Abnormal psychology:diagnosing Marilyn Monroe - Essay Example

The essay aims to proffer a chosen infamous person in history believed to demonstrate behaviors conducive to a personality disorder. The individual’s behavior and personality would be described. Likewise, the disorder from which one believes the person suffered is identified by comparing his/her behaviors with the clinical features of the disorder according to the DSM IV. Finally, the discourse would determine the theoretical perspective and the rationale that drove his/her behavior. For this purpose, the person to be diagnosed is Marilyn Monroe.

Abnormal Psychology: Diagnosing Marilyn Monroe Every individual experienced and felt some sense of abandonment, isolation, identity disturbance at some point in one’s life. Situations such as death of a loved one, a divorce, unemployment, retirement, or even deciding to leave home for diverse reasons can trigger intense emotions of sublime loneliness. The feeling of being alienated is a much deeper and more lasting emotional disturbance than the simple grief that normally follows misfortune or unprepared transformations in lifestyle.

Alienation is deemed a complex sense of social isolation or apartness – a dissociative disorder, an incessant inquiry on one’s personal identity, a persistent loss of values, and a helpless feeling of loss of power and control despite magnanimous fame. These symptoms and feelings were manifested by Marilyn Monroe, one of the most glamorous, yet controversial stars who catapulted to fame in the 1950s. In this regard, the essay aims to proffer Marilyn Monroe’s behaviors conducive to a personality disorder.

The behavior and personality of Monroe would be described. Likewise, the disorder from which one believes Monroe suffered would be identified by comparing her behaviors with the clinical features of the disorder according to the DSM IV. Finally, the discourse would determine the theoretical perspective and the rationale that drove her disturbing behavior. Behavior and Personality Born Norma Jeane Mortenson on the 1st of June in 1926, Marilyn Monroe had a difficult childhood. She was born in Los Angeles, California “to Gladys Baker.

As the identity of her father is undetermined, she was later baptized Norma Jeane Baker” (Marilyn Monroe, 2006, 1). At a young age, Monroe’s biography revealed that her mother manifested symptoms of being afflicted with psychological problems contributing to persistent job loss and the inability to support Marilyn. Tragic events later required Gladys to be confined to a mental institution which was surmised to aggravate Marilyn’s unstable childhood. At that developmental stage, Marilyn had to stay in various orphanages and foster homes.

She got married at a tender age of 21, only after six months of dating. She divorced her first husband when her acting career began to prosper. Marilyn was revealed to have made a total of 30 films during her acting career. In 1962, she won a Golden Globe award for being the female World Film Favorite. At the peak of her career, Marilyn became “synonymous with beauty, sensuality and effervescence. She remains an inspiration to all who strive to overcome personal obstacles for the goal of achieving greatness” (Marilyn Monroe, 2006, 4).

Incidentally, in the prime of her career, at the age of 36, Marilyn was found dead on her sleep, supposedly from an overdose of sleeping pills. The controversial nature of her demise became more complicated as various professionals evaluate the events and the famous personality that could possibly be implicated in the event. Symptoms of the Disorder Due to the nature of her work, her unstable love life, absolutely no relatives to provide emotional or physical support, difficulty in sleeping, feelings of isolation, among others, Marilyn Monroe frequently uses sleeping pills, Nembutal, to aid in her sleeping disorder (Bell, 2010, 1).

Being an actress, the symptoms of having a sense o f being unreal and as if watching oneself in