Psychology Of Elizabeth Holmes

Over the past two decades, the company name, Theranos, has bounced around news outlets and dining room tables, everyone talking about the fraud of Elizabeth Holmes. Starting back in 2003 with a patent for the name Theranos, Holmes dropped out of Stanford with an idea that would hopefully change the medical realm. Theranos, a blood-testing company, campaigned for the idea of testing for over 240 illnesses from a prick of a finger rather than a blood draw. While the idea is revolutionary, the science community is not advanced enough to support the idea of getting so many results from an area where blood circulation often causes inconsistent results. With so little margin for error, having drawn less than 10 drops of blood results from the tests can be astonishingly different, causing stress and worry for the users.

By 2014 Elizabeth Holmes had reached peak fame, taking the cover of Forbes magazine with product in hand, Theranos valued at over 1 billion dollars with over 180 million dollars worth of investments. Walgreens made a brand deal to help launch Theranos into a massive success, the FDA approved the company in 2015. However, when results began showing errors the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid opened an investigation to look at the legitimacy of Theranos, but the results were not good. The CMS found that Elizabeth Holmes was a fraud, Theranos never having the technology to do any sort of accurate testing, taking money from investors that ultimately went nowhere. David Grenache, former president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry spoke on the technology used at Theranos, “ I think myself and all of my colleagues just looked at each other and said ‘No way. That’s not possible. The technology doesn’t exist.’”

In 2018 Theranos was shut down permanently, Elizabeth Holmes, and her previous business partner Sunny Balwani awaiting trial for charges of wire fraud. While COVID-19 continued to push back court dates to the fall of 2022, Holmes was married, had a child, and an HBO docuseries, “The Inventor” was made to showcase her crimes of fraud. Phycologists started to also break down Elizabeth Holmes’s actions to help further explain how a woman in her early 20’s fooled the world and made billions. Everything about Holmes seemed to be carefully crafted to appeal to the masses, from her appearance to her overall voice. Jillian O’Connor, a Stanford professor, spoke on Elizabeth Holmes’ voice, when asked about the authenticity of her facade, she said,” This whole Holmes situation, the image manipulation, dressing like Steve Jobs, trying to sound a particular way- it sounds like an awful lot went into this facade.” Not only her voice, but her clothing reflected the ideal of portraying a more authoritative figure as well. Everything from wearing her hair in a straight bob to an all-black pantsuit helped elude more masculine energy that was often more respected than the feminine latter. She was also known to have very large blue eyes, many believing she would widen them for a more intense effect.

This comes to play in the trial for Holmes’s alleged fraud. Her entire appearance was changed; the dark clothes were replaced with light blouses and skirts, the sleek straight hair with a feminine curl, and her face feminized, with light makeup and less dramatized eyes. Everything Elizabeth Holmes has done to help her case may have been for nothing, her lack of remorse apparent throughout the trial of Theranos. The trial for Holmes has been set for September 26th of 2022, with one charge of alleged wire fraud, and three charges for wire fraud against Elizabeth Holmes. The case stands still for the moment, the world waiting for Elizabeth to finally pay for her years of fraud and deceit.