Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense of their own importance. They need and seek too much attention and want people to admire them. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about the feelings of others.
I lived for decades without even knowing what narcissism was, outside of the Greek myth. Then I met an intriguing and magnetic woman who made my life a living hell. She almost destroyed my life. Only later did I read about Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and it was as if the the author knew this particular person intimately. She checked off every box on the list. I was defenseless prey. Only later did I realize that it was my own vulnerability and receptiveness (mid-life crisis) that made me a target. Until you get caught in the web you have no idea how horrible it is.
Narcissism, Borderline, Antisocial, Histrionic Personality Disorders are classified as "Cluster B" by psychologists. These disorders are legion in our culture and everyone should learn about them to protect themselves. Once you know, you see the behavior patterns everywhere. (BTW, fascism is the collective expression of narcissism.) These people are often charismatic and high-functioning, but something in their psyche is malnourished and malformed during the development of their attachments. There's no "cure." But it's important to realize that everyone exhibits some of these traits to some degree at some time. The dose makes the poison.
Narcissists are the most destructive out of these disordered personalities because they are expert at "getting inside your head" to manipulate you, it feels almost supernatural. They exploit your own personality against you. Also they are usually very skilled at keeping themselves disguised in society, like psychic chameleons. Vampires, succubi, femme fatales, diabolical masterminds are literary representations of NPD. In reality, they could be your parent, life partner or boss. There are books written by diagnosed narcissists in which they proudly tell you exactly how they operate. It's one of the most dark and disturbing corners of the human experience.
Some people in this thread might mock me for writing this little dissertation. I don't care. I hope it helps someone make sense of their surroundings.
Narcissism, Borderline, Antisocial, Histrionic Personality Disorders are classified as "Cluster B" by psychologists. These disorders are legion in our culture and everyone should learn about them to protect themselves. Once you know, you see the behavior patterns everywhere. (BTW, fascism is the collective expression of narcissism.) These people are often charismatic and high-functioning, but something in their psyche is malnourished and malformed during the development of their attachments. There's no "cure." But it's important to realize that everyone exhibits some of these traits to some degree at some time. The dose makes the poison.
Narcissists are the most destructive out of these disordered personalities because they are expert at "getting inside your head" to manipulate you, it feels almost supernatural. They exploit your own personality against you. Also they are usually very skilled at keeping themselves disguised in society, like psychic chameleons. Vampires, succubi, femme fatales, diabolical masterminds are literary representations of NPD. In reality, they could be your parent, life partner or boss. There are books written by diagnosed narcissists in which they proudly tell you exactly how they operate. It's one of the most dark and disturbing corners of the human experience.
Some people in this thread might mock me for writing this little dissertation. I don't care. I hope it helps someone make sense of their surroundings.
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I think one of the reasons why narcissism is ‘trending’ - when you read the essay by tommus you read that narcissists are driven to get inside people’s heads and the advent of social media and evolution of traditional media has given these people much more powerful tools - the impact and greater reach of narcissists has increased substantially thanks to this.
How about a "Murderous personality disorder" is a mental health condition in which people have an unreasonably high sense to killing off those with a Narcissistic personality disorder. People with this disorder may lack the ability to understand or care about their feelings.
It could be a fraction, with the denominator being an unreasonably low sense of empathy for another's experience.
I went to (was dragged to...) a Messiah performance last night, where I corrected my wife / son for doing the "I'm at home watching a screen level of conversation" during a performance. Just before that moment, I saw someone cut across a row of people to get to an empty seat (full house) during a performance piece. One would think proper etiquette would be to wait until after the piece ended, then go for the seat - or talk. But "my" whatever is more important than... Which seems to be pretty ordinary these days.
We were moved for sitting on the stairs in the top balcony. Got down on the floor, but to my horror I was then in the midst of a sing-along; we were in the baritone section. I thought who ever organized this mustve been asleep at the drawing board; it's the middle of December, CVid isnt exactly eradicated and to put a few hundred people together spewing vocal dust all over each other - no masks on everyone, saw maybe one or two in the place...
Well the kid got to see his girlfriend playing Cello and speak with her afterward, congratulate her; that's what mattered. I got it about a month and a half ago; hopefully the antibodies from that time are still good enough.
Endemic diseases are generally* not in line for eradication. There are plenty of other viruses that we now live with and accept so we have one more on the list. It's now down to personal choice on if you want to be in a crowded space with lots of potential infectious humans.
*There are of course a few we would love to eradicate.
*There are of course a few we would love to eradicate.
"Sociopaths, psychopaths, and narcissists have similar traits and tendencies with important distinctions."
https://lauriehollmanphd.com/2020/05/18/narcissist-vs-sociopath-vs-psychopath-whats-the-difference/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201712/narcissist-or-psychopath-how-can-you-tell
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/sociopath-vs-psychopath-vs-narcissist/
https://lauriehollmanphd.com/2020/05/18/narcissist-vs-sociopath-vs-psychopath-whats-the-difference/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201712/narcissist-or-psychopath-how-can-you-tell
https://www.choosingtherapy.com/sociopath-vs-psychopath-vs-narcissist/
Human ego in general
tend to just think they are more special than
everyone else.
Modern Media , Movies now Social Media.
Just push basic ego the same direction it always was.
And overall " Consumer" marketing and bragging rights.
Just made people stuck up jerks.
Basic human behavior, and basic media junk.
Take something old and change the name.
Or make up a name or blanket statement to describe behavior.
Hanging out with younger kids.
There does seem to be a different way of thinking overall.
Different than what i was thinking as a kid/teen
More greedy and back stabbers, selfish behavior
Don't know, likely taught through the dumb movies
and cartoons/ media they grew up on.
And the media corps/ writers that make this garbage up.
tend to just think they are more special than
everyone else.
Modern Media , Movies now Social Media.
Just push basic ego the same direction it always was.
And overall " Consumer" marketing and bragging rights.
Just made people stuck up jerks.
Basic human behavior, and basic media junk.
Take something old and change the name.
Or make up a name or blanket statement to describe behavior.
Hanging out with younger kids.
There does seem to be a different way of thinking overall.
Different than what i was thinking as a kid/teen
More greedy and back stabbers, selfish behavior
Don't know, likely taught through the dumb movies
and cartoons/ media they grew up on.
And the media corps/ writers that make this garbage up.
Yes, and people who work in the media have to pick up on those things if they want to keep their jobs.
It isn't screenwriters, nor the cartoon illustrators, nor the voice actors who define popular culture. Typically new trends get noticed in some pocket of the country where there is a underground scene that is starting to become popular. Media executives then ask for free work from writers and performing artists to see if they can up with something the executives think might sell. Most of the initial low level workers do it for free in form of auditions, etc. Out of many artists competing for work, only a few lucky people will get paid to work on making an actual show. If it's a hit, great. If not, then they are back to scrounging around for work again, often taking part time jobs to hold them over until another artistic job opportunity shows up.
IOW, its a mistake to think that media dictates social trends and or problems. Media may amplify such things, of course. But that's capitalism for you. Give the people what they want to buy so long as its not illegal.
If autism and narcissism are similar, and one of the potential causes of autism is older mothers, could the prevalence of older mothers in current culture be a possible cause of the increase in narcissism?
I don't think so. I see the main reason in an overacccentuation of either individualism and individual existential orientation.
Best regards!
Best regards!
Could the prevalence of electronic devices in current culture have anything to do with it? Perhaps newer people have skipped over the part of relating to another actual fellow, versus some image on a screen. And, when the AGI / ASI takes off, actual human fellows will be regarded in an even lesser way. Everyone will be seen as a POS, compared to what you can get on line for free.
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Apart from the explosion in communications technology, the biggest change is "us", there's simply so many more of us than there ever was. I think I read somewhere that there are more people alive today than have ever existed over all time. There's more competition for resources, for space (and perhaps on-line virtual space and recognition), for control over destinies, for control over belief systems / information - there's going to be consequences.
Occurred to me as well. Really its more that I suspect the internet is the problem. People so easily can talk to only those people who they agree with. They can get their news only from people they agree with.
Also, communication primarily by nearly instant text leads to many misunderstandings and sometimes to disrespectful behavior. Communication between humans is usually best face to face and in an attentionally engaged, yet mutually non-confrontational manner.
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As far as I remember from mathematics lessons in secondary school, in formal logic, a proposition "if A then B" is considered to be true when A is false. Autism has nothing to do with narcissism or with old mothers, so your proposition is formally correct. Similarly, if you would have jumped out of the window yesterday, you could have turned into a bird.
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According to one study, mothers over 40 have 77% higher risk of autistic children than mothers under 25. Whilst there are some similarities between autism and narcissisum, there are also differences; but there is still a possibility of a link.
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