A condition of self-infatuation stemming from difficulties at an early stage of psychological development. It may manifest as exhibitionism, indifference to criticism, a presumption of special entitlement, and fantasies of unlimited sexual prowess, intelligence, or attractiveness.
For narcissism in psychology, see Narcissism (psychology).Narcissism describes the character trait of self love.
The word is derived from Greek mythology.
Freud believed that some narcissism is an essential part of all of us from birth .
Andrew Morrison claims that, in adults, a reasonable amount of healthy narcissism allows the individual's perception of his need to be balanced in relation to others.
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.
The terms Narcissism, Narcissistic and Narcissist are often used as pejoratives, denoting vanity, conceit, egotism or simple selfishness.
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 material wealth, this becoming the only expression of rigid, yet covert, social hierarchies. See Decadence and Determinism
In such a society of constant competition there can be no allies, and little transparency.
Contrary to Lasch, Bernard Stiegler argues in his book, Aimer, s’aimer, nous aimer: Du 11 septembre au 21 avril (2003), 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 as a genetic trait
In the decades since the discovery of DNA and the subsequent mapping of the human genome questions have arisen as to whether traits of personality, including narcissism, are partially or fully determined by one’s own genes.
Heritability study with twins
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The study subjects were 175 volunteer twin pairs (90 identical, 85 fraternal) drawn from the general population.
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 mainly due to genetics.
The general conclusions of the study were: (1) agreement with other studies that some personality factors have significantly high heritability coefficients, and (2) there exists a continuum between normal and disordered personality.
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.
Evidence for assortative mating among humans is well established: human's mate assortatively regarding age, IQ, height, weight, nationality, educational and occupational level, physical and personality characters and family relatedness.
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.
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 competance 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.
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.New Romantic
Decadence and Narcissism were recurring themes in the New Romantic movement that began in London Nightclubs in the 1980s.
It was all about making "an effort to look flamboyant in an attractive, luxuriant, beautiful, narcissistic way" with icons such as David Bowie, Adam &
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.
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