Someone emailed asking if I have ever encountered what might be termed "character addiction", i.e. someone who either "falls in love" (love an addiction?) with a character they are playing in a movie or play or creating a new persona for themselves which may be addictive in an unhealthy way. I addressed this very briefly in an early post, CINEMORPHICS - Observations 1, in the October Archives. To elaborate a bit...
I know some actors REALLY like to play certain types of characters because of the attributes of these types. An example would be a powerful character, e.g. a king or a mob boss or cop. The power of the character being acted feels good to the actor and becomes very seductive. I "real" life, I can see how this could create problems. (This is not the same thing as creating a persona who drinks becoming addicted to alcohol. The addiction is probably to the alcohol, not the persona.)
If you create a persona that really "works", really "plays" it makes you feel good…in the groove. If this groove habituates and you find that you have to exaggerate the aspects of this persona to continue to make it "work", the persona could be creating a dependency. We are probably all "addicted" to our egos to begin with. The ego can be very demanding. It kicks and screams if not attended to properly. This is what could be considered one of the "subtle" or invisible addictions referred to in the excerpt below from the article DRUG ADDICTION VERSUS DRUG WAR ADDICTION. Interesting stuff…addiction to "reality"?
"Addiction comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. The major ones include: alcohol addiction, tobacco addiction, caffeine addiction, drug addiction, pornography addiction, sex addiction, gambling addiction, and computer addiction (including on-line gaming addiction). Then, there are the so-called "subtle" or invisible addictions, which include addiction to work (workaholics), addiction to power (megalomania), addiction to money (miserliness), addiction to approval ("people pleasing"), addiction to reading (bibioholics), addiction to spirituality (the "silent" or taboo addiction), addiction to beauty ("attraction"), addiction to obsessive thinking (rumination), addiction to emotion (anger or tears), and addiction to certain foods (chocoholics)."
