Headings

Food (429) History (350) Travel (238) art (203) France (138) Spain (130) Vancouver Island (124) maritimes (119) UK (96) Portugal (81) Postcard of the Interwebs (70) Musings (47) Tofino (47) Scandinavia (44) book (37) Hornby (29) Movie and TV (25) Conventions (23) Music (19) Wisdom without Zealotry (17) Quadra Island (12) San Francisco (11) Ottawa (5)

Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Wisdom without Zealotry - Narcissism

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm, but the harm [that they cause] does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."  T. S. Eliot

Many organizations or groups identify humanity as special among the worlds organisms. Some go so far as to say certain groups of humans, because of a cause/belief/nationality, are more special than other humans. So what would make them believe this? One of the reasons could be narcissism.

The definition of Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own abilities. It is also considered a social or cultural problem, because of the ability to form groups of like minded persons with an inflated view of leadership/authority, superiority/arrogance, self-absorption/self-admiration, and exploitativeness/entitlement.

Because they (individual or person that is narcissistic) view themselves as having amazing talents, demand admiration from others, and are selfish because it is supposed to be all about them, others who are not like them will not enter into the narcissist's viewpoint (beyond how it benefits them or praises them). This includes what they believe is right and that see themselves as being the only right people around.

It does not end there. If others pay attention to someone or something else that is not them or their organization, it is a threat. If others are doing something that they have declared bad, it is a threat because the limelight is not on them as paragons of excellence. They will declare that "evil" is being done by those less than themselves and the other becomes a target. History has many narcissists and narcissistic groups attempting to eliminate what they view as wrong. To do otherwise would be to deny their importance in their world.

What is worse is that the narcissist will never admit to be wrong, to themselves or others. Their wrongness can never be proven, explained, nor rationalized to them because of the emotional love they feel for themselves and their cause, and lack of empathy they feel for the other.

What is the solution? Helping the narcissist disassociate from the negative feelings they have when confronted with a threat to themselves is the prime goal. Unfortunately, they need to acknowledge the fault within themselves first. An uphill battle with this form of personality disorder. Its even worse when they mob up with others having the same disorder or fan the flames of their awesomeness.

In previous posts on people who are emotionally connected to a wrong viewpoint, I have neglected this disorder because I was unaware. Now that I am, I see this psychological disorder in some people in the world. Because some of them are in positions of power and influence, they try to skew the world to try to make others come on their side of the looking glass and to see them as being amazingly talented, to give acknowledgment with admiration, and to make everything be about them. What is dangerous is when they attack those who do not share their skewed viewpoint and encourage others to join in. Just another kind of zealotry to me.

Inspiration
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-the-self/201404/9-enlightening-quotes-narcissists-and-why
http://uk.businessinsider.com/narcissism-object-constancy-2017-8

No comments:

Post a Comment