Marilyn Monroe

Introduction

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 - August 5, 1962) was an American film actress. She was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles, California, but later took her mother's name Baker and called herself Norma Jean Baker. Marilyn Monroe was her screen name (Verlhac & Thomson, pp 89 - 102).

Discussion

The Dark Past of Marilyn Monroe

Passed among several homes as a girl, sexually abused as a teenager, Norma Jean thought little of herself. Yet she also had a gritty, opportunistic side, and dreamed of being a big movie star. She knew she had a soft voice and she climbed the ladder (Rollyson, pp 56 - 67). She was both more intelligent and unhappy than her screen goddess image ever suggested. Marilyn Monroe was Playboy's first centerfold. She did not pose for Playboy, however (Churchwell, pp 18 - 25). The photos were taken for a calendar several years earlier and Hugh Hefner purchased them for his men's magazine. A successful cinema career followed (after posing of the calendar—they were not featured in Playboy until after she was a movie star) where she co-starred with such big-screen stars as Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Joseph Cotten, Richard Widmark, Jane Russell, Laurene Bacall, Ethel Merman, Charles Laugthon, Tony Curtis, french actor Ives Montand and Dean Martin (Rollyson, pp 56 - 67).

Marilyn Monroe Personality Disorder

Monroe's mother, Gladys Baker, was forced into being hospitalized when "Norma Jeane" was only eight years old. Baker spent most of her adult life in an institution. Monroe's grandparents' form of mental illness was as a result of syphilis with her grandfather and heart disease with her grandmother (Stern & Gottlieb, pp 101 - 118). For the remaining seven years of Monroe's life, she underwent psychotherapy and she took drugs to help her get through the day as well as to help her rest at night. When she was in the public eye, she successfully cast a facade to shield what fears she had inside. Her childhood could have produced the fear of abandonment and it has been opined that she had two different personalities, which could easily be explained in light of the circumstances she grew up with (Rollyson, pp 56 - 67). Accordingly, Victor writes in his book: "Marilyn's last psychotherapist, Dr. Ralph Greenson is said to have told colleagues that Marilyn was, in his view, a schizophrenic."

Gloria Steinem opined that women could relate to Monroe concerning the experience of being victimized as a child, the habitual use of drugs to compensate for emotional tides and any suggestion that "her underlying problems were 'all in the mind.'"

In today's opinions, however, Victor points out that psychiatrists are of the opinion that Monroe really was suffering from borderline personality disorder, and that this state of being can be the result of a neglected childhood which is often found in adults who experienced abuse in their childhood (Stern & Gottlieb, pp 101 - 118). If Monroe did not have a high self-esteem, which runs parallel with loving who she was, this ...