Illusions of immortality Book

What drives people to crave fame and celebrity? How does fame affect people psychologically? These and other questions are tackled in this work in which David Giles draws on research from a variety of fields - psychology, sociology, media and communications studies, history and anthropology - as well as his own experiences as a music journalist in the 1980s, to argue that technological developments in the 20th century have created a society for which humans are psychologically unprepared. Perhaps the biggest single dilemma for celebrities is the fact that the vehicle that creates fame for them - the media - is also their tormentor.