Was O. J. Simpson a Victim of His Own Mental Illness?

Orenthal James Simpson, commonly known as O.J., was a frequent focus of media attention for many years while he was playing football at the University of Southern California, and then in the National Football League. He was comfortable with his celebrity status and pursued a professional life being in front of the cameras, as an actor, and as a sportscaster for NBC (Gilbert, 2008). He experienced a difficult childhood as evidenced by his low socio-economic status, participation in criminal activity, and his being raised by a single mother due to his “father declaring himself to be an openly gay man in San Francisco” (Gilbert, 2008, p. 14). What was not visible to fans was the psychopathology that existed within the mind of O.J. Simpson. O.J. Simpson meets the criteria for the diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (DSM 301.81) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (DSM 301.7) (American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2000). The Narcissistic Personality Disorder may have been a contributing factor in the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson. Society watched as O.J. Simpson's trial unfolded “as the first trial of the digital century” (Lewis, 1995). Viewers became the most media exposed and most information savvy spectators of any criminal trial in the history of the United States. Division among viewers became evident as groups differed in their opinions of guilt or innocence seemingly along racial lines (Gilbert, 2008).

There is no question that O.J. Simpson was successful both on the football field and in front on the camera. O.J. was awarded the Heisman Trophy in 1968 for being the most outstanding college football player of the year and was subsequently drafted into the National Football League (NFL) in the first draft. O.J. went on to play 11 seasons as a running back in the NFL and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1985 (National Football League Enterprises, n.d.). His football popularity led to a career in television and cinema that he started by portraying a student in a 1968 episode of Dragnet. He appeared in 28 television and movie roles, which included the popular mini-series, Roots. O.J. was a television Executive Producer and his last acting role was in Naked Gun 33 1/3:The Final Insult, in 1994(Internet Movie Database, 2008). O.J. Simpson's accomplishments on the field and on the set combined to create a persona in the public eye who was idolized and adored.

The public did not have the opportunity to observe O.J.'s childhood Mike Gilbert, was O.J. Simpson's former sports agent and friend and in his book, How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder, wrote that O.J. grew up “in a rough neighborhood, Potrero Hill in San Francisco,” where he ran with street gangs and “had numerous run-ins with the police as a teen.” Eunice Simpson, a single mother raised O.J. after his father came out as an openly gay man and remained in the neighborhood (Gilbert, 2008). O.J. also had rickets, a disease of malnutrition, and had to walk around for hours every day in iron braces for his skinny bowlegs (Gilbert, 2008). Gilbert states that O.J. came from an environment of strong, churchgoing, disciplinary women. “He both depended upon and raged against women's power. His greatest terror was to be abandoned” (Gilbert, 2008, p. 14).

When O.J. Simpson met Nicole Brown, he was unhappy in his marriage to his first wife, Marguerite, who was pregnant with their third child. O.J. claimed that Marguerite had tricked him with that pregnancy and Gilbert describes these beliefs as being indicative of O.J. Simpson's immaturity and narcissism (Gilbert, 2008, p. 102). It was reported that when Marguerite was married to O.J. she made calls to the police and was frequently observed with bruises and wearing sunglasses regardless of the lighting conditions (Gilbert, 2008, p. 102). Gilbert writes that it took him many years to realize that O.J. Simpson had no empathy for any other human being. Gilbert states that in the years after Nicole Brown Simpson's death, he never “once heard O.J. express grief over her death, or empathy for her suffering or horror over what happened to her” (Gilbert, 2008). Mike Gilbert writes that he did hear O.J. tell jokes about Nicole's death. One time in jail, O.J. asked Mike Gilbert to check the horoscope, and as he did so, O.J. stated to Mike, “Check Taurus. Does it say "Hey, I"m dead'?” Nicole Brown Simpson was a Taurus (Gilbert, 2008). By lacking empathy, having a grandiose sense of self-importance, requiring excessive admiration, being interpersonally exploitative, and showing arrogant and haughty behaviors, O.J. meets the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). There are numerous examples of O.J. Simpson's “fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love” (APA, 2000, p. 714), within the pages of Mike Gilbert's book, which support the diagnosis of NPD.