Addiction in Society

Very refreshing to read after all the nauseating semi-deification that's going on. Jackson seemed like a sweet person with obvious talents. But his form of choice (dance music) is too limited for anything but a minor talent to grow in.

And all that money spent translated to vast quantities of natural resources wasted. Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if those resources had been appropriately used. We need to start thinking of these super-consumers (the ultra rich, mostly Americans) as the killers they indirectly are.

Your comments are amazingly cold, shallow and disrespectful. How can you call all the entertainment and joy he brought to millions of people, the enormous amount of money he donated to charities, helping underprivilged and sick children and all his other humanitarian efforts a wasted life? For you to guess on why he did the things he did and to speculate on his children shows a huge amount of moronic ego.

Sincerely,
Cory Cooper

And Madonna and Angelina/Brad mothering black children, some of whom have living parents, are an example of what? A black parent of white children rankles some.

Michael has achieved the most enormous support and love from all over the world and this fact obviously means that he has done something worthwhile and much better than those who did not achieve anything else other than sitting here to condemn him.
No one on this earth is perfect!

If anyone wants to criticise. spend your time in criticising the ones who commit war crime killing billions of people!

You should have done more reserch before you write an article. Or perhaps you just prefer the one way opinion? Michale Jackoson got vitiligo and lupus which caused his skin color changed, don't you know that? And he donated more than 3 hundred million US dollar to lots of children caring foundations, I guess you just don't know about this? By the way, he sang great and also wrote and composed lots of great song, so sad you know so few about him..it's a shame. But it's okay, you could start to google it from now!

Indeed,the addiction ruined him. His father teased him about his "big/ugly nose" that might hurt him and made him so desire to change his nose. The childhood he never got a chance to enjoy led him to stick in the childlike mind all the time(I suggest you to google his "Childhood" lyrics). Those are the facts we can't deny. But you are a doctor, you talk with convincible authority. And it seemed to me that you made a one-sided conclusion. Here's some information talking about Michael Jackson's skin disorder, changing faces and most important of all, his carity work. And if you listen to his songs, you'll know, the change of skin color meant nothing to him, he knew himself a black man. FYI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ6b7kHGsSg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjEtpBgeAw0
http://jollypeople.com/blog/2009/06/27/michael-jackson-music-charity-leg...
http://jollypeople.com/blog/2009/07/01/michael-jackson-guiness-world-rec...

He's a great man. In his songs, he told people to "love people, no racism, no fight, to care for our earth and our children." Someone might see him in the different way, and I may not be able to change your minds, but at least you should know more about him before you judge him.

sorry, you know I mean"research" and "charity work". Just wrong typing. I think you got it.

Someone with as much class as yourself should hope that people don't say hateful things about you during your passing. Lets remember that this man does have a family and regardless of what your opinion is, you should try to make a point objectively.

You can talk and dissect all you want this artist, Michael Jackson. But what is essential is invisible to the eyes, as St. Exupery said. It is in this realm of mystery, wonderment, subtle moves a la "Marcel Marceau" almost clown like, and yes joy!!! it is in this realm where artists reside - the place where he is. So you may continue dissecting Michael and calling him a "waste" but your perception is limited and frankly irrelevant and just anecdote. And I suspect you are using your mind instead of your heart. And only through the heart you can connect with real artists.

i ask if you were to know someone personally like Michael Jackson would you not be slightly appalled by such extreme actions; a new face, childlike behavior, drugs, zoo's, whatever. if i had a friend like that or even an acquaintance i would be very concerned, and slightly frightened. yes, MJ was an artist, yes he was eccentric, yes he clearly had huge psychological issues. people have flocked to circuses for years and years to see the freaks (remember the bearded lady?)nothing has really changed. perhaps he was sweet and kind and gentle (don't we all have facades?) he was also a freak - that was obvious. he new it, his family knows it as well as his fans and critics. what ever the reasons behind his behavior are there is nothing wrong with calling it like it is.

the author of this article is a bleeding F.O.O.L truly. All you wrote is misguided and false. Michael Jackson had vitiligo and lupus look up you ignorant person. It's so sad you don't know anyone else's pain, you cannot judge until you can understand where that person is coming from. You are entitled to your opinion, but before you take the time to immortalize your opinion in print please do do your research first. I am truly disgusted with this article, shameful!!

Look, MJ was a freaknoodle of the highest order. Even his best friends would tell you he was not like anyone else. That's why he was fascinating. Also, he redecorated his face and body to his own liking. The article is not derogatory, it is simply stating things we can see or infer. I am a big fan of MJ, but even a big fan can acknowledge there was something very strange about him.

You are a racist and a biggot. You have no sense of empirical research or medical conditions. You have done little background inquiry to support your claims. I don't even know where to begin here. Your medical intelligence deficit could be one place to start - perhaps the youtube on his skin disease mentioned above might help. But, your overall lack of decency as a human being leaves you to be shallow and emotionally empty in your words. Perhaps, Psychology Today should eliminate your blog unless you retract some of your statements. You use your J.D. and position to throw out statements that have no truth or support from the science community. Your blog has NO CREDIBILITY!

do you really, truly, actually believe EVERYTHING you read or see? are you seriously referring people to the INTERNET to support YOUR judgement? the truth is no one will ever know the actual facts except for Michael Jackson himself - and i'm certain there are aspects of his life he was even confused about - dare i say we all experience that to some degree?

I LOVE the flying accusations of racism and bigotry. Those who are the MOST intolerant, although claiming to be the most tolerant, love to bandy those words about, I guess because they believe that people will back down and not express their honest opinions that they have a right to express!! I love you diversity and inclusion types. Well, guess what? Those words don't work my friend. If someone thinks he was a scumbag, then that is THEIR opinion and they have a right to that opinion, just like you have a right to your opinion that he was a saint!! If you don't like it then turn the other way and let them be mired in their "so-called" ignorance!

Interesting read but I don't agree with it. From a black perspective.

You forgot to mention that his fans loved him and respected him too. Don't you think that his fans saw who he was - colour included. It did not matter he was a great and an amazing artist and his insight and compassion were connecting people. Something politicians can never be able to do but a person with heart can.
He stayed with his childhood - so what - I think we have probably forgotten our childhood memories, the stories we liked to read our experiences. At the age of 10/12 yrs - what childhood friends do you know of that he had - did you research that. All he was saying is that he did not have the childhood he yearned. So for all other children he felt it important that they experienced their childhood. I suppose through them he felt enlightened whenever they were around. Nothing wrong with that. We should be nurturing the young. Was he cared for as he should have been by all not just his family but the people he worked with, or was he just seen as a money-making machine. The adult world pressing down on a young child and expecting him to grow up before his time. Pushing his age up or down when it suited them.
His money - he earned it so why should he not have been able to spend it. What business was it anybody's in any case. He gave to many charities - did not see him wasting any time here - and visited sick. You forgot to mention this also.
His health - I don't think he was ever advised properly mentally or physically. He had the money so doctors sold him a package. If anything turned for the worst the doctors were always there making it worst. He will always be blamed for his addiction, but it's the doctors who are the most to be blamed. They should be struck off. My thinking is why (as you say he wanted to be white, because he certainly did not take scapel or prescriptions to himself) did they do it? I believe that he had Vitilgo and Lupus and I have read the depigment treatment has to be prescribed, indicating that one cannot do this to themselves. Bleach creams are temporary not permanent and to use this all over the body on a daily basis would damage the skin. As he was a performer in the spotlight he would have had to cover any skin blotches. His choice. His hair - his choice. You must have seen black people with straightened hair? It's not new. He never changed his hair colour, eyebrows of wore colour contact lenses. Does this indicate a black man wanting to be white? Not forgetting his lips - he never had the full lips in any case. He carried young features.
The upset about his children is only because he as a black man despite his skin colour, had white children. Do you not realise that the people who did this were white people?
The problem with all of you who write negative on Michael Jackson was that you were always trying to psychoanalyse him and still trying. In fact if you could see him in a different way you would say that he was exceptional because there will never be another like him. That makes him interesting.

There are many people out there having plastic surgery and body art. I have seen clips of people transforming themselves to look like lizards, or a lion or even a tiger. No one is saying anything about this. This is madness, bizarre and weird.

I think it is time people left his name alone and allow his fame to exist right where he left it. They did for Elvis so why not for him.

claim, against all evidence and reason, that Jackson had no cosmetic surgery? You can't say what's not true is true (or vice versa) and be taken seriously.

I have never used string words before over the Net while voicing my opinion over an article as I will use here for you [the "Writer"]. You are a disgusting piece of s...t! Fellows like you will never amount even to a mere fraction of what he did for billions of Souls across the globe. How dare you judge him?

How can you not ever feel his pain? How dare you write this crap? Is it a sin that he chose to be what he wanted to be? Is it a sin to be child-like? Despite any personality fault in him, he was a sweet human,capable of empathy,love and a heart full of compassion. These are qualities those like you will never understand nor experience!

Yes, Michael Jackson is a waste, not a hero. His face was transmorgified into something that looked like a horror mask.

It was a horror mask of the white supremacy that quietly infuses and sustains the "normal" fabric of this society. White/European is "normal" and the majority of the planet's population are "ethnic" (even when they are in their own homelands, like South Africa or North America).

Europeans (whites) are the only people in the world who have systematically gone into other people's homelands and forcibly labeled those natural residents as "illegals", "foreigners", or "ethnics".

MJ is the direct product of 500 years of European colonization upon the world. The ideologies of White Supremacy have become normalized, default, and background. MJ was trying to achieve the racist ideal that we have all been bombarded with all our lives.

The tradgedy is that he had the money to create Frankenstein's racial monster. To some degree, we see this racial disfigurement in everyday life with Black women who dye their hair blonde, or "People of Color" (colonial term) who implant blue-eyed contacts so they can look European, normal, human.

MJ's disfigured appearance reminds us that we live in a white supremacist society, but this white supremacy-sickness is background, normalized and feels natural.

Just look at all the fake blonde hair in Black and Mexican neighborhoods and in rap videos. It is no accident that the Mexican gangsters here in L.A. often have "bottle blonde" girlfriends" and that the gangsters don shaved heads like Neo-Nazi skinheads.

- Manuel, Los Angeles

One thing that has bothered me that is mentioned in this article and in many, many others is how positive people can be about the genetic makeup of these children. It may prove that these children are full-white but as a mixed-race person who appears to be white, I am amazed at how very limited people's imaginations are as to what a mixed person can look like. I have experienced it my whole life with people appearing amazed when they learn I have a black parent. If you don't have kinky hair and tan skin, they can't imagine that you could possibly be mixed. Also, I feel very sorry for these children having everyone debating openly their parentage. You would think that in this century people would be able to live with the mystery of children who do not look like their parents. I would not cross examine an adoptive child, or a child begotten from an extramarital affair or a child of complex racial history because they do not look like their parent. That, I think is simply no one's business. People's stories do not belong to other people. They were legally his children, he was their father and it is that simple, even if it doesn't satisfy one's curiosity.

For someone who is such a "waste" he sure did accomplish a lot. If Michael Jackson is a waste, then I shudder to think what most peoples' lives add up to, including yours and mine.

One point that no one has touched on in these comments is your analysis of how he wasted his time. What should he have been doing with his time, exactly? He was "frittering it away" you said. Then you refer to him in the early 80s hanging out with Emmanuel Lewis, as though this is somehow an example of this time-wasting. If memory (and fact) serves correct, during the 80s, Jackson embarked on 3 world tours (spent about 4 years of his life on tour in that decade, actually), released "Thriller" and "Bad", wrote and recorded countless songs yet unreleased for these albums, wrote and recorded duets and a storybook album for the story of ET, wrote "We Are the World", broke sales records and award-receiving records, emerged an unlikely success after his hugely successful childhood star status (no small feat) - choreographed/wrote/rehearsed/acted in music videos including "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "Thriller", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Smooth Criminal" - not to mention his film "Moonwalker" and the George Lucas 3-D film for Disneyland "Captain EO". He gave stunning performances including the Motown 25th Anniversary Special and the 1988 Grammy's... he showcased dance moves the public had never seen before and performed and sang better than his peers, and better than most that came before. He patented an anti-gravity mimicking shoe for his lean in "Smooth Criminal" which he used in the video and in stage performances. He wrote an autobiography. He gave charitably. He financially supported his parents and family. He bought a house and made it his own. He brought joy to people. He got people excited about his next release. He made people take notice. He made people talk. He practiced constantly, studied the greats extensively - and wrapped up all of his knowlege, soul, raw talent and marketing savvy up into one completely unique, sparkly-socked package.

That is one decade of his life. One. And that is just (some of) what is public knowledge.

THAT'S a waste of time?

We're writing b.s. about him on the internet that barely anyone will read. I have to think that this is more of a waste that what Michael Jackson did in his life.

a drop in the bucket compared to Thriller, but not so bad for a psychology blog post, which is what I do.

I think the psychological goal to shoot for is being content with yourself, your work, and your life. How are you doing on that score? Do you think Michael achieved this goal? I have my doubts.

What makes me say this is his seeming to hide from the world and from reality, including constantly changing his appearance, his preference as an adult for the company of children, and his heavy reliance on pharmaceuticals, which killed him by age 50, before he could watch his children grow up. Michael Jackson was extremely talented, and extremely troubled. In general, I feel bad for people who kill themselves. Don't you?