When a celebrity dies, why do we feel like they’re our own? Why do some of us not feel at all? Okayplayer spoke to a clinical psychologist to help us understand the different ways people react when someone famous dies.

Historically, celebrity death has been disruptive— from the most beloved figures to the most controversial. But what’s changed is who is positioned at the top of the social pyramid and what parts of their deaths warrant that type of disruption in the lives of those looking up to them. In the podcast In the End: Celebrity Death it’s stated that community leaders were the celebrities of the past— political leaders, social leaders, religious leaders, and kings. “The higher someone’s social status, the more socially disruptive their death is, and the greater the effort that must be made to heal that breach that happens when they die.”

In a sense, celebrity is the closest model Americans have to royalty. And in many cases, the ways in which we mourn stars is similar to the ways subjects mourn the deaths of their monarchs. Nipsey Hussle was a king in Crenshaw. Born Ermias Asghedom, Hussle was shot and killed in front of his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 31. The store was a symbol of his rise to success. He’d been transparent about his teenage years, where he illegally made ends meet in that same parking lot. Hussle’s particular type of success in music felt singular because of how innovative he was with his marketing. His business acumen was equally as impressive as his body of works. With one Grammy-nominated album, Victory Lap, and a slew of strong mixtapes, he’d go on to have one of the most impressive independent runs in hip-hop history.

But his legacy transcends music. The most striking thing about Nipsey’s legacy is how he was given his flowers in real time. He was praised for his community work, commentary, and endeavors by his fellow artists and fans alike. And the message in his music had resounded across the country since he first grabbed the mic.

Hussle’s death became fodder for conspiracy as much as it has become a sincere time to question what lead to his murder and a moment to measure the magnitude of his music and message. As the internet and industry scrambled for information to share and conclusions to make about him, one thing became apparent: there is a pattern to how the public mourns the famous. Many celebrities have died violent, public deaths recently. The latest has been Nipsey Hussle, but he won’t be the last.

When a celebrity dies, it seems we go through the cycle of public mourning: finding their most profound quotes; posting their photos to social media; consuming their art in high volumes; analyzing and theorizing who they were and what they meant. We create narratives around their lives anchored by what we know. When a celebrity dies, why do we feel like they’re our own? Why do some of us not feel at all? Sometimes they mean something to us, other times we try to make them mean something to us. Most times, celebrity deaths signify something greater for ourselves and our society.

Okayplayer spoke with Dr. Danielle Forshee, a clinical psychologist and social worker, on the public and personal real-time reckoning with Nipsey Hussle’s death, empathy vs. emotional response, and the human condition to examine the cyclical pattern of reaction to help us understand how, why, and what we feel when celebrities die.

Can you describe the psychological process of mourning as it pertains to celebrity death? What are some common ways the public reacts to fame and death?

The psychological process of mourning when it comes to celebrities is very similar to the process of mourning when it comes to non-celebrities. The only real difference is we are typically mourning the loss of who we believed them to be and who we needed them to be. For example, we attach to celebrities because of similarities that we see in them when related to ourselves. Read more…