Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself.
It is a preoccupation of one’s own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism is a continuum of personality that ranges from normal to abnormal expression.
There exists normally a healthy levels of narcissism.
The extreme levels of narcissism, are seen particularly in people who are self-absorbed, or people who have a pathological mental illness like narcissistic personality disorder.
It is one of the traits featured in the dark triad, along with Machiavellianism and subclinical psychopathy.
The term narcissism has had a significant divergence in meaning in psychology:
a sexual perversion,
a normal healthy developmental stage,
a symptom in psychosis,
a characteristic in several of the object relations.
Narcissism is describes a person who treats his own body in the same way in which the body of a sexual partner is ordinarily treated: in this context, it is seen as a perversion that consumed a person’s entire sexual life.
Extreme narcissism ‘God-complex”, is a character flaw, being aloof, self-important, overconfident, auto-erotic, inaccessible, self-admiring, and exhibitionistic, with fantasies of omnipotence and omniscience, with a high need for uniqueness.
It is postulated that all humans have a level of narcissism from birth that is healthy, and in time, evolves outward as love for others.
Narcissism may be a necessary intermediate stage between auto-eroticism and object-love, love for others.
Narcissism may become a neurosis when individuals who had reached the point of projecting their affections to others, turned their affection back on themselves, becoming cur off from society and uninterested in others.
Narcissism as a personality trait is described as individuals who are condescending, feel superior to others, are preoccupied with admiration, and exhibit a lack of empathy.
Narcissistic personality disorder are defined today,as having an attitude of superiority, an obsession with fostering self-respect, and a lack of normal feelings of guilt, with an inability to empathize with others, and selfish sexually.
Narcissism has been found to correlate positively with extraversion and openness and negatively with agreeableness.
Narcissism has also been found to have a significant correlation with psychopathy.
Narcissism depends on the contexts and outcomes being measured.
In certain social contexts healthy narcissism can be helpful.
In other contexts, such as maintaining long-term relationships and with outcome variables, such as accurate self-knowledge, narcissism can be unhelpful.
Four dimensions of narcissism personality:
leadership/authority, superiority/arrogance, self-absorption/self-admiration, and exploitativeness/entitlement.
A modest amount of narcissism is an essential component of mature self-esteem and basic self-worth.
In essence, narcissistic behaviors are a system of intrapersonal and interpersonal strategies devoted to protecting one’s self-esteem.
Healthy narcissism correlates with good psychological health, as self-esteem works as a mediator between narcissism and psychological health.
Because of their elevated self-esteem, derived from self-perceptions of competence and likability, high narcissists are relatively free of worry and gloom.
Narcissism, is a normal personality trait, however, high levels of narcissistic behavior can be damaging and self-defeating.
Destructive narcissism: constant exhibition of a few of the intense characteristics usually associated with pathological Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Such as a pattern of grandiosity, which is characterized by feelings of entitlement and superiority, arrogant or haughty behaviors, and a generalized lack of empathy and concern for others.
Destructive narcissism is more extreme than healthy narcissism but not as extreme as the pathological condition.
Pathological levels of narcissism-Narcissistic personality disorder.
Extremely high levels of narcissistic behavior are considered pathological.
This pathological condition of narcissism is, manifests itself in the inability to love others, a lack of empathy, emptiness, boredom, and an unremitting need to search for power, while making the person unavailable to others.
It is a possible outcome in response to unempathic and inconsistent early childhood interactions, and an attempt to compensate in adult relationships.
Twin studies have shown that narcissistic traits, are often inherited.
The concordance of this trait in identical twins is significantly influenced by genetics as compared to an environmental causation.
There is a continuum or spectrum of narcissistic traits ranging from normal to a pathological personality.
The genetic impact on narcissism levels is significant, but it isn’t the only factor at play.
Sexual narcissism is an egocentric pattern of sexual behavior that involves an inflated sense of sexual ability or sexual entitlement.
Sexual narcissism can be overcompensation for low self-esteem or an inability to sustain true intimacy.
This behavioral pattern is believed to be more common in men than in wome.
It occurs in both males and females who compensate for feelings of sexual inadequacy by becoming overly proud or obsessed with their masculinity or femininity.
Sexual addiction is believed by some experts to be sexual narcissism or sexual compulsivity, rather than an addictive behavior.
Narcissistic parents often see their children as extensions of themselves, and encourage the children to act in ways that support the parents’ emotional and self-esteem needs.
A child subjected to this type of parenting may struggle in adulthood with their intimate relationships.
In extreme situations, narcissistic parenting style can result in estranged relationships with the children, coupled with feelings of resentment, and in some cases, self-destructive tendencies.
The social learning theory proposes that social behavior is learned by observing and imitating others behavior, suggesting that children are anticipated to grow up to be narcissistic when their parents overvalue them.
Workplace narcissism refers to a compulsion of some professionals to constantly assert their competence, even when they are wrong.
The narcissism in us that leads to the dread appearing stupid or incompetent.
Executives potential narcissistic triggers:
inanimate – status symbols like company cars, company-issued smartphone, or prestigious offices with window views; and
animate – flattery and attention from colleagues and subordinates.
Narcissism is linked to a range of potential leadership problems-poor motivational skills, risky decision making, and in extreme cases, white-collar crime.
Narcissistic corporate leaders that place an extreme emphasis on profits may yield positive short-term benefits for their organizations, but ultimately it drags down individual employees as well as entire companies.
The correlation of narcissism with the rise to leadership positions: narcissists are often inter-personally dominant, extroverted, and socially skilled, and
also likely to rise to leadership but are more likely to emerge as leaders in situations where they were not known, such as in outside hires, versus internal promotions.
Paradoxically, narcissism can facilitate an individual’s rise to leadership, and ultimately lead that person to underachieve or even to fail.
Individuals high in narcissism inventories are more likely to engage in counterproductive behavior that harms organizations or other people in the workplace.
Aggressive and counterproductive behaviors tend to surface when self-esteem is threatened.
Individuals high in narcissism have fragile self-esteem and are easily threatened.
One study found that employees who are high in narcissism are more likely to perceive the behaviors of others in the workplace as abusive and threatening than individuals who are low in narcissism.
Celebrity narcissism is also known as as Acquired situational narcissism.
Celebrity narcissism form of narcissism that develops in late adolescence or adulthood, brought on by wealth, fame and the other trappings of celebrity.
It is triggered and supported by the celebrity-obsessed society. fans, assistants and tabloid media to suggest the person really is vastly more important than other people, triggering a narcissistic problem that might have been only a tendency, or latent, and helping it to become a full-blown personality disorder.
Celebrity narcissism is indistinguishable from narcissistic personality disorder, differing only in its late onset and its environmental support by large numbers of fans.
Celebrity narcissism is associated with lack of social norms, controls, and of people centering them makes these people believe they’re invulnerable, leading to unstable relationships, substance abuse, or erratic behavior’s
Collective narcissism is a type of narcissism where an individual has an inflated self-love of their own group.
Collective narcissism suggests that one can have a similar excessively high opinion of a group, and that a group can function as a narcissistic entity.
Collective narcissism is related to ethnocentrism.
Individuals who score high on narcissism scales of self-sufficiency, vanity, leadership, and admiration demand, post selfies to social media sites more than individuals who exhibit low narcissism scores.
Men posting selfies had higher narcissism scores than women.
The American populace has become increasingly narcissistic since the end of World War II: People competing for attention, in social situations tendency for people to steer the conversation away from others and toward themselves, suggests its pervasiveness in everyday life.
The growth of reality TV, of an online culture in which digital media, social media and the desire for fame are generating public narcissism.
The American culture has become more narcissistic: growth in the use of first-person singular pronouns, reflecting a greater focus on the self, and also of references to antisocial behavior; during the same period, there was a diminution of words reflecting a focus on others, positive emotions, and social interactions.
References to narcissism and self-esteem in American popular print media have experienced vast inflation, as has self-esteem and narcissism.