Do your best. Speak the truth.
I believe I am well-suited to providing a key to figuring out if you are being tormented by a narcissist or are caught up in a narcissistic social structure, family or otherwise. My qualifications are I was uniquely incapable of figuring this stuff out for many years. Being uniquely incapable qualifies me because I really … Continue reading Double-bind, no-win as key to figuring out real-world narcissism
A new study on narcissism, which selfishly lies behind a paywall, claims to have answered “three key, inter-related problems that have plagued narcissism scholarship for more than a century.” These three problems are described in the abstract (which is publicly available) as: …(a) What are the key features of narcissism? (b) How are they organized … Continue reading Narcissism redefined (yet again)
Narcissism works because its victims don’t see it. Victims don’t see it because they are children being raised by narcissistic parent(s) or very commonly adults who were raised by narcissists. There is even a term for the latter: ACoN, Adult Children of Narcissists. Other kinds of people also fall for narcissists, but having been raised … Continue reading Why narcissism works
…is it is a one-way street. The narcissist must define and control “reality” so it travels in only one direction—from them to you. Narcissism is a zero-sum game. The narcissist must win and cannot allow deeply shared realities that require nuance and complexity. Most narcissists will act maliciously to achieve these ends. Malice (often hidden), … Continue reading Fundamental to narcissism…
My guess is all overt narcissistic traits can be understood as zero-sum. Even the narcissist’s painful inner vacuity is a minus-sum result of playing a zero-sum game of life. This explains why narcissists often will attack even their own children. A child that displays pride or autonomy is seen as taking something away from the … Continue reading Narcissism is a zero-sum game
The simplest definition of narcissism is “narrow or reduced interpretation(s) of psychological signs.” This is a functional definition that provides insight into a wide range of human psychological reactions. A broad example of psychological narcissism using the above definition is alcoholism which reduces sign interpretation due both to inebriation and toxicity. Notice this definition does … Continue reading Narcissism, a semiotic interpretation
Narcissism is an interesting condition because it does not appear to have a large genetic component, if any, and it can be understood as a cognitive strategy. Narcissism often co-occurs with alcoholism or is the result of alcohol addiction. I think it is probably a mistake to say that narcissism leads to alcoholism because alcoholism … Continue reading Narcissism, alcoholism, and malice
Narcissism can be understood as a cognitive strategy because it uses self-interest and a strong sense of self as central or unifying components of general cognition. It is intellectually a fairly simple strategy as these central components are always close at hand and usually apparent to the narcissist. Narcissism is often the choice of children … Continue reading Narcissism as a cognitive strategy
Malignant narcissism is an extreme form of narcissism characterized by aggression against people who threaten the narcissist’s narcissistic supply. A malignant narcissist sees the other person as the threat, not just what they say or do. This makes sense in that a narcissist has at some level concluded that they as a person are the … Continue reading Repost: Malignant narcissism and identity
I think we can describe virtually all group cohesion as “cooperative narcissism.” Groups are pretty much all self-aggrandizing and almost all of them show callous disregard for other groups, unless they are connected in a narcissistic super-group. Sports teams are a very basic example of narcissistic groups; players and fans revel in their selfishness and … Continue reading Cooperative narcissism and meta-communication
I don’t really like the term narcissism because it is vague and in important ways can be applied to almost anyone. The concept does have value though in that it is widely recognized and understood and does seem to point to something real. Narcissism basically means being excessively selfish, self-centered, or vain. We can imagine … Continue reading End-user cultural consumption as narcissism
Malignant narcissism is an extreme form of narcissism characterized by aggression against people who threaten the narcissist’s narcissistic supply. A malignant narcissist sees the other person as the threat, not just what they say or do. This makes sense in that a narcissist has at some level concluded that they as a person are the … Continue reading Malignant narcissism and identity
Individual psychology is a locus or node within a larger social system. More precisely, individual psychologies are particular signaling systems within larger social signaling systems. It is valuable to see this because general analyses of signaling systems—even those having nothing to do with human psychology—can shed light on human signaling systems, including both individual psychology … Continue reading General analyses of signaling systems illuminate fundamentals of psychology
When we see a human behavior as a “sign of something else” we begin magnifying it. When we live in a culture where people normally do this, we tend to think it is right to do this even to ourselves. People often feel relieved when their “signs of something else” have been analyzed—either professionally or … Continue reading Psychology as “signs of something else”
Psychologists work with many people while also having large bodies of information collected by other psychologists. This allows them to see patterns that individuals working alone cannot see on their own. I am a lone worker on the edge of the field of psychology. I see things very much from a linguistic or psycho-linguistic point … Continue reading In praise of psychologists
