Miley+Cyrus

**Miley Cyrus** by Erin Shea   **Biography**  Destiny Hope Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father is famous country singer and actor, Billy Ray Cyrus and her mother is Tish Cyrus. Her name was Destiny Hope because her two Christian parents believed that the new baby Cyrus would achieve great things in life. At the age of 15, in 2008, Destiny Hope legally changed her name to Miley Ray Cyrus. The name Miley came from the nickname that her parents gave her, ‘Smiley Miley’, due to her positive disposition as a child. The middle name Ray is in honor of her late grandfather, who the teen was incredibly close with. Miley caught her big break in 2006 when the Disney TV show, “Hannah Montana” took off, bringing in more viewers than ever before in Disney history, with Miley as the lead role. She eventually went on to be the only individual within the Walt Disney Company to have TV, film, and music deals as well as consumer products. She now creates records under her own name, Miley Cyrus, rather than the ‘Hannah Montana’ pseudonym and no longer appears in Disney TV shows, as she is making the transition to feature films. These accomplishments led Cyrus to be named the richest teenage celebrity in 2008 by //Parade// magazine. Miley’s fame continues to grow even today. The teenage star is a successful triple threat, having starred in ten films as well as headlining three platinum albums and three solo music tours.

 **Psychoanalytic Approach** When discussing Miley Cyrus’ personality in terms of the Freudian Psychoanalytic perspective, it is important to keep in mind the role of unconscious influences. Miley is still a young adult and her childhood experiences, as viewed by the Freudian psychosexual stages, have influenced her life relatively recently. Miley moved to Canada from Tennessee at the age of 8 so that her dad could pursue a career in acting. While he was filming the show //Doc//, Miley was exposed to the world of television production. During this time, she was going through the Latency Period of psychosexual development according to Freud. This means that Miley’s innate sexual energy was being channeled into other activities. Since her father’s new career was the most accessible activity at the time, it is not surprising that she decided to focus her time partaking in acting classes. Freud would also posit that residual feelings of jealousy derived from Miley’s penis envy of the previous Phallic Stage was another reason why Miley felt the need to emulate her father. This phenomenon postulates that women and girls feel inferior to men due to their lack of male genitalia. Penis envy may have acted as an impetus to drive Miley to be more like her father, thus landing her in her current career. Miley’s relationship with her father is another aspect of her life that Freud would look at with an analytic eye. In the Phallic Stage, girls are thought to develop an Electra complex. This means that they first develop a sexual attraction to their mothers but then, through the frustration brought upon by penis envy, transfer this love to their fathers in order to hopefully gain a penis. This explains the close relationship between Miley and her father, who both starred in the hit television show “Hannah Montana” and who have also recorded numerous songs together. Freud also went on to state that as a result of the Electra complex, healthy women seek out men like their fathers to marry and procreate with. This is seen in Miley’s life because as her father is six years older than her mother, she has dated much older men, like Justin Gaston, who is five years her senior. Despite having the image of being a “daddy’s girl”, Miley has found herself amidst many controversies. These controversies generally involve the hyper-sexualization of Miley as a teen celebrity. For example, a photograph of her provocatively eating candy from another girl’s mouth was leaked onto the Internet. Freud would say that this action was caused as a result of the id as well as the libido. Miley’s libido, or sexual energy, motivated her id to take over and cause Miley to act out in a way that is not entirely socially acceptable, regardless of her inner urge to do so. In response to this controversy, Miley claimed that she was just being “silly” and “goofy” with her friend and that it was just how teenage girls act. This can further be related to the Psychoanalytic perspective because it is a clear example of Miley using the defense mechanism of rationalization to make later excuses for an earlier id motivation.  **Interactionist Approach** Psychologists focusing on the Interactionist approach of personality emphasize the importance of the situation when assessing one’s personality. Many of these theorists do not believe in individual uniqueness and instead find personality to be a function of one’s current social context or situation. Miley is an excellent candidate for Interactionist research, as she clearly has two different personas. She has her public context, where she needs to be more guarded in her personality, and she has her private context where she can act more like herself. Harry Stack Sullivan calls this phenomenon the illusion of individuality. Sullivan combined previous works of other theorists, Mead and Sapir, to posit that patterns of human relationships, such as in the family and in society, form the basis of one’s personality. In Miley’s case, her family relationships were based around her famous father’s role in show business. From early on, Miley’s idea of her social self likely came from being involved in the limelight and being part of the celebrity world. Also, she grew up in an American society that values this fame and fortune. Sullivan would see these factors as leading Miley to value artistic skills, such as singing and acting, as well as striving to succeed in terms of achieving the American ideals. Being such a celebrity requires Miley to be guarded in her actions and to maintain herself as a positive role model as to avoid contention from media critics. However, when Miley’s private life has become public, via leaked photos and videos, Miley finds herself apologizing a lot for her risqué actions. This goes to show that she acts differently, and thus has different personalities, in different contexts. Henry Murray is another Interactionist who believes that personality is largely influenced by the environment. He theorized that humans are complex beings that behave in accordance to their current situation. Miley, like every other person, has internal needs that drive her actions in the social environment. Two such needs are dominance and exhibition. According to Murray, the need for dominance is the need to control or influence others. Miley’s public persona makes it easy for her to reach and influence many people, especially her fans. She uses her fame to promote giving to charity and has started a campaign called ‘Get ur [sic] Good On’. It is clear that she has a need for dominance over her fans in the sense that she wants to influence people to join her charitable efforts. Another one of Murray’s needs that Miley possesses is the need for exhibition. According to the theorist, this means that she feels compelled to be seen and heard, as well as to entertain. By virtual of her profession, it is clear that Miley is extremely high in the need for exhibition. Not only does she sing, which satisfies the urge to be heard, but she also acts which fulfills the need to be seen. Both of these things together make Miley Cyrus a constant entertainer.

**Discussion**  After analyzing Miley Cyrus’ personality through the lenses of both Psychoanalytic and Interactionist theories, it becomes easy to gain more insight into the pop star’s personality. Although the young star seems to be involved in many controversies, looking at the influences of her past as well as her environment can help any critic become more sympathetic. The greatest overarching theme between the two theories is the idea that, from childhood, Miley has been immersed in the world of showbiz. This influenced her past experiences, which are key to the Psychoanalytic approach, as well as her current experiences, which are essential to the interactionist approach. Being in the limelight is something that Miley has grown up with and this lifestyle is all she knows and has been accustomed to. After doing this research, I find it easier to be empathetic with Miley instead of judging her when she comes under fire from critics based on her risqué and controversial actions. These are merely things that Freud would attribute to the drives of her libido and that would be easily dismissed if she were not such a public figure. Instead, she has many critics and is constantly using defense mechanisms to defend her normal teenage experimental actions. It is clear that she is just a developmentally regular teenage girl that is stuck between the presses of her internal needs as well as her external situations. Furthermore, she needs to monitor her actions based on her environment more carefully than the average eighteen year-old. I believe that Miley Cyrus is doing a good job of balancing her private persona with her public persona and that she should be proud of herself for using her fame for good deeds, such as charity, rather than for selfish means.

**References** Friedman, H.S. & Schustack, M.W. (2009). //Personality// (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson Higher Education

//Miley cyrus. (2009).// Retrieved from http://www.mileycyrus.com/

 //Miley cyrus - imdb//. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1415323/bio

//Miley cyrus biography//. Retrieved from http://www.starpulse.com/Actresses/Cyrus,_Miley/Biography/