Narcissism

Narcis Caravaggio. A beocio hero whose myth precooked the boys to avoid being cruel to their lovers.

Narcissism is the love that a subject directs towards himself. It takes its name from the Greek myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image reflected in the water and drowned trying to kiss her.

Sigmund Freud introduced it in his work, but with a more diffuse definition.

Although a series of normal personality traits can be referred to, narcissism can also manifest as an extreme pathological form in some personality disorders, such as narcissistic personality disorder, in which the patient overestimates their abilities and has an excessive need for admiration and affirmation.

In its colloquial use it designates a crush on oneself or vanity based on one's own image or ego. Humanistic psychology considers that pathological narcissism coincides with low or erroneous self-esteem.

Conceptual aspects

From a psychological and social point of view, a psychogenetic or psychoevolutionary meaning can be distinguished: narcissism as a necessary and ubiquitous step in personality development. Andrew P. Morrison, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, argues that, in adults, a reasonable amount of healthy narcissism allows one to balance the individual's perception of one's own needs in relation to others.

There is also pathological narcissism, a diagnosis commonly used in psychiatry and with negative connotations. This designates a personality trait, characterized by low self-esteem accompanied by an exaggerated overestimation of self-importance and a great desire for admiration from others. In the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, fourth edition), there is a subsection within personality disorders called Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), understood as a serious personality dysfunction.

Outside the psychological realm, the terms "narcissism" and "narcissistic" They are frequently used pejoratively denoting vanity, presumption, egocentrism or simple egocentrism. Applied to a social group, it is frequently used to denote elitism or indifference to the plight of others. In discussion situations, however, these terms are used to draw parallels between complaints about self-centered behaviors and narcissistic personality disorder rather than healthy self-esteem.

The myth of Narcissus

One of the great characters of Greek mythology, used in the 21st century as a great reference for some socialist attitudes and aptitudes. The best-known story about the myth of Narcissus is the one that Ovid recounted in his third book of The Metamorphoses in the year 43 B.C. C. The tragedy begins to take shape from the conception of the child Narciso, since he is the result of sexual violence. The river-god Cefiso, after kidnapping and raping the naiad Liriope, engendered in her a young man of splendid beauty, whom they named Narcissus. Asked if the newborn would have a long life, Tiresias, the sage capable of predicting the future, answered cryptically: "Yes, as long as he never knows himself."

Throughout his life, Narcissus will provoke great passions in men and women, mortals and gods, to which he does not respond due to his inability to love and recognize the other. According to Ovid's account, among the young women wounded by her love was the nymph Echo, who had displeased Hera and, therefore, she had condemned him to repeat the last words of everything that was said to him. Eco was, therefore, unable to speak to Narciso of her love for him, but one day, when he was walking through the forest, he ended up moving away from his companions. When Narciso asked: "Is there anyone here?", Ella Eco happily replied: "Here, here." Unable to see her hidden among the trees, he called out to her, "Come!" After answering, "Come, come," Eco came out of the trees with open arms. Narciso cruelly refused to accept her love. Tempted by Aphrodite, when contemplating his image in the mirror on the surface of the water, he felt a fascination for her own image from which he could not escape. She couldn't touch or hug the being she saw reflected in the water, but she couldn't take her eyes off him either. In another version of the myth, one of those despised by Narcissus complains to the gods and Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, is in charge of punishing his pride.

In any case, Narcissus, subjugated by the beautiful image of himself that the river returned to him, withdrew from any possible loving relationship with other beings, and even from attending to his own basic needs, and his body was wasting away to end up becoming the narcissus flower, a flower as beautiful as it is intoxicating. Meanwhile, Eco, consumed by melancholy, withdrew to a cave where her body was also consumed, leaving her only a formless voice that repeats, in the distance, the last sentence or syllable that is pronounced.

Narcissism in psychoanalysis

Austrian Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), neurologist and father of psychoanalysis, introduced the concept of narcissism in his 1914 essay Introduction to Narcissism.

In psychoanalysis, narcissism is understood as a form of personality structuring and a stage of human development. Psychoanalysts distinguish two types: primary narcissism of the first months of existence and where the child directs all his energies to satisfying his needs. In a general way, it refers, with the term of primary narcissism, to the moment in which the child takes himself as the object of love, before choosing external objects. All of his erotic or libidinal energy is self-directed and the outside world does not exist.

Secondary narcissism is a concept that refers in the extensive Freudian work to two different ideas:

• (a) A way to designate pathological mental states (schizophrenic narcissism, for example, or in narcissistic neeurosis), which is the way Freud initially called psychosis, also to what was now called major or endogenous depressions, where the libidinal investiture that was previously placed on objects is now, regressively over the self;

• (b) A stable structure (I definitive reality), where there is no psychosis, because there is economic equilibrium (flux of libidinal psychic energy). The investitures (catexis) would be harmoniously distributed between systems and objects; from the topical point of view it can be said that the structural component "ideal of the self" and exceeded definitive, are generated from the so-called burial of the Complex of Edipo.

Pathological narcissism

Epidemiology

It is estimated that in the general population the lifetime prevalence is 1%, and in clinical populations it is between 2 and 16%. Between 50 and 75% of people diagnosed are male.

Clinical Pathophysiology

It is baffling to many that the narcissist often exhibits seemingly formidable self-esteem and socially comes off as very confident, knowing what he wants and completely resolute. In reality, with this the narcissist is camouflaging his internal emptiness, his real lack of self-esteem. In the early childhood of these individuals, an indifferent or belittling attitude is often found on the part of their parents, which leaves them with an insecurity that they try to compensate through an exaggerated, unrealistic and inflated self-evaluation (Baumeister, 1996). Some clinicians explain the narcissistic personality on the basis of an early emotional lack produced by an emotionally cold or indifferent mother or father or with covert aggressiveness towards her son (Piñuel, 2007). The consequence is that narcissists need to continually look in the mirror of others to know who they are and, upon discovering a lousy image of themselves, they find it necessary to hide and hide it. Then, in compensation, they develop an artificially overvalued image to the point of pathology. Intelligent, healthy people, who realize the ruse, or who are simply more valuable or attractive than them, then become a threat to the narcissist for that artificial image with which the narcissist supports his self-esteem, so his behavior with them he is manipulative and, when manipulation does not work, persecutor. ^{[citation needed]} It is also attributed to a childhood with excessive flattery by parents who take out their frustration on possible talents of the child, so that he grows up thinking that he is superior to others. At present, it is associated with genetic factors.

Narcissistic subjects have a very vulnerable self-esteem, being therefore very sensitive to "outrage" from criticism or frustration; Related to this, criticism can become obsessive and make them feel hollow and empty. Another symptom is the deterioration of their social relationships as a result of their pretentiousness and constant need for admiration. Another symptom is the inability to risk anything due to the possibility of frustration that this entails. ^{[citation required]}

In the social field, narcissists are shipwrecked. Other people only count for them as a possible source of gratification, restoring the image of themselves whose lack torments them and which they crave insatiably. For this reason they usually choose professions that provide them with social notoriety, recognition or even fame. ^{[citation required]}

Psychoanalytic interpretation

From the Freudian point of view of psychopathology, the structuring of a narcissistic personality implies an arrest or fixation of the development of the person to infantile stages of deep gratification or a regression of the individual to these periods, due to his inability to tolerate and face the challenges and failures that maturation and life impose on him (cf. André Green).

Narcissistic Personality Traits

The narcissistic personality is characterized by a grandiose pattern of life, which is expressed in fantasies or modes of behavior that incapacitate the individual to see the other. The narcissist's view of things is the standard to which the world must submit. For narcissists, the world is guided and must obey their own points of view, which they consider irrefutable, infallible, self-generated. The most obvious and ordinary things, if they occur to the narcissist, must be viewed with admiration and he gets drunk on the expression of them. There is in the narcissist an inexhaustible thirst for admiration and flattery. This need incapacitates him to be able to reflect calmly and serenely assess reality. He lives more concerned with his performance, in terms of the theatrical effect and external recognition of his actions, than in their real effectiveness and usefulness. He draws attention, then, how many people, while being able to be successful, productive and creative, submit their lives to flattering mediocrity. When narcissists exercise positions of power, they surround themselves with people who, due to their own condition, are inferior to him or her, and others who will court them only based on petty interest. They, drugged by their self-directed speech, are unable to reflect and listen to what the outside world is shouting at them.^{[citation needed]}

On the other hand, the narcissistic personality is, in itself, a form of survival.^{[citation needed]} We have seen in the myth how Narcissus is the product of a terrible action. The narcissistic personality is born from violence, from a terrible trauma, from a wound inflicted on the individual in its early stages of development or before, when the wound is the mother and she transmits her resentment, her pain, her anger and her fear to her son.. He takes refuge, the traumatized, in his own image of grandeur, this allows him to raise his battered self-esteem and feel a little better about himself. His insatiable hunger for recognition finds refuge in the admiration and adulation of those around him. ^{[citation needed ]}

The narcissist is a person who can be very successful, as far as external brilliance is concerned. He has no doubts as to the reality of his ideas, whether they are brilliant or not. Thus we see how people with mediocre intelligence and a poor culture climb surprising positions, for them reconsideration does not exist. Even the most insipid ideas are expressed with a messianic spirit, they fall in love with the ideas of others and make them their own without the slightest moral or ethical consideration. The latter manage to capitalize on a horde of depressive Narcissists who naively believe in the truth expressed by the pseudo-master. They will follow you faithfully, no matter how wrong you are:

On grief I sleep alone and one, sorrow is my peace and sorrow my battle, dog that neither leaves me nor quiets, always its faithful owner, but import one.

writes Miguel Hernández, portraying this sort of personality of the depressive narcissist, always faithful, marked by defeated sadness, who seeks, more zealously than successfully, someone to believe in, someone to entrust the remedy to his miseries. From these melancholic hopeful solitudes Narcissism is nourished. The symbiosis is completed with partial satisfaction, with a gap of hunger and thirst, which is never filled.

The resource of mythology provides us with the image for understanding behavior and the myth of Narcissus is conclusive in the terrible sentence of the oracle: «The child will have a long life if he never observes himself». Thus, in non-reflection is where this character can survive. However, Narcissus, as punishment for his heartlessness, is transformed into a plant that gives beautiful flowers, with a nauseating smell and sterile fruit. The myth tells us that in these types of people there is, despite their appearance, something that smells very bad.

Diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)

The DSM-IV divides personality disorders into three groups based on the similarity of symptoms. This grouping categorizes narcissistic personality disorder within group B, (dramatic, emotional, or erratic disorders or disorders), of personality disorders. These personality disorders have in common an excessive feeling of self-importance. Thus, borderline personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder are also included in this group.

However, the ICD-10 (International Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders, published by the WHO in Geneva, in 1992) considers Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) as "a personality disorder that does not fit into any specific subheading', and relegates it to the category known as 'Other Specific Personality Disorders', which also includes Eccentric, 'Fidget', Immature Personality Disorders, passive-aggressive, and psychoneurotic.

NPD is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. It has a great sense of its own importance.
2. They absorb it fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
3. It is considered special and unique: it can only be understood by, and should only be associated with, other special or high personal or institutional status.
4. It requires excessive admiration (it is a symptom that denotes a low self-esteem and a great concern to do the work well and how they are seen by others).
5. It makes an exaggerated and unequitable sense of its own rights. He thinks he owes him everything. It has a sense of "category" with unreasonable expectations of a particularly favorable treatment or automatic acceptance of your wishes.
6. In their interpersonal relationships it is exploitative. He takes advantage of others to achieve their own ends (he hopes that they will be given everything he wants, no matter what it means to others, and he can assume that others are totally interested in their well-being).
7. It lacks empathy and is reluctant to recognize or identify the needs and feelings of others.
8. It is often envious to others or believes that others are envious to them (they can devaluate people who have received a congratulation by thinking that they are more worthy of it).
9. It shows arrogant, algitive or pre-potential attitudes and behaviors.

Wyatt and Hare, in 1997 establish:

Clinically speaking, any socially dysfunctional person who feels authorized to use his power to control other people by whom he feels threatened, or who lives a pretentious fantasy, rather than in reality, and who sees himself consistently superior to his peers and longs to be recognized as such, meets the requirements of the so-called narcissistic personality disorder.

For his part, Roy Baumeister (1996), in his study on psychological violence, established that individuals who present narcissistic personality traits are systematically at the root of most psychological aggressions.

Theories on Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Shame

It has been suggested that narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) may be related to a person's defense mechanisms against shame.

Gabbard suggests that NPT may have two subtypes. criticism of others as well as the feelings of others. He further distinguished a "hypervigilant" subtype, such as vulnerable, hypersensitive, and ashamed. He suggested that inadvertent types present a large, powerful, and grandiose ego waiting to be admired, envied, and appreciated, which is in antithesis to the weakened, internalized ego that hides in a general state of shame, from which the subject wants to defend himself. However, in the hypervigilant subtype, the subject, instead of defending himself against the feeling of devaluation, is obsessed with it, neutralizing this feeling by seeing others as unfair abusers.

Jeffrey Young, who coined the term schema therapy (framed in rational emotive behavior therapy), a technique originally developed by Aaron T. Beck (1979), also associates shame with NPD. He sees the so-called defective schema as a core schema in the NPT, close to the emotional and entitlement schemas (Entitlement). emulation):

• Rendition: Choose critical or significant companions. This puts you in a situation of inferiority.
• Avoidance: Avoid sharing "very embarrassing" thoughts and feelings with accompanies or significant people for fear of rejection.
• Overcompensation: It behaves in a critical or superior way with others. Try to overcome it through perfectionism.

It should be noted that an individual with this schema may not employ all three schemas.

Social aspects and sociopolitical implications of narcissistic pathology

In psychology, ontogeny remedies phylogeny, and what belongs to the individual can be transferred without major difficulties to society; The alchemists already said that "what is above is below" and that "what is inside is outside". Thus, we can speculate that what happens in the development of the individual also happens in the process of formation of societies.^{[citation required]}

Following our line of thought, societies go through a stage of primary narcissism, like when the barbarian hordes, invading Europe, are only interested in their instinctual needs, do not recognize the other or others and go through fire and knife above peoples and civilizations, they destroy them. Being these last peoples, possibly more sophisticated, they raise doubts and are incapable of understanding the violence unleashed by the annihilatory needs of the most primitive, this will mark their destiny.^{[citation required]}

On the other hand, various philosophers and sociologists have characterized the second half of the 20th century and so far in the 21st as a "narcissistic" era.^{[citation required]} This characterization refers to some characteristics of what has also been called 'postmodernity': before the failure of most of the social structures of modernity, and especially after the 2 world wars, it seems that the West entered a process of metamorphosis, driven by a process of personalization, in which narcissism plays a key role.

Especially, sociologists such as Christopher Lasch or Gilles Lipovetsky, have devoted entire books to the new social characteristics of postmodernity, among which are: culture of the self, expressivism and emphasis on the externalization of the person, social desert and loss of the sense, indifference to any reality that implies taking a position, total apathy of youth, dissolution of politics and preference for the private sphere in all senses, information overload, consumption, democratization of knowledge, and many other factors that make it possible to talk about postmodernity as a 'narcissistic' age, for, through the excessive cult of the self, personal identity and its affirmation is dying: to the extent that all processes are democratized and such terrible emphasis is placed on the affirmation of the genuine I, this ends up being diluted in a multitude of 'I's'.

Collective narcissism

Freud, in Civilization and its discontents, states: «It is possible to gather a considerable number of people in mutual love, as long as there are other people left outside to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness».

And Erich Fromm, in Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973), says:

Collective narcissism is one of the most important sources of human aggression and yet, like all other forms of defensive aggression, it is a reaction to an attack on vital interests. It differs from other forms of defensive aggression in which intense narcissism itself is a semipathological phenomenon. Considering the causes and function of bloody and cruel mass killings such as the events between Hindus and Muslims at the time of the partition of India or recently between the Bengalis Muslims and their Pakistani rulers, we see that collective narcissism certainly plays a considerable role, which is not surprising if we take into account that we have them with the virtually poorest and most miserable populations of the world.

In their book Personality Disorders in Modern Life, Theodore Millon and Roger Davis state that pathological narcissism is reserved for "the noble and the wealthy" and that it "seems to have gained prominence only in the 20th century." According to them, narcissism could be associated with higher levels on Maslow's scale of needs. According to them, "individuals from less developed nations...are too busy trying (to survive)...to behave in an arrogant and grandiose way." However, in the opinion of Sam Vaknin (Malignant self-love) narcissism is a ubiquitous phenomenon because every human being, regardless of nature or culture, develops healthy narcissism early in life.. Healthy narcissism becomes pathological when abuse occurs, and abuse is a universal human behavior. For "abuse" understands the refusal to acknowledge the emerging boundaries of the individual.