«I JUST READ EVERYTHING»

Celebrities tap into the public's primal fantasies and basic emotions, lifting people from their everyday lives and making them believe anything is possible, said Dr. John Lucas, a clinical assistant professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College and an assistant attending psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. In the case of Jackson, with what appeared to be numerous plastic surgeries and skin bleaching, "the weirdness resonates with our own internal suppressed hidden wishes -- for immortality, gratification of sexual impulses and our wish for ageless beauty," Lucas said...."What we know of them [celebrities] through People magazine and other media sources fills a gaping and painful void in our lives," Lucas said. The dwindling influence of religion adds to that sense of yearning in people, he added, making the stars' exploits and eccentricities, their loves and losses, more than a form of entertainment. "Religion is faltering, and in the process people are grappling with infantile wishes, with magical thinking," he said.

US News & World Report
June 26 2009