Thank you so much for this pic Darrell. It’s Perfect!!!….LOL
Mister D: Ouch!!!! Well, I knew the day would come when psychiatrists would come up with a name for this…”Celebrity Worship Syndrome”. Where are my meds, dammit!!!!! Soon we’ll be seeing advertisements for something called Celebritaxil or something to that effect. Can’t wait. Actually a good antidote for CWS would be to watch The Factor on the Fox News Channel…soon you’ll be celebrity bashing…and there will be no side effects!!!:-) Anyway, I thought this was an interesting article…if you don’t recognize yourself in one of these groups…well, you’re in denial and it’s time for that 12 step program. Remember the old adage…”truth hurts” But as one Bettehead told me, at least we have good taste in the choice of our celebrity…but still…..OUCH!!!!!!!
Are you a celeb worshipper?
By James Chapman
Science Correspondent
Daily Mail
Do you wake up thinking of Geri Halliwell? Or wonder what Brad Pitt is eating for breakfast? If so, you could be one of a startling number of Britons suffering from a newly identified psychological condition: Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS).
One in three people is so obsessed with someone in the public eye that he or
she is a sufferer, say psychologists.
And one in four is so taken with their idol that the obsession affects their
daily life.
Psychologists at the University of Leicester, who used a celebrity worship
scale to rate the problems, found that 36 per cent of people suffered from
some form of CWS, or mad icon disease, and that the number was going up.
While many people were obsessed with glamorous film and pop stars, such as
George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, others had unlikely objects of affection,
including Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam.
One theory is that in a society dominated by TV and with a decline in
extended families and communities, celebrities have taken the place of
relatives, neighbours and friends for many people.
Respect for family members has been replaced by the worship of the famous.
Dr John Maltby, whose findings are published this week in the Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease, said: ‘Our findings suggest the possibility that
many people do not engage in celebrity worship for mere entertainment.
‘Rather, there appears to be a clear clinical component to attitudes and
behaviours associated with celebrity worshipping.’
The study of around 700 people aged 18 to 60 discovered that there were
three types of Celebrity Worship Syndrome.
Those with a mild affliction were likely to be extroverts, with a lot of
friends. Their worst symptom – at least for their friends – was a passion
for talking about their chosen celebrity. Dr Maltby said: ‘We found that 22 per
cent of our sample had the low-level form of Celebrity Worship Syndrome,
while 12 per cent showed signs of the moderate form which meant they had an
intense personal type relationship with their idol.
‘The third group, the hardcore CWS sufferers, are solitary, impulsive,
anti-social and troublesome, with insensitive traits.
‘They feel they have a special bond with their celebrity, believe their
celebrity knows them and are prepared to lie or even die for their hero.
Around 2 per cent of people had the most serious form of the syndrome,
meaning their celebrity worship was borderline pathological.’
What drives people into celebrity worship is not clear, Dr Maltby said. He
suggested one possibility was that it was a substitute for more conventional
relationships.
‘The people we have been looking at home in on one celebrity, usually people
from TV, films and sport,’ said Dr Maltby. ‘It is not necessarily a bad
thing. Many people-are interested in celebrities. `’Young men who are
obsessed with David Beckham, for instance, have a very positive role model.
‘We are beginning to define CWS for the first time. Research is suggesting
that people with CWS may be replacing normal relationships with these
relationships. If that proves to be the case, it would be very worrying for
society.’
According to psychologists, fan bases often resemble religions. The strong
similarity of Star Trek fans to a religious cult has been widely noted, with
fans organising conventions and recruiting new followers.
The obsessiveness of celebrity followers can also resemble religious
worship. For example, fans will frequently pursue an interest in one celebrity and denigrate competing stars.
Fans will also perform rituals which have parallels in religion or cults.
For example, they make sure they watch all of a celebrity’s television
appearances and try to collect items that have been touched by their chosen
star.
