What's Eating Luis Suarez? A Psychobiography

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this psychobiography is to examine the descriptions that the authors provide on Luis Suarez's actions and how these reflect different forms of psychological theorising. Introduction: It is important to examine football players as they are regularly captured by the media, they act as role models for many individuals and sport generally has a huge impact on society. Luis Suarez is a professional footballer, notorious for his talented football skills and his bad behaviour on-pitch, particularly his tendency to bite other players. Psychobiography is useful in that it allows for the exploration and description of the life of a particular individual. Method: Data collected on Suarez's life were drawn from fifty secondary sources and the various viewpoints were analysed using grounded theory. Results: Five themes emerged from the data as dominant to Suarez's biting behaviour. These themes were: (1) a lack of impulse-control, (2) emotions influenced his thoughts and behaviour, (3) his behaviour stemmed from his childhood, (4) it is explained by a primal or instinctive act, and (5) his behaviour occurred due to context, which is split into two sub-sections: pressures from external sources and name-calling from opposing players. Discussion: The most viable explanation of Suarez's biting behaviour is his lack of impulse-control. The most compelling evidence of this explanation is that the punishment and public embarrassment continued to show no impact on his repeated biting behaviour. However, his behaviour may also be better explained by a combination of factors discussed, most likely a lack of impulse-control and intense emotions or pressures from external sources.