mariah always really portrayed the figure of a ‘diva’ more so then most other celebrities. This can be seen from Mariah exersizing in her high heels on that famous episode of MTV cribs. It seems like this could be a sign of a superiority complex. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQrdfId2j0A&feature=related) If Mariah’s personality were to be examined from Erikson’s contributions to neo-analytic theory it could be argued that she is currently in the transition from the intimacy versus isolation stage into the generativity versus stagnation stage. The quote mentioned in the biography portion (“I definitely feel more complete than before. There’s a void you have when you don’t feel you’ve found the other part of who are, so I’m in a different place now and that’s nice to experience") shows the longing for love Mariah felt (isolation) that is now filled because of a loved one (intimacy). The fact that she is currently pregnant shows her transition into the next stage generativity versus stagnation. This shows that Mariah is now in the stage where she is ready to form a family and transmit values onto her family, which is the major task of this stage. It is interesting to note, however, that is seems like Mariah entered the intimacy versus isolation stage late and then quickly transitioned into the generativity versus stagnation stage, which is more on target with her age. ( http://www.enownow.com/news/story.php?sno=5246 = Discussion =

It seems like using the two aforementioned approaches are the best way to describe Mariah Carey. Using Freud’s approach to describe her is incredibly interesting in that she really seems to be stuck in the anal stage and that she had projected her need for a father figure onto her ex-husband. Using the neo analytic perspective is also incredibly interesting as Mariah clearly exhibits the persona shadow archetype and is a perfect example of extroversion. She also shows clear symptoms of having a superiority complex, thus really making the neo analytic approach a perfect one to use when describing a celebrity like Mariah Carey. Looking at her life in terms of Erikson's stages is interesting because you can see her quick and late transitions between the stages. While Mariah Carey definitely has some psychological issues, she remains to be one of the most talented performers. She had a hard life, growing up poor and then being in the lime light, and it's great to see that it looks like she finally has everything together.

=References= // Mariah carey biography //. (n.d.). Retrieved from [] Morrissey, T. (n.d.). //Remember when mariah carey went crazy//. Retrieved from [|http://jezebel.com/#!380151/remember-when-mariah-carey-went-crazy://www.biography.com/articles/Mariah-Carey-9542177?part=1] // mariah carey says tommy mottola was 'restrictive'; plus diddy, beyonce, britney spears, ja rule, game & more, in for the record //. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1567613/mariah-carey-tommy-mottola-was-restrictive.jhtml

// Mariah carey's shocking breakdown details //. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cinema.com/news/item/5249/mariah-careys-shocking-breakdown-details.phtml