Elvis Presley: life, career, and cultural impact

Elvis Presley was a superstar and continues to be one posthumously. The artist had a vision of himself as a musician and pursued that path throughout his life. To outsiders, Elvis was "repeatedly dismissed as vulgar, incompetent, and a bad influence," (The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Simon & Schuster, 2001). However, the personality of Elvis is far more complicated than what fan magazines and superficial reports can say.

Elvis was a twin, but his twin died at birth. His childhood was typical, in that it was far from perfect. Elvis's father Vernon was in prison on counts of forgery for three years. Elvis's mother Gladys struggled to support her son in an environment that did not support the creative or economic growth of females. Elvis and his mother lived with extended family members for years. Music remained a continual presence throughout Elvis's life. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was in high school. He "crossed the color line" when it came to listening to music (Rosenberg, n.d.). Elvis embodies the compromise between conservatism and liberalism in American culture. He simultaneously embraced unbridled creative expression, while also remaining true to the cultural ideals that shaped his personality.

Whether Elvis Presley was an introvert or an extrovert is an issue that could only be resolved if Elvis took a personality test like the Myers-Brigs. However, Elvis was known for being withdrawn and introverted in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- being in the public spotlight. It is therefore ironic that Elvis longed to be a religious recluse or monk, while at the same time earning his living and developing his ego as an entertainer (Kakutani).

The superstar has also been described as a "visionary," (Whitmer & Whitmer, 1996, p. 5). Elvis's psychology can be partly judged by his behaviors and outward expressions of inner torment. As biographers Whitmer & Whitmer (1996) point out, Elvis had a capacity to "tragically self-destruct," (p. 5). Kakutani (1996) describes Elvis's behaviors as "maladaptive," (Kakutani, 1996).

The psychoanalytic framework of personality psychology can easily be applied to the life of Elvis Presley. Sigmund Freud and those who were inspired by Freud's theories point to a view of personality that takes into account the individual's family background, early childhood, and sexual repressions. As Kakutani (1996) points out, Elvis was also known for his "narcissism," a term that Freud himself used when analyzing his own patients. Likewise, Elvis might have been diagnosed as someone with "satyriasis," Kakutani (1996) notes.

A psychoanalyst would find great merit in the fact that Elvis's twin died at birth. Indeed, the ghost of a dead twin might have shaped Elvis's id, ego, and superego components. As Whitmer & Whitmer (1996) point out, "He was a visionary whose visions were inspired by the most profound inner torment as a twin, whose mirror image died at birth, but whose memory lasted a lifetime." He developed some traits of a perfectionist, as he was known for being "a control freak," (Kakutani, 1996). It is highly likely that Elvis's predilection for perfection in his self-expression was fueled by the sense that his twin was watching over him, or that Elvis might have felt that he was living the life of two separate people. His sense of being abandoned by his twin might have also led to a fear of abandonment complex, manifesting in his "surrounding himself with sycophants and adoring young women," (Kakutani, 1996).

Although Elvis's behaviors are certainly and unequivocally maladaptive, such as his eating disorders and drug addiction, the superstar was also known for his generally warm personality. From a Freudian perspective, it is possible Elvis was conflicted in terms of his id, ego, and superego. His unconscious was working on another level, different and contrasting with his conscious. On the one hand, Elvis was fully in control of his ego expressions. On stage, he was the master of his own reality. His inner, personal life, was a mess. He masked "feelings of vulnerability and worthlessness" by exhibiting "grandiosity" and "possibly a Christ complex," (Kakutani, 1996).