An interesting finding I read, as talked about in “After the Laughter: Comedians and Depression” by Dr. Amy Alpine, is that comedians, like Jim Carrey and Robbie Williams tend to suffer from depression. For the benefit of everyone, I’ll just sieve out the main points and try to tie it in with what we’re studying.
In line with what the textbook says about communication as identity management, I’m starting to think if bipolar disorder (even if it’s more of an illness) is an extreme version of having 2 faces, in other words – poor identity management. I wonder if these comedians have reinforced their comedic side so much as their public ‘presenting self’ that they can even suffer from bipolar disorder. Or from another point of view, they use comedy to treat their depression. That is to say that putting themselves in a happy frame of mind intentionally (constructing their self-concept) works to make them a happy person (self-fulfilling prophecy).
In addition, the interview with Dr. Alpine mentioned that “a lot of performers are the truest to themselves when they are performing”. Does this mean that their perceived self=presenting self? It certainly seems so. In fact, she mentioned that most comedians don’t want people they know to be at their show because they are more afraid of being judged by their significant others than strangers in the audience.
Personally, I find this quite true, sometimes we open up to complete strangers and tell them our honest feelings about a personal issue precisely because we won’t feel like we’re being judged or that even if they are going to judge us, we don’t really care because they are not a significant other. Hence, our self-concept is not threatened.
Moreover, many people tend to get shocked when they find out that comedians or people they perceive as happy-go-lucky, having fun all the time, actually suffer from depression. This obviously shows that our response is affected when people behave in a way contrary to our perception, proving that communication is collaborative, interactional process.
Well, that’s all for now. =)