Like a lot of other people, I’ve been watching Britney Spears’ spiral down the road of chaos. As usual, theories are like uvulas, everyone’s got one. Or at least you think everyone does. (I personally never checked) I think your particular take on her problem has a lot to do with your own experiences. So here’s what I see going on. As if you asked.
While I won’t blame anything on an organic disruption in the brain, I think there has been sufficient evidence to suggest she is in the swirls of some sort of postpartum problem. The rest of the picture is symptomatic from that core.
Here you have a a young twenty-something who has, by all appearances, been involved in a marriage that was far less than she expected. That could be the fault of her soon-to-be ex-husband, as the media would’ve had us believe for months on end. It could be her own doing. We don’t know.
She had two babies in the span of one year, almost to the date. That year entailed endless dogging by the press on her parenting skills (or rather, lack of by appearances). She made every mistake a first time parent makes under the lens of the media microscope and caught hell for all of it. No mercy, because ya know, the rest of us are perfect. Nevermind she constantly had the first baby with her, a feat not often seen in Hollywood.
Physically, the toll of that kind of childbearing is rough. The medical recommendation is a two-year waiting period before conception after a cesarean birth. The uterine muscles require that much time to heal. Even then, subsequent pregnancies are considered high risk as the scar tissue has a high likelihood of rupturing during labor, endangering both mother and child. So imagine having two of those surgeries in the course of a year. Her body is tired.
Her mind is also tired. We live in a high stress society that gives only nominal attention to the effects that stress plays on the body physically and psychologically. A month after the birth of her second child, she files for divorce. From there on out, the reports of her partying (if not nightly, then almost nightly).
Most of any research I’ve done (or probably will do) centers on the sociocultural factors involved in the development of postpartum symptomatology. The big players seem to be social support, marital satisfaction, and the shift in gender roles. Keep in mind, these are not causes, only identified factors.
The marital satisfaction component has already been identified and addressed. She filed for divorce which is sufficient enough to say satisfaction was low. The next obvious issue is social support. Celebrities in general have large entourages, but I’m guessing very few real friends. Star after star has told the age-old story of not knowing whether people want to be your friend or to be a hanger on. The isolation can be great and take its toll. The level of narcissism present in the celebrity population tends to cause further difficulty in interpersonal relationships. The self-focus of narcissism, especially in the extreme, prevents intimate connections between people which feeds into postpartum depression
The same narcissism that prevents intimacy in marriage carries over to social support systems. Having a lot of people around doesn’t indicate the presence of a support system. Examination of research on maternal treatment preferences in postpartum populations indicate the treatments of choice are all social in nature — peer support groups, couples therapy, and most highly reported — the ability to talk about emotions. Women are prone to not sharing their frustrations for feelings of failure, for feeling defective as a parent, for feeling shame at the realization that reality is not the bill of goods you’re sold before childbirth. It’s hard work and only in recent years has the prevalance of postpartum depression (estimated at 50-80% of Western women to varying degrees) been recognized. The conversation has only just begun. But the intimacy most women desire in relationships in order to receive such support system is stunted by narcissism, which seems to especially be the situation in Britney’s situation.
Research has also shown that most females in high power positions have developed strikingly traditional male characteristics in order to rise to the top. Postpartum research has shown that no matter how egalitarian the relationship may be prior to the birth of a child, gender roles align to the traditional after the child is born. Women who are most adjusted maintain some “male” role. Britney all but gave up her career which had to have been a striking blow to her identity.
Like so many in this world, she chose to self-medicate through, at least, alcohol and seems to be avoiding her role as an adult woman who is mother to two precious children. She is obviously deeply troubled and needs someone before she ends up in the now cliche position of the troubled, and dead, celebrity.
But take note. Her situation is magnified because of her notoriety. There are women everywhere who suffer just the same right before our very eyes and no one realizes it. Be aware. Be compassionate.
March 5th, 2007 by 
janet
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