This is when she began to form a network of friends and decided to establish a separation from her parents and the studio protectors. In order to demonstrate her newfound independence, she declined to take any alimony from Hilton. Her biographer, Sheridan Morley, states that Elizabeth was “just beginning to feel that her upbringing had been less than helpful, and that the sooner she established a life and personality of her own, the better it would be for all concerned” (Morley, 1998). Meanwhile she began dating a series of men ranging from billionaires to directors, and from bachelors to divorcees and married men, and shooting many dull films, resulting to her negative public image.
In 1952, while being in England shooting a film against her will, she met and married Michael Wilding, a British actor twenty years her senior, with whom she had two sons. In her own words: “He represented tranquillity, security and maturity, all the things I needed in myself” (Morley, 1998). She took him to America where his career was destroyed and they faced a serious economic crisis, as she was not paid while she was pregnant and he was jobless. Their marriage lasted for five years until Elizabeth got tired of the conventional life she lived next to this man who was gentle and kind and never lost his temper, and they separated as good friends.
In 1957, she met and married the movie producer Mike Todd, another father figure 24 years her senior. They only had 13 months together but he was the first real love of her life (King, 2001). He was not as elegant as Wilding, nor as wealthy as Hilton but he was a self-made man, a street fighter who gave her energy. She started to take instruction to the Jewish religion and they had a daughter. Due to problems with her spinal cord and a difficult birth the doctors decided to do a tubal ligation, thus giving end to her dream of having many of Todd’s children. (Morley, 1998). When Todd got killed in a plane crash, she went into deep psychiatric shock. It was only a month later that she found the strength and the discipline to get back to work.
A few months later she got married with Eddie Fisher, who was the best man at her last wedding and the closest friend of the deceased. He divorced actress Debbie Reynolds to marry her, and the press vilified Elizabeth for having broken up their marriage. (Ankeny, 2003). He held her together in her continuing grief over Todd, but he lacked the sheer force of character to make their marriage anything like the “equal partnership” that she had enjoyed with her last husband. (Morley, 1998). He stood by her when she almost died from lung congestion and when she won her first Oscar. She was fighting for survival in her career, public opinion, and life.
“I’ve been acting for nineteen years now, and from the beginning it was very easy, like playing games, which is maybe why I always found it so boring. For a while when I was married to Mike Todd whose wedding ring I still wear as well as Eddie’s, I really did want to give up the whole thing forever, but lately I’ve been thinking that maybe I do want to be an actress after all. Off screen, I’m still shy, lazy, unpunctual and sloppy, with a major vice about eating whenever possible; but after being so desperately ill I’ve decided that there are some roles I actually want to live to play, and Cleopatra is one of them. It will be a lot of fun being the first Jewish Queen of Egypt.” (Morley, 1998).
Failing to find, in Fisher, the kind of dynamic impresario of her life that had been evident in Todd or even the father figure of Wilding, she had gone into various affairs (Morley, 1998). Since she could not have children, which seemed as a validation to a wedding to her, she and Fisher adopted a girl (King, 2003). However, as soon as she met Richard Burton on Cleopatra’s set, they were deeply in love. A huge scandal was created again, as they were both married with children. Whenever Elizabeth fell in love it seemed logical to her that she should get married to the object of her new affections. (Morley, 1998). She married Burton, nine days after her divorce with Eddie Fisher in 1964. They became Hollywood’s golden couple, having a passionate, stormy relationship, played out in the press and onscreen in many films. He was the second of the only two loves of her life. (King, 2001). He was drinking a lot and she became an alcoholic “trying to keep up, to get to wherever he was” (Morley, 1998). Ten years later, they divorced and got remarried after 10 months, only to finally separate 16 months later. Meanwhile, she was granted her second Oscar for her performance in “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf” playing an overweight, loudmouth alcoholic. (Gleisten, n.d.,a).
For the next decade Elizabeth played in many films and in television, but audiences no longer seemed interested. Indeed, she made more headlines for her increasing weight, continued health problems, and revelations of drug and alcohol abuse than she did for any of her films. (Ankeny, 2003).
Shortly, after her 6th divorce she got married to a former secretary of the Navy, John Warner, thinking that they would live on a farm, raising horses, but two months after their marriage he decided to run for senate. (King, 2001). She accepted the role of the political wife and campaigned for his election but when they moved to Washington the initial excitement was gone, because she felt that “her life had no meaning or responsibility” (Morley, 1998).
When she learned about Burton’s marriage she suffered a nervous breakdown and six months later she had been admitted to the Betty Ford clinic to recover from her dependency on drugs and alcohol. She felt “unneeded and unnecessary: the children were all grown and (she) just got terribly fat” (Morley, 1998). Two months later, she emerged thin, strong and in good shape, and took pride in being the first celebrity to talk openly about her detoxification.
Her primary focus during the decades to follow was charity work. She became a leader in an admirable political battle for the rights of AIDS victims in the court of public opinion, research centers, and the U.S. legislature, when no one else was standing up for this cause. She is the Founding National Chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS research and the founder of The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. (Gleisten, n.d., b). For her efforts she won the 1993 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Simultaneously, Elizabeth Taylor became a successful businesswoman, as she launched a line of perfumes, and has authored various books.
Unfortunately, in 1987, she relapsed and was retreated in Betty Ford Clinic, for abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs (King, 2003). In the clinic she met Larry Fortensky, a construction worker, twenty years her junior, whom she married in 1991 and divorced in 1996, because he had an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and he wouldn’t leave the house (King, 2001). She has been going in and out of hospitals ever since, for kidney problems, weight problems, pneumonia, bronchitis, lung infections, slipped disc, hip replacements, brain tumour, (Morley, 1998), skin cancer and dental surgery… but she survived. (Reel Classics, 2003).
In the late 1980s she formed a close and eccentric friendship with another favourite target of the tabloids, King-of-Pop Michael Jackson, whom she fanatically supports, despite all accusations against him. (King, 2003) She claims they have a lot in common as they were both child stars, had no childhood, were brought up buy tutors, had no children of their own age to play with or relate to. (King, 2001). In 2000, Queen Elizabeth made her a Dame and in 2002 she received the Kennedy Center Honors.
Actress, humanitarian, businesswoman, as well as author, Elizabeth Taylor has done it all. As she said in one of her books, Elizabeth Takes Off: "I believe in taking life in both hands and squeezing the most out of it." (Freeman, 2003). And she has certainly accomplished just that.
Erikson’s theory suggests that personality development is a process extending throughout life, which is divided into eight successive stages of psychosocial development. (Cloninger, 2004).
The first stage encompasses the first year of life, when the infant acquires a sense of trust in other people, or self-confidence, if it experiences the world as a safe place and people as nurturant and reliable and trustworthy. (Hjelle, 1992). We can assume that the conflict of trust versus mistrust was resolved in a healthy way, meaning with a favourable ratio of trust versus mistrust, as
- Elizabeth has definitely the virtue of hope, which is the foundation of faith. “There must be some reason that God wants me to live,” she reasons, thinking of all the times she came close to death (King, 2001).
- Her mother had abandoned her career in order to make a family and Elizabeth was her first and only daughter, so we can easily assume that she took good care of her baby and provided “a sense of familiarity, consistency and sameness of experience” (Hjelle, 1992)
The second conflict of Autonomy versus Shame was probably not resolved as well, as Elizabeth had a problem of holding on to relationships. Every time her relationships did not work, she suffered a nervous breakdown. Some of her pathological situations like ulcers could have been psychosomatic symptoms. Until her late adulthood she was never autonomous, following either her mother, the studio or different “powerful” and “inspiring” husbands. She became an alcohol and drug abuser, traits that could be perceived as results of self-doubt and shame, which Erikson describes as the rage felt at being punished for trying to be autonomous turned inward, against the self (Maddi, 1976), and doubting her own ability to function competently and independently. For Erikson the crucial development of this stage is the ability to make a choice for oneself (Maddi, 1976), but Elizabeth was not allowed to make choices until adulthood, as she was “owned” by the studios and an overprotective mother. In her late adolescence she even developed a negative identity of what she had learned she should be, “precisely to shock and punish her parents” (Monte, 1991) and the studio. Positive resolution of this crisis would result in the capacity for will (Cloninger, 2004) and for discriminating good from bad (Monte, 1991). Elizabeth started showing these traits after middle adulthood, through a hard process of trial and error, maturing and accumulating wisdom.
The third crisis a person faces during play age is Initiative versus Guilt. Elizabeth reports these years as being very happy. She was in England, mastering new tasks as horse riding and dancing ballet and gaining the approval of her family for her achievements. Her parents did not initiate any feelings of guilt as they encouraged her to undertake the activities she most loved, thus reinforcing her initiative. The successful resolution of this conflict enriched her with the virtue of purpose and courage to pursue goals. Erickson states that child’s future potential to work productively and achieve self-sufficiency within the context of the society’s economic system depends upon the ability to master this crisis.(Hjelle,1992) Elizabeth was the daughter of a very wealthy family and her future was not of concern – an additional indication that this conflict was resolved well.
The fourth crisis of Industry versus Inferiority is faced during school age. It was at this age, that everything changed for Elizabeth. She was taken from her “idyllic childhood” in England and was placed in a totally new environment in Hollywood. She was made to feel inferior to her classmates when she was fired from her first job, at age nine. Although, she was not particularly keen to acting, she hadn’t resolved successfully her second stage and thus followed her mother’s will to keep trying to audition for a part. She accepted work as a standard by which to judge self-worth. (Hjelle, 1992). When she finally managed to succeed, she was deprived of the interpersonal relationships with kids her age, resulting in an overemphasis on work as a basis for identity (Cloninger, 2004). However, she gained the virtue of competence and learned that hard work and initiative are the tools that lead to productivity, achievement, recognition and acceptance.
The fifth crisis of Ego Identity versus Role Confusion during adolescence was not easy for Elizabeth. Erikson states that “in their search for a new sense of continuity and sameness, adolescents have to refight many of the battles of earlier years” (Monte, 1991). Since her autonomy crisis was not resolved in a healthy way Elizabeth was just fulfilling her mother’s wishes. She was gaining her mother’s favour and social acceptance by being a child star. As she was growing and did not look as a child anymore, she was faced with failure and shame. She only knew two things: being an actress, or being an actress who left her career to become a wife, like her mother. Decision-making though, was not her skill. She could not go beyond these identifications. Although, she was tired of following her mother’s and the studio’s rules, she needed somebody else to have the lead. Like many adolescents facing an identity crisis, she experienced “ a profound sense of futility, aimlessness” and felt “inadequate, depersonalised and alienated” (Hjelle, 1992). She was bored of her life, she had no ambitions of her own, she felt empty and thought that the easy way out was to find the virtues she would like to have in a man. As she stated years later: “A man represented all the things I needed in myself… unfortunately you can’t get them by just touching somebody else” (Morley, 1998). Elizabeth was not granted a moratorium period, nor did she have the privilege to explore different adult roles in order to decide her identity. After a short-term strive to get away from studios by getting engaged, she was forced in an identity foreclosure (Cloninger, 2004), as she wrote in a note of filial apology:
“I realize that my whole life has been in motion pictures and for me to quit now would be like cutting away the roots of a tree… I’ve made up my mind for myself, so I’ll take all the hardships and everything else that comes along because I know (and I’ll always realize) that I was the one who chose to stay in and that I’m the one who must take them without grumbling or wanting to quit” (Morley, 1998)
According to Erikson, much of youthful “falling in love” is due to the fact that settling an identity is so hard, and anxiety-provoking, that youngsters overidentify, for protection, to the point of loss of identity, with the “significant other.” The youngster may remain in this escape, and when older, this will show up as role diffusion (Maddi, 1976), therefore, commitments are not honoured. It is not coincidental that Elizabeth could not fully commit and strive to honour her weddings, leading her to eight divorces. It wasn’t until she became 55 years old that she started forming an identity, and today at 71 she shows the first signs of the integrity she should have formed at her age.
The sixth crisis of Intimacy versus Isolation, in early adulthood, cannot be healthily resolved if a secure identity has not been formed in the earlier stage. Intimacy is the ability to “fuse your identity with somebody else’s without fear that you’re going to lose something yourself” (Cloninger, 2004). By contrast, adolescent “falling in love” is an attempt to explore your own identity through the use of another person. Erikson states that many women marry someone in order to find their own identity in and through that person (Hjelle, 1992), which was exactly the case of Elizabeth Taylor. Unfortunately, it is not possible to attain healthy intimate relationships by seeking identity in this way. In all her husbands, she was seeking whatever she was missing at that particular point of her life from her own identity; Hilton was approved by her parents, Wilding was tranquil, secure and mature, Todd was self-made and full of energy, Fisher was keeping Todd’s memory alive, Burton had a “sense of poetry and wildness and freedom” (King, 2001), Warner was unlike Burton peaceful, respectful and offered security (Morley, 1998) and Fortensky understood her because they share the same problem: addiction.
Elizabeth was scared of loneliness and isolation. She was striving for intimacy, but in the wrong way. Until her late adulthood, she was seldom without a partner but she did not manage to achieve real intimacy and love. She had, though, many friends. Mostly, they were people who had problems with their identity, like Clift and Hudson who had a problem with their homosexuality and Michael Jackson who obviously has the above and many other problems. Maybe, even Elizabeth’s friendships are not deeply intimate, but give her the security of being accepted no matter who she is, or what she looks like. In addition, her peculiar friends make her feel important when she is able to help them and stand for their rights. Although she is not self absorbed, and was always risking pain in her search of intimacy, Elizabeth’s sole remains isolated.
The seventh crisis a person in middle adulthood is facing is Generativity versus Stagnation. Elizabeth wanted to have many children and reported her tubal ligation as “being killed inside” (Morley, 67). This is why she did not hesitate to adopt a forth child when she could not have another one of her own. Whether she had been a guiding and aiding mother, is not to be found in her biographies, but at least she had the intention to procreate. Elizabeth has shown an incredible human quality when she risked her public image by standing up for AIDS victims, when nobody was daring to talk about it. From her 50s till now she has devoted her life in humanitarian efforts. She cares for people who suffer. After all she has survived, she could have become stagnated and self-centered, but instead she has used her tragedies to help the world. She has the virtue of caring for the future welfare of humanity (Hjelle, 1992).
The eighth crisis faced in late adulthood is Ego integrity versus Despair. Elizabeth is a survivor! Miraculously she is not despaired! Instead, she has obtained hope and faith from her tragedies. She has come to believe that God wants her alive, because she has things to do and she is doing them! (King, 2001). Through her life, she has gone through Erikson’s stages many times, and it seems that she has resolved a big part of them. She doesn’t want to die, but is not afraid of death (King, 2003). She understands many mistakes of the past, but does not mourn over them. She accepts people for who they are and does not think down on people. Elizabeth is finally coming to the self-integrity and wisdom she has been striving for throughout her life.
References
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Cloninger, Susan. (2004). Theories of personality: understanding persons. (4th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Freeman, H. (2003). Shameless siren. The Guardian. (July 18). Retrieved November 3, 2003, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12109,999911,00.html
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Hjelle, L.A., Ziegler, D.J. (1992). Personality theories: basic assumptions, research, and applications. (3rd ed.). Singapore: Mc Graw Hill, Inc.
King, L. (Reporter). (2001). Larry King Live: Elizabeth Taylor discusses her life and career [Television Broadcast]. U.S.A.: Cable News Network LP, LLLP. Retrieved November 11, 2003 from
King, L. (Reporter). (2003). Larry King Live: Interview with Dame Elizabeth Taylor [Television Broadcast]. U.S.A.: Cable News Network LP, LLLP. Retrieved November 29, 2003 from http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/03/lkl.00.html
Maddi, S.R. (1976). Personality Theories: a comparative analysis. (3rd ed.). Illinois: The Dorsey Press.
Monte, C.F. (1991). Beneath the mask: an introduction to theories of personality. (4th ed.). Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Morley, S. (1998). Elizabeth Taylor: a celebration. London: Pavilion Books Limited.
Reel Classics, L.L.C. (2003). Elizabeth Taylor: News. Retrieved December 1, 2003 from
