Lady+Gaga

== =Lady Gaga= by Sarah Sweeny = = =Biography= Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who is widely known as Lady Gaga, was born on March 28, 1986 in Manhattan. She taught herself piano by ear at the age of four, and wrote her first song at the age of thirteen. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Catholic School in Manhattan. Lady Gaga has made many references that she was constantly teased while in high school for not fitting in and having an eccentric style. By the age of seventeen, she was granted early admission to New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, making her one of only twenty people who were granted early admission. Lady Gaga’s admission to the Tisch School was quite an accomplishment that was no doubt due to her talent. Despite this, she dropped out after her freshman year to pursue a professional music career. Lady Gaga began to play clubs on the Lower East side of Manhattan, often where other famous artists had their start as well. In order to support herself, she worked as a waitress during the day, as well as designed and created her own elaborate costumes. It was during this time of struggle that she experimented with drugs, and she was also signed to Def Jam records. This period of time also gave rise to her stage name. “Gaga” is a reference to the song “Radio Gaga” by Queen, and she decided to take on this name after a music producer compared her voice to Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury. Def Jam records eventually dropped Lady Gaga from the label, but she was then picked up by Interscope records after popular music artist Akon heard her work. After being signed to Interscope and finishing her debut album “The Fame”, Lady Gaga released her first single “Just Dance”. She received immediate attention, not only for the popularity of her song, but for her ridiculous and over-the-top outfits. She won two Grammies in 2010, and another three in 2011. It is clear that Lady Gaga is not one to hide from the public eye. From wearing a dress made of meat or arriving to the Grammy awards incubating in an egg, to identifying as a bisexual woman who constantly advocates for gay rights, Lady Gaga is not ashamed of who she is and what she is working towards. She states her passion for music and fashion, noting inspirations such as Madonna, Grace Jones, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Peggy Bundy, and Donatella Versace. But she also acknowledges the power she holds with her fame, and works for equal rights of all, and also hopes that her music will be an inspiration to others who don’t feel they fit in. She wants to use her talent for the benefit of others, not herself. = Neo-Analytic and Ego Perspective = The neo-analytic approach is based on Sigmund Freud’s ideas. Freud believed that there were three parts to personality – the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the pleasure principle, the ego is the reality principle, and the superego is the morality principle. Furthermore, Freud believed that other than our conscious memories and memories in long-term storage, we all have repressed memories, which could be accessed through his therapy. He also theorized that human development took place in psychosexual stages, and that as we move through life, we focus our energy on different parts of our body. This begins with the oral stage, then moves through the anal, phallic, and latency stages, before ending in the genital stage. Lastly, Freud believed that we all use defense mechanisms in order to protect ourselves from our threatening repressed memories. This was a very brief overview of Freud’s belief, solely to lay the groundwork for looking at the neo-analytic approach to personality. This took Freud’s ideas and incorporated social influences. Prominent theorists of this perspective are Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney, among others. Jung, Freud’s protégé, theorized that the mind is comprised of the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious,; the ego is the most important. He also believed in archetypes, or basic drives behind personality. An example of this is animus and anima, which are the male element in a woman and a female element in a man, respectively. Complexes and functions were also part of Jung’s theory; complexes are related to a particular theme, such as inferiority, and the functions are sensing, thinking, feeling, and intuiting. Adler elaborated on the complexes theory. Most importantly, he believed in two major attitudes of the mind: extroversion and introversion. Extroversion occurs when a person outwardly directs their psychic energy, and introversion occurs when a person inwardly directs their psychic energy. In respect to Lady Gaga, I believe she would fall under extroversion. Extroversion is the right fit for Lady Gaga because she is not afraid to express herself to thousands of people. She is bold in her lyrics and statements about what she believes in. Jung took the two attitudes and combined it with the four functions to make 8 types of personality, which is the basis of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator used to assess personality. Adler was a strong believer in the need to compensate for feelings of inferiority. He theorized that all human behavior results from an attempt to demolish feelings of inferiority, and that we are born with some weakness that we strive to compensate for, which is called organ inferiority. One way people can compensate is by using an aggression drive, which marks the beginning of rejection of inferiority and is sparked by feelings of helplessness. Lady Gaga seems to have used an aggression drive, as noted by the excessive teasing she received in high school. Her feelings of helplessness in this situation could have led to a desire to reject inferiority. Another mechanism Adler thought humans used is masculine protest, in which an individual takes on masculine characteristics. In order to make it in the music industry, one has to be ruthless and aggressive to go far. Given Lady Gaga’s current fame level, it is clear that she took on masculine protest in order to achieve the amount of attention she has. Lastly, according to Adler, we all strive for superiority in order to make up for our inferiority. This can result in either an inferiority complex or a superiority complex. An inferiority complex will leave a person feeling helpless and incompetent; while a superiority complex will lead a person to feel overly competent. Lady Gaga certainly does not have an inferiority complex. While it appears that she may have during her difficult time in high school, her rejection of this lead to her current superiority complex, which allows her to be fearless in her music and fashion choices. She is constantly sparking controversy, the most recent being her unreleased music video for her newest single “Judas”. She apparently will play a Catholic figure, Mary Magdalene, in the video, which has many Catholics enraged. This is merely her latest controversial act. All of these things she does that lead to an uproar stem from her superiority complex; that she feels she has enough power to do these types of things. Lastly, Horney took on personality from a feminist perspective. She felt it was society that leads to a woman’s feelings of inferiority, and that women do not have penis envy, they simply want the power that is associated with being a male in our society. Furthermore, she believed that males are envious of a woman’s ability to bear children. Horney also addressed basic anxiety, which is a child’s fear of being alone. She came up with three coping styles for this anxiety. Compliant children embody the passive style; argumentative children embody the aggressive style; and emotionally unengaged children embody the withdrawn style. While there is not much information available about Lady Gaga’s childhood; given her current personality one could assume she used an aggressive style. She obviously had to fight to be noticed among thousands of other artists in New York, and possess something special to become as famous as she is today. According to Horney, we also have three selves. The first is the real self, our inner core, the second is the despised self, which houses our feelings of incompetence, and the third is the ideal self, which houses our perfect self. When we lose touch with the real self, people use coping strategies. The first is moving toward, in which people strive for approval and personal relationships. The second is moving against, in which people strive for power. The last is moving away, in which people become emotionally unengaged. Lady Gaga seems to be moving against. While she constantly states that it is her love of art and music that is her driving force, Lady Gaga would not be able to campaign for what she believes in without power and recognition. She seems to be most passionate about gay rights, and she knows that the way to make a difference and inspire people for the cause is through her power. = Trait and Skill Perpective = Jung inspired the trait approach with his typology theory. The main theories of this perspective are the Big Five, Eysenck’s Big Three, and Murray’s needs. The Big Five is a way of assessing personality through five core traits of all humans. These are extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. Lady Gaga would score high on extroversion. This is for the same reason that she is classified as an extrovert according to Jung. She makes bold fashion statements, such as wearing a dress made of meat, and is not one to hide her personal beliefs from the public eye. Lady Gaga is moderate on agreeableness. She appears to be a kind individual, and is eternally thankful to her fans whom she calls her “little monsters”, but is certainly not modest. Again, Lady Gaga would score moderately on consciousness. She can be impulsive, which would be a low score, but is also persistent and competent in her work, which would result in a high score. Lady Gaga would most likely be low on neuroticism. While she was going through teasing in high school she may have scored high, but her bad life experiences seem to have a positive effect on who she is now. Lady Gaga would score high on openness. She is always looking to be the first to have the newest trend in the fashion industry, and to set the precedent. She is highly involved with Haus of Gaga, which designs her costumes, and most recently became the creative director of the camera company Polaroid. She also freely talks about her sexuality, proudly identifying as a bisexual women. Eyesenck’s Big Three are extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism. Extroversion and neutoriticism are scored the same from the previous Big Five analysis. The different trait here is psychoticism, which is a person’s risk factor for psychopathology. Given the fact that we do not completely know Lady Gaga’s history, or her family history, it is hard to rate this. However, fame can be overwhelming to some individuals, leading to psychopathology. I do not think this is the case with Lady Gaga. She seems to have known for a long time this is how she wanted to live her life, and has probably prepared herself for all of the overwhelming aspects of living in the public eye. At this point in time, she seems well adjusted to being such a public figure. Henry Murray believed there are four needs that we all strive for in our lives. These are the need for achievement, affiliation, power, and exhibition. The need for achievement indicates a desire to succeed, the need for affiliation is the desire for interpersonal relationships, the need for power is a desire to have power over others, and the need for exhibition indicates a desire to entertain or shock others. Lady Gaga seems to be low on all the needs except the need for exhibition. She defies what is typical in society (achievement), at least in her fashion choices, is a solo artist that is dedicated to her work (affiliation), and doesn’t seem to seek out positions that would give her control over others (power). However, she does live to shock people; each new thing she does tops the last and creates even more controversy. = Discussion = It is clear the Lady Gaga’s teen years exerted an influence on her life now. The teasing she experience in high school could have made her feel helpless, and in turn reject that feeling and strive for superiority. She is bold, fearless, and original, and always trying to outdo herself in one way or another. For a person with as much fame as she has achieved, she appears relatively comfortable being such a public figure, and plans to use her status to inspire those who are struggling with the same things she did. She is using her fame to benefit others, which is more than most celebrities can say. = Works Cited = Gaskins, J. (2011, February 3). //Chapter 3: Psychoanalytic Aspects of Personality// [PDF Document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Website: [|http://www.huskyct.uconn.edu]. Gaskins, J. (2011, February 8). //Chapter 4: Neo-Analytic and Ego Aspects of Personality:// //Identity// [PDF Document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Website: [|http://www.huskyct.uconn.edu]. Gaskins, J. (2011, March 22). //Chapter 8: Trait and Skill Aspects of Personality//. [PDF Document]. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Website: [|http://www.huskyct.uconn.edu]. Mock, J. & Wang, J. (n.d.) //Lady Gaga//. Retrieved from []. (n.d.). //Biography for Lady Gaga.// Retrieved from []. (n.d.) //Lady Gaga & Polaroid//. Retrieved from []. (n.d.). //Lady Gaga Bio.// Retrieved from []. (n.d.) //Lady Gaga Biography//. Retrieved from []. (n.d.) //Photos//. Retrieved from [].