1. Excessive love or admiration of oneself.
2. A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.
3. Erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one's own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.
4. The attribute of the human psyche charactized by admiration of oneself but within normal limits.
Also,nar
cis·sist n.nar
cis·sistic adj.
cis·sistic adj.narcis·sisti·cal·ly adv.
The interesting origin:
The name "narcissism" is derived from Greek mythology. Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who had never seen his reflection, but because of a prediction by an Oracle, looked in a pool of water and saw his reflection for the first time. The nymph Echo--who had been punished by Hera for gossiping and cursed to forever have the last word--had seen Narcissus walking through the forest and wanted to talk to him, but, because of her curse, she wasn't able to speak first. As Narcissus was walking along, he got thirsty and stopped to take a drink; it was then he saw his reflection for the first time, and, not knowing any better, started talking to it. Echo, who had been following him, then started repeating the last thing he said back. Not knowing about reflections, Narcissus thought his reflection was speaking to him. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away at the pool and changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
More importantly, how does one recognize one? After all, we all have a bit of narcissism inside us. A certain amount of narcissism is described as "healthy narcissism" which is a structural truthfulness of the self, achievement of self and object constancy, synchronization between the self and the superego and a balance between libidinal and aggressive drives (the ability to receive gratification from others and the drive for impulse expression).
Obviously there will be some people that completely cross this line, those we call "narcissists", and its very likely that the very same pple who are, never recognize what they do, and its also very likely such pple exists as your colleagues, classmates, neighbours or friends. I hope they are not your spouses - they make lousy spouses. LOL .
To quote, http://www.winning-teams.com/recognizenarcissist.html,
A narcissist is someone who is overtly or subtly arrogant, exhibitionistic, vain, manipulative, and greedy for admiration.Ref Narcissistic rage, character assassination and projection are some of the overt ways in which the narcissist expresses himself. For example, she may envy a work colleague's beauty, and project her feelings into her colleague by accusing her of being envious. Projection in teams is particularly prevalent.
Now isnt that just annoying?
To quote, http://www.winning-teams.com/narcissistic_traits.html
It is relatively easy to describe narcissistic behavior. We tend to look at the characteristics that we see in an attempt to understand the narcissist, and these are easy to see once we know what to look for. But these are the symptoms, not the causes.
All narcissists view themselves very highly and expect others to view them the same.
A narcissist displays most, sometimes all, of the following traits:
But possibly the most destructive trait common to all narcissists is envy. As a result of feeling inferior, the narcissist can become envious of a spouse, a colleague or a neighbour, particularly a better educated, more intellectual or more successful one. It's not jealousy, you can't be jealous of something you have never had, but envy; often pathological envy.
Envy involves the desire of the narcissist to have for himself something possessed by someone else. If he can't have it, he will try to destroy the possession, achievement, or quality in question, either literally or figuratively. For example, a narcissist will vehemently object to an application for planning permission by his neighbour if the result is to be that the neighbour's house will look better than his. A more figurative example may be when the narcissist envies a spouse's or a colleague's master's degree, when he doesn't have one of his own. He may describe someone he met at a recent party with a master's degree as being unintelligent and having no common sense, so by inference the spouse or colleague is not as intelligent as him, the narcissist, nor do they have common sense, as he has.
You will know that behavior when you see it - I dont have that, so it must be either crappy or I don't want it or its useless. etc and turn 180 around when said person obtains said crappy or useless or unneeded object. Obviously everyone does it every now and then, esp when it pertains to luxury items, but the truly narcissistic will do it alllll the time...
...
Another particularly irritating trait is self-handicapping.
Self-handicapping is a face-saving tactic. It is described as a course of action to protect or enhance one's self-evaluation in the face of an evaluation threat. People usually strive to appear competent, but when they expect that they are unlikely to perform well, they may try instead to avoid the impression that they are incapable by self-handicapping. Note that it is done to protect or enhance one's self-evaluation. Male narcissists in particular self-handicap to avoid feeling incompetent.
Its kinda like giving excuses for poor performance before even being judged, especially in things they know they will not do well. Eg, I can't cook, i never cook anything so its bound to be crappy, so dun say anything.
...
How to identify one?
Added note:
Books on psychology are rather interesting, esp on topics such as human behaviors like this. A truly remarkable, unique and perplexing creatures we are...
cis·sisti·cal·ly adv.The interesting origin:
The name "narcissism" is derived from Greek mythology. Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who had never seen his reflection, but because of a prediction by an Oracle, looked in a pool of water and saw his reflection for the first time. The nymph Echo--who had been punished by Hera for gossiping and cursed to forever have the last word--had seen Narcissus walking through the forest and wanted to talk to him, but, because of her curse, she wasn't able to speak first. As Narcissus was walking along, he got thirsty and stopped to take a drink; it was then he saw his reflection for the first time, and, not knowing any better, started talking to it. Echo, who had been following him, then started repeating the last thing he said back. Not knowing about reflections, Narcissus thought his reflection was speaking to him. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away at the pool and changed into the flower that bears his name, the narcissus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
More importantly, how does one recognize one? After all, we all have a bit of narcissism inside us. A certain amount of narcissism is described as "healthy narcissism" which is a structural truthfulness of the self, achievement of self and object constancy, synchronization between the self and the superego and a balance between libidinal and aggressive drives (the ability to receive gratification from others and the drive for impulse expression).
Obviously there will be some people that completely cross this line, those we call "narcissists", and its very likely that the very same pple who are, never recognize what they do, and its also very likely such pple exists as your colleagues, classmates, neighbours or friends. I hope they are not your spouses - they make lousy spouses. LOL .
To quote, http://www.winning-teams.com/recognizenarcissist.html,
A narcissist is someone who is overtly or subtly arrogant, exhibitionistic, vain, manipulative, and greedy for admiration.Ref Narcissistic rage, character assassination and projection are some of the overt ways in which the narcissist expresses himself. For example, she may envy a work colleague's beauty, and project her feelings into her colleague by accusing her of being envious. Projection in teams is particularly prevalent.
Now isnt that just annoying?
To quote, http://www.winning-teams.com/narcissistic_traits.html
It is relatively easy to describe narcissistic behavior. We tend to look at the characteristics that we see in an attempt to understand the narcissist, and these are easy to see once we know what to look for. But these are the symptoms, not the causes.
All narcissists view themselves very highly and expect others to view them the same.
A narcissist displays most, sometimes all, of the following traits:
- -An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges
- -Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships
- -A lack of psychological awareness
- -Difficulty with empathy
- -Problems distinguishing the self from others
- -Hypersensitivity to any slights or imagined insults
- -Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt
- -Haughty body language
- -Flatters people who admire and affirm him
- -Detests those who do not admire him
- -Uses other people without considering the cost of that for them
- -Pretends to be more important than he is
- -Brags (subtly but persistently) and exaggerates his achievements
- -Claims to be an 'expert' about most things
- -Cannot view the world from the perspective of another person
- -Denies remorse and gratitude
But possibly the most destructive trait common to all narcissists is envy. As a result of feeling inferior, the narcissist can become envious of a spouse, a colleague or a neighbour, particularly a better educated, more intellectual or more successful one. It's not jealousy, you can't be jealous of something you have never had, but envy; often pathological envy.
Envy involves the desire of the narcissist to have for himself something possessed by someone else. If he can't have it, he will try to destroy the possession, achievement, or quality in question, either literally or figuratively. For example, a narcissist will vehemently object to an application for planning permission by his neighbour if the result is to be that the neighbour's house will look better than his. A more figurative example may be when the narcissist envies a spouse's or a colleague's master's degree, when he doesn't have one of his own. He may describe someone he met at a recent party with a master's degree as being unintelligent and having no common sense, so by inference the spouse or colleague is not as intelligent as him, the narcissist, nor do they have common sense, as he has.
You will know that behavior when you see it - I dont have that, so it must be either crappy or I don't want it or its useless. etc and turn 180 around when said person obtains said crappy or useless or unneeded object. Obviously everyone does it every now and then, esp when it pertains to luxury items, but the truly narcissistic will do it alllll the time...
...
Another particularly irritating trait is self-handicapping.
Self-handicapping is a face-saving tactic. It is described as a course of action to protect or enhance one's self-evaluation in the face of an evaluation threat. People usually strive to appear competent, but when they expect that they are unlikely to perform well, they may try instead to avoid the impression that they are incapable by self-handicapping. Note that it is done to protect or enhance one's self-evaluation. Male narcissists in particular self-handicap to avoid feeling incompetent.
Its kinda like giving excuses for poor performance before even being judged, especially in things they know they will not do well. Eg, I can't cook, i never cook anything so its bound to be crappy, so dun say anything.
...
How to identify one?
- -Their lack of empathy colors everything they do. They may say, "How are you?" when you meet, but they are working from memory. They are not interested in how you are.
- -Virtually all of their ideas or ways of behaving in a given situation are taken from others, people they know and perhaps think of as an authority.
- -Their sense of self-importance and lack of empathy means that they will often interrupt the conversations of others.
- -They expect others to do the day-to-day chores as they feel too important to waste their time on common things.
- -Listen for the constant use of "I", "me" and "my" when they talk.
- -They very rarely talk about their inner life, for example their memories and dreams.
- -They feel that the rules at work don't apply to them.
- -They will always cheat whenever they think they can get away with it.
- -If you share workload with them expect to do the lion's share yourself.
- -They love to delegate work or projects, then interfere by micro-managing it. If it goes well, they take the credit, if it goes badly they blame the person they delegated it to.
- -There tends to be higher levels of stress with people who work with or interact with a narcissist, which in turn increases absenteeism and staff turnover.
- -They get impatient and restless when the topic of discussion is about someone else, and not about them.
Added note:
Books on psychology are rather interesting, esp on topics such as human behaviors like this. A truly remarkable, unique and perplexing creatures we are...
No comments:
Post a Comment