Charlie Sheen's personality: entitlement and anger management issues

Personality Psychology

A Personality Profile of Charlie Sheen

History/Biography

Charlie Sheen, born Carlos Irwin Estevez, is an American movie and television actor who has been acting for almost 30 years in some capacity (A & E. Networks, 2012). He is the son of Ramon Estevez (aka Martin Sheen) and Janet Templeton an artist. His early was typical of a youth growing up in California, but he quickly joined the family business. At the age of nine he had his first acting role with in his father's production of The Execution of Private Slovik (A & E. Networks, 2012). Sheen performed bit roles in many different productions as a child and teen, but his drive to be a star and his antics became apparent early in his life. He was expelled from Santa Monica High School just two weeks before he was supposed to graduate in 1983 because of his bad grades and poor attendance record (A & E. Networks, 2012).

Sheen began acting full time after that, and his life has been one of great successes in his professional life and failures in private. Early in his career he was given a starring role in Oliver Stone's Platoon. This role made him a star and catapulted him into many of the acting jobs (Wall Street, different spoofs, Spin City, and Two-and-a-Half Men) that would make his a household name. While garnering a great deal of praise as an actor, he had a troubled private life. Sheen has been married and divorced three times with accusations of physical and verbal abuse, substance abuse, and philandering following him each time. He did have four children from his different wives, but they all live with their mothers (A & E. Networks, 2012).

In 2011, Sheen's run as the popular character "Charlie Harper" on the show Two-and-a-half Men came to a very public end as he became belligerent and started making very strange statements during contract negotiations. Sheen was forced to leave the show and made a cross country tour explaining himself to his legion of fans. Sheen has parried that misfortune into a new Television show (Anger Management) and greater success than he had ever enjoyed before.

Analysis

The required personality domain for this report is intrapsychic. This domain includes how a person develops internally and how motives for actions play a part in how their personality has developed. It is this perspective that Freud and developmental psychologists used in their analysis. Sheen is the son of a famous actor and was always in the limelight. He has always been fawned over and seems to believe that the world owes him that degree of worship. His preferred sexual relationship is admittedly with prostitutes because they are paid to please him and he does not have to show any amount of emotional attachment or attempt to ingratiate himself in any way. This likely stems from a deep seated belief in his own self-worth that is highly narcissistic. His anger also seems to come from this belief in that he is angered when he is seriously challenged in that belief.

Another personality domain, social and cultural, also explains a large part of Mr. Sheen's personality. Many people in the public do seem to worship celebrity, and this only fuels the narcissism that Sheen demonstrates. Since he has had this attention since he was very young, it has developed into a trait. His anger can also stem from this part of his personality. He is very driven by what society thinks of him; he demonstrated this during tirades he had against the public in 2011. Although some fans enjoyed his antics, many others were angered by his alternate reality. Sheen demonstrated that he is willing to use his anger as a catalyst to even more celebrity which feeds his narcissism.

Summation

Charlie Sheen is a product of his environment (the social and cultural domain) which is fueled by his intrapsychic need for attention. The domains of knowledge actually explain why Sheen has acted in a particular way very well. He needs to have the personal attention, whether good or bad, because his personality craves acclaim. This may stem from other early events in his life (seeking the attention of his father for example (VanKatwyck, 2001)), but that is not apparent in his biography. It is also a fact that Sheen's personality could have been altered by his reliance on substances and a change to physiological patterns over time. Also, this is not readily apparent so the researcher has to look at what is available. Sheen's frequent battles with wives/girlfriends, studio executives, fellow actors, the police, and others demonstrate a level of self-entitlement that is produced from his anger (which could be a form of self-loathing) and his narcissistic tendencies.