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Narcissism describes the character trait of self love, based on self-image or ego.

The word is derived from a Greek myth. Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus.

In psychology and psychiatry, excessive narcissism is recognized as a severe personality dysfunction or personality disorder, most characteristically Narcissistic personality disorder, also referred to as NPD.

Sigmund Freud believed that some narcissism is an essential part of all of us from birth and was the first to use the term in the reference to psychology.

Andrew Morrison claims that, in adults, a reasonable amount of healthy narcissism allows the individual's perception of his needs to be balanced in relation to others.

The terms "narcissism", "narcissistic" and "narcissist" are often used as pejoratives, denoting vanity, conceit, egotism or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others. Arguably, however, these terms are used to draw parallels between allegations of self-centeredness and Narcissistic personality disorder, rather than toward healthy self-love.

Narcissistic culture

Historian and social critic Christopher Lasch (1932—1994) described this topic in his book, "The Culture of Narcissism", published in 1979. He defines a narcissistic culture as one in which every activity and relationship is defined by the hedonistic need to acquire the symbols of spiritual wealth, this becoming the only expression of rigid, yet covert, social hierarchies. It is a culture where liberalism only exists insofar as it serves a consumer society, and even art, sex and religion lose their liberating power.

In such a society of constant competition, there can be no allies, and little transparency. The threats to acquisitions of social symbols are so numerous, varied and frequently incomprehensible, that defensiveness, as well as competitiveness, becomes a way of life. Any real sense of community is undermined -- or even destroyed -- to be replaced by virtual equivalents that strive, unsuccessfully, to synthesize a sense of community.

Contrary to Lasch, Bernard Stiegler argues in his book, Aimer, s’aimer, nous aimer: Du 11 septembre au 21 avril, that consumer capitalism is in fact destructive of what he calls primordial narcissism, without which it is not possible to extend love to others.

Narcissism in evolutionary psychology

The concept of narcissism is used in evolutionary psychology in relation to the mechanisms of assortative mating, or the non-random choice of a partner for purposes of procreation. An article published in 2005 by Alvarez summarizes the work in this field.

Evidence for assortative mating among humans is well established; humans mate assortatively regarding age, IQ, height, weight, nationality, educational and occupational level, physical and personality characters and family relatedness. In the “self seeking like” hypothesis, individuals unconsciously look for a mirror image of themselves in others, seeking criteria of beauty or reproductive fitness in the context of self-reference.

The study of Alvarez indicated that facial resemblance between couples was a strong driving force among the mechanisms of assortative mating: human couples resemble each other significantly more than would be expected from random pair formation. Since facial characteristics are known to be inherited, the "self seeking like" mechanism may enhance reproduction between genetically similar mates, favoring the stabilization of genes supporting social behavior, with no kin relationship among them.

Heritability study with twins

Livesley et al. (1993) published a paper entitled Genetic and environmental contributions to dimensions of personality disorder, which concluded that narcissism, as measured by a standardized test, was a common inherited trait.

The study subjects were 175 volunteer twin pairs (90 identical, 85 fraternal) drawn from the general population. Each twin completed a questionnaire that assessed 18 dimensions of personality disorder. The authors estimated the heritability of each dimension of personality by standard methods, thus providing estimates of the relative contributions of genetic and environmental causation.

Of the 18 personality dimensions, narcissism was found to have the highest heritability (0.64), indicating that the concordance of this trait in the identical twins was significantly influenced by genetics. Of the other dimensions of personality, only four were found to have heritability coefficients of greater than 0.5: callousness, identity problems, oppositionality and social avoidance.

The study generally concluded that, in agreement with other studies, some personality factors have significantly high heritability coefficients, and there exists a continuum between normal and disordered personality.

Medical narcissism

Medical narcissism is a term coined by John Banja in his book "Medical Errors and Medical Narcissism".

Banja defines "Medical Narcissism" as the need of health professionals to preserve their self esteem leading to the compromise of error disclosure to patients.

In the book he explores the psychological, ethical and legal effects of medical errors and the extent to which a need to constantly assert their competence can cause otherwise capable, and even exceptional, professionals to fall into narcissistic traps.

He claims that: "...most health professionals (in fact, most professionals of any ilk) work on cultivating a self that exudes authority, control, knowledge, competence and respectability. It’s the narcissist in us all—we dread appearing stupid or incompetent."

Celebrating narcissism

Dandyism

A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and the cultivation of leisurely hobbies. Some dandies, especially in Britain in the late 18th and 19th century, strove to affect aristocratic values even though many came from common backgrounds. Thus, a dandy could be considered a kind of snob.

The Dandiacal Body from Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle:

"A Dandy is a clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that the others dress to live, he lives to dress...And now, for all this perennial Martyrdom, and Poesy, and even Prophecy, what is it that the Dandy asks in return? Solely, we may say, that you would recognise his existence; would admit him to be a living object; or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light..."

New Romantic

Decadence and Narcissism were recurring themes in the New Romantic movement that began in London Nightclubs in the 1980s. The movement was all about style, as former punks clothed themselves in surreal, anarchic glamour and romance, and postured.

It was all about making "an effort to look flamboyant in an attractive, luxuriant, beautiful, narcissistic way" with icons such as David Bowie, Adam & the Ants, Bryan Ferry, Gary Numan, Soft Cell and Duran Duran.

Metrosexual

In 1994, in the British Newspaper The Independent journalist Mark Simpson first coined the term "Metrosexual".

In 2002 he went on to further define the term on Salon.com.

"Well, perhaps it takes one to know one, but to determine a metrosexual, all you have to do is look at them. In fact, if you're looking at them, they're almost certainly metrosexual. The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis -- because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere."

Incurvatus in se

It was perhaps Augustine of Hippo who first coined the phrase Incurvatus in se. This was later popularized and expounded upon by Martin Luther and Karl Barth who assert that because of Original Sin, human beings are focused on pleasing themselves and abusing the gifts of God for their own purposes and that to this end, people create all sorts of idols and means by which they may glorify themselves. They also claim that, even though people are justified by Jesus dying on the Cross, they still possess a propensity to sin against God because of this condition.

Martin Luther characterised love not as a drive, but as an experience that comes to man. When asked if that also applied to love of self, he replied that it did, identifying such love as "incurvatus in se ipsum" or "love that is bent towards self" which Jan Lindhart compares with "the Narcissus of Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection" and concludes that, "In this way, sentiment remains determined by its object".

See also

• Narcissism (psychology)
• Narcissistic personality disorder
• Malignant narcissism
• Narcissism of small differences
• Megalomania
• Hubris
• Peter Pan syndrome
• Dorian Gray syndrome
• Superiority complex

References

1. Freud, Sigmund, On Narcissism: An Introduction, 1914
2. Morrison, Andrew. Shame: The Underside of Narcissism, The Analytic Press, 1997. ISBN 0-88163-280-5
3. Lasch, C, The Culture of Narcissism. 1979
4. Bernard Stiegler, Aimer, s’aimer, nous aimer: Du 11 septembre au 21 avril (Paris: Galilée, 2003).
5. Alvarez, L. (2005). “Narcissism guides mate selection: Humans mate assortatively, as revealed by facial resemblance, following an algorithm of ‘self seeking like’”. Evolutionary Psychology 2, 177-194. See online. Accessed July 21, 2006.
6. Livesley, W.J., Jang, K.L., Jackson, D.N. and P.A. Vernon (1993). "Genetic and environmental contributions to dimensions of personality disorder". American Journal of Psychiatry 150, 1826-1831. Abstract online. Accessed June 18, 2006.
7. Banja, John, Medical Errors and Medical Narcissism, 2005
8. Banja, John, (as observed by Eric Rangus) John Banja: Interview with the clinical ethicist
9. 1980s Fashion History, New Romantics. Accessed June 19, 2006.
10. Scotland on Sunday, 14 March, 2004, Who says romance is dead? Accessed June 19, 2006.
11. Simpson, Mark Meet the Metrosexual. Accessed June 19, 2006.
12. Lindhardt, Jan Martin Luther: Knowledge and Mediation in the Renaissance, 1986

External links

• Narcissism Jeremy Holmes
• Lasch on Culture of Narcissism Dolores James
• The new narcissism, Nicholas Carr

• Love
• Vice