Narcissism - I have waded into that discussion a few times.
I'd be very very careful trying to understand what it means from the regurgitations of half-understood material by journalists.
It is not related to egotism. There is such a thing as healthy egotism. There is no such thing as healthy narcissism.
And the statement "narcissists will admit it and are proud of it" is just such bullshit. Complete and utter bull. They are *not*
aware of it, have no insight into it, and will vehemently deny it. Narcissists are amongst the hardest types to deal with in
therapy for that reason. They have no awareness of their condition. That's part of the problem.
In brief: it's a disturbance of self esteem: either very very low, or overweening high. Both result in the person being very
needy in terms of attention and adulation. Both result in the person presenting themselves, their abilities and achievements
in a grossly exaggerated way. They way overestimate their abilities. They have no sensitivity or empathy for others, and no
consideration for the consequences of their actions. Bulldozer mentality. Bull in a china shop behaviour. Rational behaviour
rarely enters into the picture.
It's a form of mental illness, or sociopathic disorder. It goes beyond a 'normal' person's self doubt or self belief or pride
in achievements. Way, way, WAY beyond.
Anyone who says "I am narcissistic", probably isn't.
Your narcissist will not, ever, for a second, waver in their conviction that the moon is made from green cheese even if standing in
a circle of 10 rocket scientists trying to tell him/her that the moon is made from rocks.
So please don't throw that word around liberally (and half understood). It's actually pretty rare. Less than 1% of the general population,
quotedd as 2-16% of clinical population.
reading material:
thenarcissisticlife.com/what-is-the-prevalence-of-narcissism/They equate narcissism with NPD. I am not so sure of that, since one eminent American professor has gone on record saying that
the current president was clearly a narcissist but that it was presumptuous to remotely diagnose him as having NPD - so it looks like
some people in the field make a distinction.
Don't worry about your own narcissism: if you do, you're not one. LOL.
If you're married to one, you'll know it: they will continuously drive over the top of you. They will always be right. Everybody else
is obviously an idiot compared to them. They will not see why you should have needs or wants.
On the other hand, you can't necessarily reverse engineer that: somebody behaving in that fashion may reasonably be something
entirely different from a narcissist. That's one of the weird things you're dealing with clients in the mental field: different causes may have
identical looking consequences, and identical causes may have totally different looking outcomes.
Think of Darwin's finches: isomorphism, as an example.
