the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright creepy (king of pop week at m21, part 3)

in our first post about the michael jackson exhibit, we remarked that perhaps they should have sold DSM's at the admission booth (um, folding table), not auction catalogs. one of our favorite commenters, tracy, wondered what a real mental heath professional would say if they toured the exhibit. luckily enough, in addition to being the world's foremost interior decorator, maison21 is a fully licensed doctor of the internets, able to effectively diagnose all physical and mental disorders via the magic of the interwebs (he has successfully diagnosed himself with everything from lyme's disease to parkinson's. unfortunately medical technology has not advanced to the point where tests are able to back up dr. m21's diagnoses, but we are sure given time, the technology will catch up to our genius).

so in today's episode of the king of pop week here at m21, "the ugly", we are going to talk about MJ from a mental health standpoint, most notably dr. maison21's diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. according to the DSM, it takes at least 5 of the following to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special"
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

god, that sounds like LOTS of people we know actually, (including ourselves)! you've gotta think you are pretty nifty if your every thought is special enough to blog it, FB it or twitter it, right? (self-reflection is such a bitch, but please, follow us on twitter to find out more!) ;-) the only thing that gives m21 any consolation is he just has the one blog as his outlet of self-admiration- if MJ were a blogger, he'd have like a kajillion: "the king of pop blog", "the best of the king of pop blog", the "moonwalkin' with MJ!" blog, the "MJ really loves the all the little childrens of the world- really!" blog, the "MJ is such a giver- 'cept when he's shoppin' for himself" blog, etc. repeat, ad nauseum...

as usual, we digress, so let's get down to business, shall we? one of the more self-indulgent aspects about the exhibit was the many rooms devoted to MJ memorabilia. now we understand documenting one's career- we do it ourselves, often on this very blog (god there we go again, having stuff in common with MJ. somebody call our therapist, k?). while some of the stuff was pretty legit (the glove, tour costumes, etc.), some was definitely in the wtf? category- like walls and walls covered with cheap-looking plaques made of cd's and foamcore with bogus titles like "outstanding artist award" and "artist achievement award". it also looked as if anytime MJ traveled, someone from his record label would call the local office and scream "break out the hot-glue gun, MJ is comin' for a visit, and you know how he whines if he doesn't get an award. remember- keep it shiny!". one imagines a VP in charge of MJ ass-kissery:


here's a piece of memorabilia we thought kinda encapsulated the whole darn grandiosity complex in a nutshell- a royal robe as befits his outsize sense of self-importance and obsession with being some sort of royalty (we imagine him wearing it to breakfast):
but look up close- velvet and ermine? hardly. more like velour and cheap, tatty hooker fur.

a theme running through MJ's art collection is his view of being a savior to the children of the world. somehow we're missing the logic that backs that up- commissioning a garish painting or 8 foot wide bronze sculpture isn't quite the same as building a children's hospital, or providing money for wells with clean drinking water, or even buying mosquito nets because you've reached one million followers on twitter...
the pied-piper imagery of these works is a bit disturbing too, after the allegations following MJ over the years. somehow, we know he doesn't get the irony...

image via decider

this sculpture is about 6 - 8 feet wide depicting a bare chested MJ (creepy) and dozens of individually sculpted "children of the world". we shudder at the cost to commission this, and also shudder at the self-involvement to do so- if the sculpture was really about the children of the world, like we said- it would be a hospital in an impoverished country.

we thought this 3 foot wide photo perhaps caught a defining moment and cultural shift in american life, and marked our descent into the celebrity-driven, reality-tv obsessed, state of unreality we find ourselves in today: an actor portraying a president, giving an official audience to a pop star playing a king (in sequins, no less). we LOVE it, and in the unreality version of our future, we hope to buy it to hang next to our jeff koons and warhol!

speaking of playing king, there must have been a good dozen large scale paintings of MJ as royalty. some of them actually bordered on cool, but really, even if you have all the money in the world, one would be sufficient, dontchathink?


this one was beyond beyond in the narcissist sweepstakes- a royal triptych, with a self penned poem! fantabulous. you'll want to click on it to fully grasp the profundity of the poem, but allow us to quote one stanza:

i am the dewdrop,
the sunshine,
the storm...

that's it! were changing the name of our blog to: maison21: i am the dewdrop...

this hot mess of a painting was our favorite- once again, you'll have to click to see in it's full beauty, but m21 will try to summarize: we believe it depicts MJ as the inventor of spaceflight (the space shuttle launching in the lower right hand corner, as well as what appears to be a fierce space battle waging over his right shoulder); he is also savior of the endangered earth, represented by the macaw and the monkey family. the rest of it, we can't figure out- the japanese angel-baby shooting death rays with it's eyes at the monkey; jesus appearing to pop out of MJ's boot; and a circa-white diamonds era liz, sitting on Mj's foot (next to jesus, natch). oh, yeah, if you look carefully, the king tut harp appears to be making an appearance in the background. genius.
not to get all heavy on you guys, but m21 felt pretty sad for this man after seeing some of his stuff- obviously there were huge voids in his life that he tried to fill with things, and a self-image he tried to bolster with trappings of grandeur- but somewhere it seems, a line was crossed into madness. maybe because he became so isolated no one would him let him know he crossed the line, or maybe he just went nuts (it happens. a lot). but still, it was all a bit wasteful and sad.

what do y'all think? is dr. maison21 correct in his diagnosis? or is dr. m21 too self-involved to be an impartial judge? ('cuz, yu know, like our opinion of MJ's psyche matters).

next, (and last) in our series to follow: the downright creepy!

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