Contents
Narcissism is a real disaster and one of the most striking signs of modernity. Active promotion of individualism, disregard for everything public, juggling with the concepts of personal growth and self-development, as well as the wild popularity of social networks — all this, in the end, led to a completely opposite result. Imitation markers, «mass individualization» and free access to channels for broadcasting any information have completely depersonalized society. Unlike the trends of the last century, expressed in the constant change of subcultures, their clash and transformation, now, in order to truly stand out against the motley background of “not like everyone else”, much more effort has to be made. Well, clip-like thinking determines the vector of application of these efforts — appearance.
A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it …
In fact, narcissism is a very old phenomenon, one might even say ancient. And the name of this complex of human character traits is a confirmation of this. Remember the ancient Greek myth about the beautiful young man, beloved of the nymph Echo? The arrogant son of the river god without hesitation rejected the feelings of the poor thing, the same from grief melted so much that only a pale voice remained from her. The patroness of all lovers and the goddess of beauty, Aphrodite decided to teach the scoundrel a lesson and made him fall in love with his own reflection. Naturally, such a one-sided love could not have a happy continuation, and the young man committed suicide out of hopelessness, leaving us with the moral that narcissism is bad, well, a beautiful flower.
So disease or not?
But times are changing and today the narcissistic traits of character would hardly have caused the righteous wrath of the goddess. By the way, despite all the impartiality of these manifestations, narcissism is not considered either a disease or a mental disorder. On the contrary, narcissism is attributed to people who are ambitious, focused on their career and their own well-being.
At the same time, in especially severe cases, those who, due to excessive self-love and obsession with external success, cannot lead a full-fledged social life, psychiatrists diagnose “narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)”. In Russia, such cases are not a frequent occurrence, NPD appears more often in the reports of criminal psychologists, as it is considered one of the basic reasons for committing certain types of crimes.
American psychiatrists went further, formulating the main features of this deviation in their manual on mental disorders:
- grandiosity, often without real grounds;
- outrageous behavior;
- an acute need for universal admiration;
- complete lack of empathy.
Schizophrenia and narcissism
The whole outwardly successful and prosperous life of a narcissist is saturated with acute disappointment in himself. He carefully masks his vulnerable ego with a flawless appearance, ashamed of his real self. Over time, the mask grows together with him so firmly that the person completely ceases to be aware of himself and sinks into depression.
Such emotional vulnerability is an excellent environment for the development of schizophrenic traits. Wounded pride, combined with the main symptoms of schizophrenia, is a terrible cocktail in its destructiveness. After all, under the influence of internal contradictions, protecting what is so diligently hiding from society, not experiencing empathy for others, such people are capable of any actions.
The only way to somehow influence the situation is the comprehensive assistance of a psychiatrist and people close to the sick person. It is very important to form in him a conscious desire to maintain warm relations with relatives and the rejection of self-affirmation at their expense.