The Romanticization of Mental Illness and Adolescent Identity Formation: Marina and the Diamond’s Electra Heart

Abstract

ABSTRACT Marina and the Diamonds’ album, Electra Heart (2012), by glamorizing suffering, provides adolescents an avenue to find solidarity with others who are self-critical and depressed. Adolescents of the 2010s have formed their identities by crowdsourcing on the internet in response to this album. The character of Electra Heart represents a modern-day negative ego ideal for adolescents. Idealization of her character fans the flames of narcissistic destructive behavior in adolescents, but also provides a way for adolescent girls to symbolize and express negative feelings without acting on them.