Erwin "Magic" Johnson

Guard/Forward Los Angeles Lakers

Born August 14, 1959

Lansing, Michigan - USA



This photograph was taken from a newspaper at the time Magic Johnson announced his departure from professional basketball. He said that he had learned that he was suffering from the AIDS virus. The photo shows the morphology of the hand very clearly although the lines are too faint to be seen.

The bulbous tip phalange of the little finger underlines the obsessive nature of Magic's attention to severe deficiencies in his earliest infant/childhood mother-experiences. Inasmuch as these stressful experiences are rooted in his subconscious memories they have not lost their grip on his mind. They would become manifest as "Autistic Pockets" (note the mild "S" shape of this finger) and would suggest serious difficulties in all matters of attachment and belonging.

The general thinness of the fingers bespeaks a global sense of insufficiency. As part compensation for this sense of insufficiency Magic Johnson would have sought a foundation in a cerebral discipline where intellectualizations and rationalizations would largely determine attitudes and even "emotional" responses.

The massive development of the palm underlines the biological and organic constitution which would suggest heightened physical/sexual drives and a powerful emotional makeup. The cerebral discipline we noted earlier would be inconsistent with this inherent feature in his personality and would give rise to sharp inner conflicts.

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