AMBER HEARD (Johnny´s ex) = HARRY.
MEGHAN ≠ AMBER OR HARRY.
INTRODUCTION. In order to write this post, I had to suffer through hundreds of Internet reports on Harry and Meghan, Johnny and Amber. The most insightful commentaries are on The Behavior Panel, in which four certified body language experts do their thing.
I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist. However, I can read and think. You can too.
Nowhere on the Internet did I find anything close to the analysis that follows.
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Harry isn´t the sharpest tool in the shed. That is the sine qua non of the difficulties he is creating for himself and other people.
What Harry and Meghan, Johnny and Amber share is a common problem that is seldom recognized. But first
1. How are Harry and Johnny Depp alike?
To answer that question, a bit of background is needed.
The psychoanalyst C.G. Jung wrote extensively about the “persona.” The term is bantered about these days without any attempt to understand its meaning.
Two quotes from Jung:
(i) “The persona is a complicated system of relations between individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual.”
"The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious" (1928). In Collected Works 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.305.
(ii) “Whoever looks into the mirror of the water will see first of all his own face. Whoever goes to himself risks a confrontation with himself. The mirror does not flatter, it faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world because we cover it with the persona, the mask of the actor. But the mirror lies behind the mask and shows the true face.”
"Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious" (1935). In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P.43.
The persona, then, is not the real personality in toto of an individual. It is only the social face he/she puts on.
We come to the heart of the matter.
Harry and Johnny Depp both have powerful personas forced on them by society - Harry, the persona of royalty; Johnny, the persona of movie star.
For both men those personas are extremely invasive; they threaten to overwhelm the individual personality. That invasion creates severe psychological disturbances. Jung:
“Every calling or profession has its own characteristic persona. It is easy to study these things nowadays, when the photographs of public personalities so frequently appear in the press. A certain kind of behaviour is forced on them by the world, and professional people endeavour to come up to these expectations. Only, the danger is that they become identical with their personas-the professor with his text-book, the tenor with his voice. Then the damage is done; henceforth he lives exclusively against the background of his own biography. . . The garment of Deianeira has grown fast to his skin, and a desperate decision like that of Heracles is needed if he is to tear this Nessus shirt from his body and step into the consuming fire of the flame of immortality, in order to transform himself into what he really is. One could say, with a little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.”
"Concerning Rebirth" (1940). In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P.221.
The persona is not one´s real self but rather what oneself as well as others think one is. In many instances, what oneself and others think one is become the same. When that happens, the persona´s invasion is a few skirmishes away from capturing the flag.
That sameness brings us to the common problem shared by many people. Their self-view consists primarily of the views of other people. It is a grab-bag of feelings, projections and impressions that is easily torn open and emptied out in times of stress.
You don´t have to be a public figure or movie star to have a self-identity consisting largely of other peoples´ opinions, but it helps. In everyday people, the grab-bag of self-identity often becomes detectable when its holders leave home for the first time and go to college. Up to that point their friends and mom and dad typically have told them how wonderful they are. In college, however, there inevitably appears the professor or upperclassman or other authority figure who tells the holders how stupid they are, worthless jerks, hopeless losers. Instead of viewing the unfavorable comment as just one person´s opinion, the entire grab-bag of self-identity comes into question and a full-blown identity crisis erupts. Who am I?, the question Harry asked, is the classic symptom of what in America is known as The Sophomore Slump.
I submit that Harry and Meghan, Johnny and Amber are all classic holders of the grab-bag self-identity.
I also submit Harry and Johnny have become to a supreme degree identical with their personas or at any rate are strongly tending in that direction. In Jung´s terms, they live almost exclusively against the background of their own biographies. Again, that fact of life causes severe disturbances, because who an individual truly is won´t go away. It remains there always, struggling to surface for air. Which will crack first, the mirror or the mask?
Harry said he wanted from an early age to break free of his royal persona; he was tired of being what he was not. In reality, his attempt to shake off the royal garment that grew fast to his skin, has not been entirely successful. He has arrived at the point of being ambivalent about the garment; it is half-on half-off. For now, he is stuck there.
2. How are Harry and Amber Heard comparable? Jung:
“I once made the acquaintance of a very venerable personage - in fact, one might easily call him a saint. I stalked round him for three whole days, but never a mortal failing did I find in him. My feeling of inferiority grew ominous, and I was beginning to think seriously of how I might better myself. Then, on the fourth day, his wife came to consult me.... Well, nothing of the sort has ever happened to me since. But this I did learn: that any man who becomes one with his persona can cheerfully let all disturbances manifest themselves through his wife without her noticing it, though she pays for her self-sacrifice with a bad neurosis.”
"The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious" (1928). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.306.
Harry´s father, King Charles, and Harry´s brother, Prince William, identify themselves solidly, almost totally, with their royal personas. One with their persona, they are, in Jung´s terms, venerable personages. As noted, this near total identification with their personas can only result in severe psychological disturbances; however, those disturbances are manifested not in themselves but in their family members, i.e., in Harry and, in Johnny´s case, Amber.
Harry and Amber are left to sacrifice themselves in countless ways, which they pay for with grave neuroses visible in Amber´s disastrous court appearances and Harry´s self-sabotaging Netflix interviews and his book "Spare." Neither Harry nor Amber has a clue to what is actually happening, what they are feeling and doing, and why. In the meantime, King Charles, William and Johnny go their merry way.
We come to Meghan.
3. How are Amber and Meghan not alike?
Unlike Amber who became the sacrificial trashcan of Johnny´s unresolved problems, Meghan separated herself emotionally early from Harry. The separation only became noticeable after he published "Spare." Harry and Meghan are no longer seen together at public events; for his part, Harry, it is reported, has permanently rented rooms in two hotels to get away from home and her. They did not celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary.
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True or false, a fascinating comment was attributed to Her Royal Majesty.
“She´s evil,” Queen Elizabeth reportedly said of Meghan.
Meghan´s recent contract with big wheel talent agency William Morris made manifest what had been latent. From the start, she had her own agenda separate and apart from Harry.
Meghan is a wannabe Hollywood starlet. Go to Beverly Hills cocktail parties, hang out with George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson – the whole nine yards. She definitely has deep problems (as we shall see); however, given her separate agenda she is not the unconscious, unknowing receptacle in the same way Amber was of Johnny and Harry is of his father and brother.
I went to Antioch College, inventor of work-study education. They had a job at William Morris. My curiosity about WMA evaporated after 15 minutes of reading reviews written by students who had worked there:
What Meghan will discover is that WMA, despite everything it will claim and defame to the stars above, does not represent her. It represents the DEAL. Contracts, then – properties and commodities, not people - are all that matter. Her good looks will soon fade; she has no acting talent to fall back on. Go ahead, Meghan, read your contract carefully: no DEAL with studios or production companies, no WMA representation.
No family either. She wrote off the royals and her own father (who had a debilitating stroke), half-brother and half-sister. True, Meghan has two children to fall back on, but for how long? Children are cute until they grow enough to look over their parents´ shoulders; that´s when real trouble starts. In Meghan´s case, it may come even sooner.
To know about Meghan, I suggest you read John Steinbeck´s novel "East of Eden." If you don´t have the time – the book is 601 pages – there is the 1955 two-hour movie starring James Dean. There is also the TV miniseries (1981) starring Jane Seymore. Deeply impressed by Steinbeck´s superior understanding of psychopaths and narcissists, I did all three.
Whichever option you chose, you will find it has all been said before, brilliantly.
Meghan tellingly, unconsciously, called her new podcast with Spotify “Archetypes.” Well, I guarantee that you will come face to face with Meghan´s own archetype in "East of Eden." Her character arc, as well as those of Harry, of their kids and others who were unfortunate enough to be around her, are all there. Published in 1952, the novel´s final outcome need not be changed one iota to coincide with real life. I won´t spoil it by revealing it. However, what I will say is this:
Thanks to Steinbeck´s portrayal of Cathy, it is possible to foresee Meghan´s life trajectory. Meghan, here it is - your epitaph:
“Behind every great woman, there´s an exit.”
Note to Thomas Markle, Meghan´s dad. I watched the family home movies you shared publicly. What you are reaping now with Meghan – dead silence for 4 years - is what you sowed when you constantly give her as a child a gold star for just showing up.
Note to the William Morris Endeavor Agency. I have the perfect role for your new client: Cathy Trask in a redo of “East of Eden.” You probably already discovered Meghan can´t act, but that´s precisely the point. To play Cathy - who iced her parents and stole their money, abandoned her husband and deserted their two children - Meghan doesn´t have to act.
WME, there you have it. That´s all the advice I can give you - for free, anyway.
No contract; no property.
No DEAL..