The Psychology of Narcissism - A Modern Epidemic

become an Academy of ideas supporting member and access over 100 membership videos including our latest membership series on big Pharma and the big lie sign up for only $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year by visiting academyof ideas.com members this channel is made possible by the support of our members one of the shest ways to ruin our life is to be in a close relationship with a narcissist whether it be a narcissist as a parent husband wife colleague or friend if we are forced to deal with a narcissist on a daily basis we suffer but even worse than having a narcissist in our social orbit is being a narcissist in this video we explore the character disorder of narcissism looking at what it consists of what causes it and why increasing numbers of people are becoming narcissistic narcissism is based on two primary factors firstly a narcissist has an excess of self- admiration or a gr indos or inflated sense of self narcissists in other words judge themselves to be superior to most other people and consider themselves better looking more intelligent higher in Social Status more powerful or more creative than they really are when we say that someone is narcissistic writes the psychologist Donald Nathanson we imply the presence of beliefs about the self that cannot be substantiated the second primary characteristic of narcissism is a lack of empathy when the narcissist considers what actions to take the feelings of others rarely factor into their calculations narcissists view other people as tools to be used to help them attain their wants and needs and one of their primary needs is to obtain what is called narcissistic Supply narcissistic Supply consists of undo attention agulation and praise and it is the fuel that helps the narcissist maintain their inflated self-image like most person ity disorders narcissism exists on a spectrum at the extreme end of the spectrum are the malignant narcissists malignant narcissists are the personification of evil they exploit manipulate Gaslight and lie to attain what their grandiosity leads them to believe they deserve and they do so without feeling the pangs of conscience the malignant narcissist is so convinced of his superiority so in need of narcissistic Supply and so lacking in empathy that he submits to nothing but his own will or as M Scott peek wrote in people of the LIE malignant narcissism is characterized by an unsubmitted will all adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves be it God or truth or love or some other ideal they do what God wants them to do rather than what they would desire they believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true what their beloved needs becomes more important to them than their own gratification in summary to a greater or lesser degree all mentally healthy individuals submit themselves to the demands of their own conscience not so with malignant narcissists however in the conflict between their guilt and their will it is the guilt that must go in the will that must win it is estimated that only a few percent of the population are malignant narcissists but the number of people who can be characterized as mild to moderate narcissists greatly exceeds this rate these individuals possess an inflated self-image have a diminished capacity to empathize require the admiration of others and lie and manipulate to obtain their fill of narcissistic Supply but to a lesser degree than the malignant narcissist what are the factors that give rise to narcissism many psychologists have suggested that at the heart of narcissism is psychological pain or as the clinical psychologist Joseph bergo writes whether they show it or even realize it themselves narcissist are always in flight from Pain the primary type of pain The Narcissist flees from is shame the psychologist Andrew morison went as far as to call shame the underside of narcissism while the psychologist Donald Nathanson wrote that narcissism is the system through which personal attributes are exaggerated in order to avoid shame chronic or severe shame is debilitating and reflects a negative evaluation of the self often this negative evaluation is result of a perceived failure to live up to the expectations of our family peer group or Society at large in contrast to guilt which arises when we believe we have acted in an inappropriate way shame arises when we feel our entire self to be inadequate or as Nathanson put it shame seems always to involve a more or less sudden decrease in self-esteem a moment in which we are revealed as somewhat less than we want to believe shame can be useful in enforcing social norms and maintaining group cohesion but all too often individuals suffer from shame not because there is anything wrong with who they are but because they interact with cruel people who ridicule or reject them malicious or neglectful parents for example are a common cause of shame in children other people experience shame because they live in a sick society and refuse to adhere to its value system or fail to live up to its unreasonable demands but no matter the cause if feelings of shame are persistent or severe a defensive reaction is elicited some people use shame as motivation to better themselves others withdraw from the world and descend into the depths of depression some numb themselves through addiction While others practice a narcissistic avoidance of Shame by creating a grandiose self-image and then deluding themselves that such an image rather than the one that is eliciting the shame is a true representation of who they are this inflated self image acts as a sort of psychological armor that protects them from their pain and as Nathanson explains narcissism is a term that must be reserved for that part of our self-image that would be relinquished were we to accept shame it is an ill fitting mask or a badly made tupay a girdle or corset designed to show us as we wish to be rather than as we are a Swagger meant to disguise the slump of disgrace a house full of imitation Fine Art and fake Jew je y a phony accent anything we do to call attention to the self we wish to assume rather than the person we are or as bergo writes almost everything narcissists say and do is intended to avoid the experience of Shame the narcissistic defenses they mobilize against shame are so extreme and pervasive that they color everything about the person's personality relationships and behavior creating a kind of shell or armor against the threat of Shame when observing a narcissist it may be difficult to believe they are infected by shame they come across as confident and high in self-esteem and they seem to truly believe in their superiority over others they don't appear to be plagued by self-doubts self-hate or insecurities and they often move through the social world with confidence and Swagger but a man or woman who is truly confident doesn't require constant doses of narcissistic Supply psychologically healthy individuals who possess High self-esteem are resilient to criticism and are not hyperfocused on the reactions that their self-image elicits in others narcissists therefore cannot be said to be high in healthy self-esteem rather they possess what the psychologists Brad Bushman and Roy Bower call unstable self-esteem the unstable self-esteem of the narcissists rests on the shaky Foundation of their inflated self-image and requires narcissistic Supply to be maintained if narcissistic Supply is not forthcoming or even worse of the self-image of the narcissist is threatened by criticism their unstable self-esteem gives way to reveal the insecurity that infects their true self or as Nathanson writes occasionally some accident of life will deny the narcissist the privilege of narcissistic avoidance or a ruthless foe May strip him from the layers of covering that provide Solace then he is left both bare and unloved and suddenly endangered as it is impossible to go through life wearing a narcissistic mask of grandiosity without occasionally bumping up against the hard wall of reality narcissists deploy another form of Defense to escape from feelings of Shame they learn to repress any negative feelings that conflict with their mask of superiority and they focus more on the image they project to the world than on the feelings that radiate from the body they inhabit or as the psychologist and medical doctor Alexander loen explains narcissists are more concerned with how they appear than what they feel indeed they deny feelings that contradict the image they seek and according to loan the more narcissistic one is the less one is identified with one's feelings the longer a narcissist identifies with a False Image the better he becomes at repressing negative feelings but this ability comes at a cost as to successfully repress feelings The Narcissist must disconnect from the body as it is from the body that the aects of feeling and emotion arise over time this disconnection from the body and the impaired ability to feel genuine emotions destroys the narcissist capacity to empathize or as loan explains the denial of feeling characteristic of all narcissists is most manifest in their behavior toward others they can be ruthless exploitative sadistic or destructive to another person because they are insensitive to the other's suffering or feeling this insensitivity deres from an insens sensitivity to one's own feelings empathy the ability to sense other people's moods or feelings is a function of resonance we can feel another person's sadness because it makes us sad we can share another's Joy because it evokes good feelings in us but if we are incapable of feeling sadness or joy we cannot respond to these feelings in another person and we may even doubt that they have such feelings a lack of empathy along with a constant need for praise and adulation makes the narcissist a plague on the social World those who interact with a narcissist must support the narcissist's fantasy of superiority anyone who fails to inflate The Narcissist self-image or even worse causes the narcissist to doubt their own superiority must deal with their Dark Side a dark side that is notorious for the anger and rage it can unleash as the narcissist considers himself to be better than most other people he often views it as only natural that he exerts control and power over those in his Social Circle the best way to deal with a narcissist therefore is to avoid them and if someone close to us as a narcissist we should consider cutting ties with them if their narcissism is anything but mild for narcissists are notoriously difficult to change and their lack of empathy makes them capable of destroying lives with a little to no thought of the suffering they leave in their wake their disorder may be rooted in pain but it does not follow that we need to allow them to bring pain into our life as well for as Jee tweng and Keith Campbell write a recent psychiatric study found that the biggest consequence of narcissism especially when other psychiatric symptoms were held constant was suffering by people close to them while we lack studies indicating whether the rate of malignant narcissism is increasing the number of people moving the wrong way down the narcissistic spectrum and developing mild to moderate levels of narcissism appears to be rising or as twen and Campbell write in the narcissism epidemic which was published in 2009 in data from 37,000 college students narcissistic personality traits Rose just as fast as obesity from the 1980s to the present with the shift especially pronounced for women what can account for this rise in narcissism one explanation is that our modern value system promotes unreasonable measures of success setting people up for shame while at the same time technological and economic factors have made it easier than ever to identify with an inflated or narcissistic self-image to escape from this shame most contemporary societies hold wealth Beauty social status and fame as preeminent values the ideals of self toward which we are encouraged to Aspire are the beautiful celebrity or the ultra wealthy entrepreneur if we cannot reach these ideals then we should at least be an attractive person live in a big house dri a nice car have a high status job and associate with other high status individuals but these are unreasonable standards for the accumulation of great wealth is as much a result of connections and chance as it is hard work beauty is mostly contingent on the genetic Lottery and age social status is a relative concept which automatically excludes most people from its higher echelons and fame is usually bestowed on those who create a spectacle or achieve notoriety rather than reflect ing true greatness of self if we are led to believe that we must attain these things to be considered a success many of us are destined to feel ashamed to escape from feelings of an inadequate self social media in conjunction with a debt-based economy has made the narcissistic avoidance of Shame easier than ever like a moth to a flame those who feel shame turn to social media as through the curation of profiles we can easily create a new self-image to replace the ugliness failure we feel inside by sharing only the most flattering parts of life posting the wittiest of thoughts and the best of pictures the creation of a profile tends to be an exercise in the narcissistic inflation of self and basking in the glow of the likes and comments that a post elicits is the quenching of a need for narcissistic Supply but the ease with which we can create an inflated self-image is further promoted by our debt-based economy low interest rates and easy access to credit allow ow us to pretend we are richer and more successful than we are we can use credit to purchase a luxury car go on an expensive vacation mortgage a dream home or even Finance plastic surgery we can then go on social media to show the world what our credit has allowed us to purchase and thus further inflate our self-image or as twen and Campbell write the inflation in credit leads to inflation and self-image helping the narcissism epidemic spread far and wide take a culture that promote self-admiration and material Goods add the ability to realize this self-admiration through buying things you can't really afford and many people live the narcissistic illusion that they are wealthy successful and special the more we inflate our self-image through social media and the use of credit the more the other symptoms of narcissism infect our character as we identify with an image instead of our true self we disconnect from the body as we repress any feelings that make us aware of the LIE we are projecting into the world with the repression of our feelings our ability to detect the emotional resonances of others diminishes and with it our capacity for empathy the narcissistic avoidance of Shame therefore is a devil's bargain it may numb us to our pain at least temporarily but at a great cost as we lose the ability to share in the warm emotionality of loving relationships and we lose the capacity to cultivate a strong sense of self that is rooted on the firm ground of reality does narcissism imply freedom from shame of course not writes Nathanson humiliation always lies immediately beneath the surface of Deceit like the towns built for western movies it is all front and no depth a situation constructed to give the appearance of normality with a little or nothing behind it narcissism in its more extreme forms can be viewed as a form of insanity it represents a split in one's personality between between the false self of grandiosity and the reality of who one really is flaws shame and all the purpose of the narcissist life is to live out the LIE which is to disconnect from reality and to suffer from potentially extreme delusions that alter how they perceive others and the world around them or as loan writes to the degree that one's identity is based on an image one is not in contact with the reality of one's being in all other respects the individual may appear to be Orient ented and fully in contact with reality but there is in his or her personality a fracture maybe only a hairline break that constitutes a tendency to Insanity as the degree of narcissism increases the break becomes more pronounced when we recognize the dangers that come from an inflated self-image we may choose to adhere to values that are more attainable more likely to promote psychological health and less likely to infect us with shame we may also choose to abstain from sharing our life on social media in the recognition that it is very difficult to do so without becoming at least slightly narcissistic but so long as the majority of people in our society hold wealth Beauty status and fame to be preeminent values while at the same time social media and a debt-based economy offer an easy means of inflating the self modern society will only become more narcissistic when wealth occupies a higher position than wisdom when notoriety is admired ired more than dignity when success is more important than self-respect the culture itself overvalues image and must be regarded as narcissistic the goal of Academy of ideas is to empower the individual and promote Freedom the best way to do this is through ideas as it is ideas not politicians money or weapons that shape the fate of society become a supporting member to help us in our mission and access over 100 membership videos including our latest membership series on big Pharma and the big lie sign up for only $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year by visiting academyof ideas.com members