Free Essay

Psychoanalyizing Mike Tyson

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By polodog01
Words 2104
Pages 9
MIKE TYSON PSYCHOANALYTIC REPORT
PSYCHOLOGY
DR WHITELY
QUINISE CAMPBELL
August 26, 2014

I chose for my subject Michael Gerard “Mike” Tyson. Mike Tyson is an American retired professional boxer. What attracted me to pick Mike Tyson was that I felt that he was a gentle giant that has been misunderstood in this life. So with this psychoanalytic study we are going to break down the myths that people think about him. I know this is not supposed to be a biography about the life of Mike Tyson; but to give some insight on which of the 7 psychology’s major perspectives I chose you have to know a little about his background. At an early age Tyson’s parent separated, leaving him to be raised by a single mother, he witnessed a horrific and gruesome atmosphere of crime, drugs, and violence. He had never had a physical altercation at that point in his life, but after continually being bullied Tyson finally stood up for himself when another boy grabbed his pet pigeon and broke its neck. Tyson describes that as his first fight, and it was the one that started his continual fighting in the streets and also the development of his criminal behavior. I think that the early stages of his life fall under the Socioculture perspective level. The values and beliefs transmitted from his social and cultural environment played a huge part in all of the trouble that he got into as a child and as adolescent. John Locke once proposed that humans are born with a blank slate (tabula rasa) into the world, filling in the slate as time goes on by letting their experiences in life shape the person they become. Locke’s theory opened up the possibility for the field of Behaviorism, and years later B.F. Skinner developed the Skinner Box, developing a theory of operant conditioning that is perfect for identifying important aspects of the personality of Mike Tyson. (Friedman, 2009) Operant conditioning claims that an individual’s behavior is shaped by the consequences of that behavior, as those rewarded for a certain behavior will be reinforced to repeat the behavior and those punished for doing a particular behavior will be less likely to perform that behavior in the future. The process by which an individual (or in Skinner’s case, an animal) learned to respond in accordance with positive and negative consequences was part of ‘shaping’ the individual. By this method, individuals learn to better emulate the target behavior in order to reach the consequences of that behavior. In the eyes of Skinner, Tyson is not to be blamed for his actions, as he is merely a byproduct of determinism. There is no free will by this perspective, and as a result, Tyson’s personality has developed as a result of reinforcement throughout his life. The second theorist theory that I used was that of Sigmund Freud.
Psychoanalytic theory of personality of Sigmund Freud states that the personality of every human being is composed of 3 essential parts. These three essentials are called the ego, the superego and the id. They function jointly to generate multifaceted human behaviors. The id is the only one constituent of human’s personality that is present since his/her birth. This feature of personality is completely insentient and includes the inborn and primordial conduct. According to Freud S., the id is a basis of the human energy, and this makes it the most important element of the personality. The ego is the second constituent of the human’s personality. It is responsible for building relationship with reality. According to psychoanalysis, the ego is developing from the id and makes sure that it (the id) can be used in a manner tolerable in the real life.

Mike Tyson was born on the 30th of June 1966, in Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, the city of New York. His father was a pimp, whom he never met or even knew. His mother died when he was 16 years old. His sister died early as well. His father abandoned the family while he was two years old. These endless losses bred a feeling of non-belonging to a family, as it is known that no man is an island and everyone needs someone to love. The fact that he had no father figure in his life made a feeling of frustration and lacking of something important in his life. Mike Tyson had always been outgoing and an “in-your-face” person. This, together with all the rage that was slowly boiling in him, would quickly push him to extents of violence in his neighborhood. Jealousy and envy would also creep up as he would see his neighbors having both parents. He would wonder why he never had any. This would lead him to overcompensating by making himself better by performing negative acts towards his neighbors. All these would happen in the superego mind; as none of the victims of theft and violence were merely random.

After the death of his sister, this would just make the situation happening in his mind even worse. The continuous losses in his family would make him lose hope of having a normal life. This would make him drift away from his family even more. He would continue to get sucked into the streets of Brooklyn. These streets were full of violence, sex, drugs, and pure revulsion. All of these would soon take over in his life. This became his new life. Violence and use of force became engrained in him. Because of being a single parent, so many financial problems, and the loss of the daughter/sister, Mike’s mother finally lost control over the boy. He became fully fledged in his own life His ego was infected with the virus of violence and theft, so much that it shaped his personality, and the way he perceived himself in his superego and conscious mind (McLaughlin, & Muncie, 2006).

His mother had a boyfriend who would often live at their house. This confused Mike, however, he was excited about finally having a father figure in his life. This would cause conflicting emotions and experiences for him. This is because he was so used to having things his way, and since his mother decided to somewhat give up on him. His mother’s boyfriend would often get into scuffles with young Mike, and used to beat him most of the times. His mother was saddened by all this, but had no psychological control as she had already gone through so much. Mike was, therefore, exposed to this brutality. He lost trust in all men, who had any resemblance to his mother’s boyfriend. This continual loss of trust and faith in anything had a negative impact on his psychological wellbeing. This was slowly causing the formation of a monster. His superego was slowly being morphed in a spectacle of hatred, anger, and regret. This continual battering and his mother doing nothing about it made him lose some self esteem. He felt like less of a person. Although, in some cases, this would lead to developing a meek human, in Mike’s situation it was quite different. His fate was mixed with a lot of resentment, and low self-esteem issues just fuelled his rage (Heller, 1995).

Too many events were happening in Mike’s life. He was arrested quite a few times; however, he did not seem to care much. He had reached the point at which he had no regard for his own wellbeing. This was a result of the significant drop in self-esteem after the brutality he experienced in the hands of a person, whom he was meant to trust. He would, therefore, try to prove his power to the people around him forcefully, through violence. This would, of course, land him into problems with the law. He was feeding the superego with these actions. It also served to give him some kind of sense of belonging to the streets. He joined a gang in his neighborhood. In his eyes, it was a great achievement, as someone finally saw something in him. He felt very important for someone for the first time in his life. He became radically involved in various destructive gang activities. In his eyes, being apprehended was an achievement. This is because his psychological being had been tampered by many negative things going on in his life (Cloninger, 2000).

He had a very distant relationship with his mother. This could be attributed to various reasons, like the fact that his mother was always working in order to have money to feed her family. This gave Mike ample time to spend with “the streets” to get soaked by them. His brother already had a job by this time. He was a bit more focused than Mike in his age. Mike did not have any guidance by any kind of parental figure. He would then make his decisions, very important decisions, yet he was still too young to do so. The lack of guidance made him feel unwanted and independent at a very tender age. In interviews conducted in his adulthood stage, Mike stated that he was not close with his family and relatives. They were like strangers living in the same house, and they had no kind of effect on him. This is not good as it is rare that a child who lacked guidance managed to develop good morals. This was the very case with Mike.

The death of his mother also devastated him so much despite the nature of their relationship. In an interview, he said that it had a significant emotional effect on him. He had lost the next closest person to him. She was his only hope for an ordinary life even if he did not acknowledge it when he was meant to. She was his life. He had lost that, in his mind it was as if he had lost a part of him. His frustration and confusion about life would continue to grow immensely and cause an attack of emotions that could not be regulated and at times would register negatively in his mind causing rage to be conducted to his conscious mind. This became a part of him (Cashmore, 2005).

Mike Tyson’s sworn enemy in the ring was Evander Holyfield. He was the only person between him and the award and the glory that his superego had been pushing him to get and discover. This naturally became his sole goal. Without caring about his own being, he would embark on it every day, the build up to the moment. During a number of pre-match conferences, some of the statements Holyfield might have said triggered a memory that reminded Tyson about his earlier life that he wished to forget. At least his ego wanted him to forget that. This, hence, led to the brutality against Holyfield. For his superego, it signified crushing the past that was haunting him so badly. The third theorist that I chose was Carl Rogers. Rogers believed that the most important component of personality is the self-what a person comes to identify as “I” or “me”. The self- concept refers to all the information and beliefs you have regarding your own nature, unique qualities and typical behaviors. Rogers believed that we should trust our feelings to guide us toward mental health and happiness. Rogers also believed that the outcomes of low self-concepts and poor mental health generally result from early childhood experiences with parents and other adults who make their love and acceptance conditional and contingent on behaving in certain ways and expressing only certain feelings. Mike Tyson grew up not feeling love from his father and being abused by his mom’s boyfriend, that over time his negative feelings and behaviors are totally unacceptable and unlovable, that his self-concept and self-esteem became distorted. Mike Tyson, doubted the love and approval of others because he didn’t know the real person hiding inside. As a child Mike never was able to develop his full personality and life potential, due to not having an adult who created an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard-a warm and caring environment in which a child is never disapproved of as a person.

References

Friedman, H.S., & Schustack, M. W. (2009). Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research, 4th edition. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Muncie, J., & McLaughlin, E. (ed) (2006), Youth Justice: Critical Readings. 4th edition London: Sage Publications
Heller, Peter. (1995). Bad Intentions: The Mike Tyson Story, Da Capo Press. August 1, 1995
Cashmore, Ernest (2005). Mike Tyson: Nurture-of-the-beast; Oxford; Malden , MA: Polity 2005

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Mike Tyson

...Mike Tyson Case Study Nie-shia Randolph Colorado Technical University Online Mike Tyson Case Study Michael Gerard Tyson was born on June 30, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Lorna Tyson. When Mike was two years old his father left his family, leaving his mother to take care of him and his two siblings Rodney and Denise. Struggling to stay afloat Tyson’s mother moved her family to Brownsville, a section in Brooklyn (Mike Tyson biography, 1996-2013) As a child Tyson was small and shy this cause him to be the target of bullying. Tyson decided to learn how to fight to protect him from the bully’s in his neighborhood. This helped him to develop his own style of street fighting. Tyson stated to indulge in more criminal activities. He ran with a gang called the Jolly stompers. Tyson role with the gang was to clean out cash registers while the older people in the gang held victims at gun point. Tyson was only 11 years old at the time. His involvement with the gang has caused Tyson to develop a criminal background. At the age of 13 Tyson had been arrested more than 30 times. His criminal behavior landed in a reform school in upstate New York. At the reform school Tyson met counselor Bob Stewart. Bob was an amateur boxing champion. Tyson began to show interest in boxing he asked Bob to teach him how to use his fists. Bob agree to teach Tyson what he knew if Mike agreed to stay out of trouble and work harder in school. Mike managed to stay out of trouble...

Words: 2620 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Mike Tyson

...Jasmine Wilson Language Arts Mrs.Brokaw Block Four December 16, 2014 Mike Tyson Mike Tyson was a very famous boxer. He did Heavyweight boxing and was a champion of the world. He later ended his career when he went to jail at the age of 20. He lost his title in 1990. He came back and asked for rematch in 1997, but how did he become famous in the first place. Mike Tyson was born on June 20, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York to his parents of Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Lorna Tyson. His father had left him at the age of 2. He later moved to Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was bullied in school, but he then joined a gang when he was 11. Since he got into a lot of trouble, he went to Tryon School for boys. One of his councilor, Bob Stewart taught him how to box. He later met Constantine D’Amato and he wanted to make him a pro boxer. On November 22, 1986, Tyson was given his first title fight against Trevor Berbick for the WBC heavyweight championship. He won by second round TKO at the age of 20. He was the youngest heavyweight champion in history. He has a total of 58 fights He won only 50 of them. As his game was falling apart, Tyson was too. His behavior during this time was increasingly violent and erratic. He got a divorce with his wife on February 14, 1989. He came back in the ring and tried to win his title back. On March 26, 1992, Tyson was found guilty of rape and two counts of deviant sexual conduct. Overall, Tyson was a very good boxer who is still known today. He had some up’s and...

Words: 303 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Humor

...Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American retired professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the only heavyweight to successively unify them. In 1988, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks after 91 seconds. Tyson successfully defended the world heavyweight championship nine times, including victories over Larry Holmes and Frank Bruno. In 1990, he lost his titles to underdog James "Buster" Douglas, by a knockout in round 10. Attempting to regain the titles, he defeated Donovan Ruddock twice in 1991, but he pulled out of a fight with undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield due to injury. In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington and sentenced to six years in prison but was released after serving three years. After his release, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. In 1996, he won the WBC and WBA titles after defeating Frank Bruno and Bruce Seldon by knockout. With his defeat of...

Words: 474 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Psych

...select Mike Tyson as my subject. It is my belief that his troubled childhood, meteoric rise to fame and fortune, and his often-controversial behavior in and out of the ring makes for an interesting character worthy of analysis. Michael Gerard Tyson was born June 30, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York. He was only two years old when his father, Jimmy Kirkpatrick abandoned the family, leaving his mother, Lorna Tyson to take care of Mike and his two siblings, Rodney and Denise. She had a great deal of financial difficulty in supporting her family, and eight years later, she was forced to move her family into the tough, crime-ridden Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. Tyson, small and shy, was often the target of bullying. To combat this, young Michael began developing his own style of street fighting, and graduated from this to criminal activity. His gang, known as the Jolly Stompers, assigned him to clean out cash registers while older members held victims at gunpoint. He was only 11 at the time. He frequently ran into trouble with police over his petty criminal activities, and by the age of 13 he had been arrested more than 30 times. (Biography, 2012) His behavior eventually landed him in Tryon School for Boys, a tough reform school in upstate New York. It was here that he was introduced to boxing through counselor Bob Stewart, a former amateur champion. In exchange for Tyson staying out of trouble and working harder in school, Stewart agreed to teach him how to box. Tyson learned...

Words: 1120 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Bio Scotch of Mike Tyson

...Jared Dickerson PSYC120-1204A-3 The Mind of A champion: Profile on Mike Tyson November 11, 12 What the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Mike Tyson? The man who once told a reporter he was going to rape him? Or, the man who overcame the odds rose to the top to become champion? I choose to do a psychological sketch on Tyson because he was once the richest and best-known athlete in the world, but still remains one of the hardest people to understand. Mike Tyson was born June 30th 1966 in Brooklyn, New York. By the age of two he was living with his 5 siblings in a single parent household in Brownsville New York, one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city. Having being exposed to domestic violence at an early age, Tyson would build a love for training pigeon as an escape of his reality. At age 9, a 15-year-old gang member decapitated one of Tyson’s beloved pigeons by turning it’s head slowly till it snapped off. Seeing this Tyson attacked the boy like a wild animal and brutally beat him. From that point Tyson reputation began to grow in his neighborhood. Tyson was quoted in an interview stating, “I never saw my mother happy with me and proud of me for doing something.  She only knew me as being a wild kid running the streets, coming home with new clothes that she knew I didn't pay for. I never got a chance to talk to her or know about her. Professionally, it has no effect, but it's crushing emotionally and personally." If a child doesn’t...

Words: 2468 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Discipline

...Page 1 In the words of Mike Tyson, he quotes, “Discipline is doing what you have to do, but doing it like you love it.” As for me, I definitely agree with this saying. Being raised in a stereotypical and strict Asian family, discipline played a big role. No matter how small or big the situation was, discipline, manners and morals always mattered. For example, as a small child, my mom gave me little chores and responsibilities such as cleaning my room, throwing out the trash, and wiping down the table after every meal. As much as I hated doing these tasks, I had no choice but to finish the job well and diligently. As I grew older, I learned that it’s easier to finish my work if I looked at it in a positive manner and at the same time, not expecting a reward after. Doing something because you have to is totally different from doing something from your heart. This is something I learned at church. Doing things with a happy heart improves myself and shapes my personality. Not only does it make me a better person, but it sets a good example to the other people in my environment which was a great example done by Jesus. Being disciplined also reflects on the people who raised me. Discipline comes with respect. Discipline also comes along with loyalty to yourself and others, duty, honor, selfless service, integrity, and personal courage. Without discipline, you have none of those traits. This is what I mean when I say that discipline shapes my personality. Now what exactly...

Words: 461 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Mike Tyson

...Statistics Real name Michael Gerard Tyson Nationality American Born June 30, 1966 (age 47) Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S. Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American retired professional boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. Early life Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He has a brother, Rodney, who is five years older than he is.[9] His sister, Denise, died of a heart attack at age 24 in 1990.[10] Tyson's father is listed as "Percell Tyson" on his birth certificate,[11] but the man Tyson had known as his father was Jimmy Kirkpatrick. In 1959, Jimmy Kirkpatrick left his family and moved to Brooklyn, where he met Tyson's mother, Lorna Smith Tyson. Mike Tyson was born in 1966.[13] Kirkpatrick abandoned the Tyson family around the time Mike was born, leaving Tyson's mother to care for the children on her own.[14] Kirkpatrick died in 1992.[15] The family lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant until their financial burdens necessitated a move to Brownsville when Tyson was 10 years old.[16] Tyson's mother died six years later, leaving 16-year-old Tyson in the care of boxing manager and trainer Cus D'Amato, who would become his legal guardian. Tyson later said, "I never saw my mother happy with me...

Words: 518 - Pages: 3