Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?mikeS said Oct 12, 2008, 12:57 PM: |
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| I recently posted this on my blog because I thought it a bit long for a thread. However, on second thought, maybe it might initiate some discussion. My thanks to Nicole.It seems fundamentally evident that, in order to aspire to a career in politics, one must eventually seek ‘votes’ to advance one’s career to ever higher office. Seeking votes means essentially being liked and to be elected to political office means being liked by more people than others seeking the same office. This requires the acute and finely detailed tailoring of one’s ‘self’ in order to be liked, as opposed to NOT liked. This process easily eliminates those who are unable, for whatever reason, to tailor the ‘self’ in a way that generates votes through ‘likability.’ This tailoring process seems so deeply inherent to a political career, that the political aspirant may need to compromise his or her longstanding values and standards to achieve votes. A career in politics is not necessarily compatible with higher values like integrity (maybe this is why so much corruption exists in the field). In fact, if standards and values are not to some degree compromised in order to increase ‘likability’ and collect votes, then the politician will eventually be eliminated from the field or at the least stuck in less esteemed positions. This elimination process, particularly in seeking the highest offices in which more votes are required, tends to produce a specific character type that, in many cases, may be inclined toward personality or character dysfunction almost to the point of a full-blown personality disorder. I have found that the specific character disorder frequently exhibited by political aspirants is labeled Narcissistic Personality Disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, APA, (In fact, the spiritual philosopher, Ken Wilber, believes that “narcissism” is one of the most significant impediments to Deep Spirit, although his “narcissism” is a bit more complicated that the APA’s definition). The APA has never, to my knowledge, made any psychological classification of politicians. However, I believe it is warranted. The problem is that in the field of politics it can be very difficult or almost impossible to identify those politicians with the disorder, since we all realize and tend to accept that politics is often a personality competition of celebrity proportions. Therefore, we could be witnessing a full-blown Narcissistic disordered personality right before our eyes, yet fail to recognize the symptoms of the disorder due to the very nature of politics in this postmodern age. My point in this essay is in relation to the appearance of Deep Spirit and not necessarily, the appearance of narcissistic symptoms. However, Narcissism impedes Deep Spirit, particularly in those exhibiting symptoms of the disorder, and is generated primarily from fear. More specifically, in politics the fear is of not attaining votes because more voters dislike the political candidate. This is the fear of un-likability, that we all on some level experience. Yet my being disliked by many people may not result in the need to tailor my personality in order to be more liked so as to enhance my career, but for the politician this tailoring is crucial to career enhancement.
Narcissism is a personality or “character” disorder actually diagnosable through the psychiatric model of mental disorders as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The officially accepted criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder according to the DSM-IV is as follows :
Although Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a classification of the psychiatric model of mental disorders, the condition is pervasive to the personality or ‘self’ and is essentially impervious to medications, and most psychotherapies. In other words, if you are afflicted with this ‘disorder,’ narcissistic personality is what you ARE and you most likely can be NO different since the core ‘self’ IS the disorder and will not change (at least, not in this lifetime, anyway). This is different from psychiatric mental disorders which are primarily due to brain or neurochemicals imbalances and can be treated through medications As the symptoms reveal, there is an almost complete self-absorption with little regard for others or the suffering of others. In fact, others are seen as only means to greater enhancement, or advancement, of the ‘self.’ Therefore, any spiritual perspective of ‘oneness,’ any unity of perception or converging of perspectives to include the collective as opposed to the Narcissistic individual, is essentially absent or at the least, greatly minimized. I contend that many of our national leaders meet, if not all the criteria, many of the symptoms of this character disorder (notice that only 5 of the 9 symptoms need be met for the diagnosis to be applied). Based on the limited research available regarding Narcissistic Personality Disorder it appears to be the result of early childhood deprivation or neglect in terms of building healthy psychological ego-self structures. Based on current statistics, only a very small percentage of the U.S. population is afflicted with this disorder (many medical statistics claim only 1% of the population, however, since narcissists rarely admit to the symptoms of this disorder they rarely attend treatment and thus fail to be statistically counted). POLITICAL NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER However, this is not to assume that all politicians exhibit the full-fledged disorder with most of the symptoms. It may be more indicative of a greater possibility of manifesting the “traits” or “styles” of the disorder. Some politicians will be more narcissistically disordered, while others may be less afflicted. But I contend that due to the nature of the career, most will exhibit symptoms even those who seem to appear the most “honest” (I hate to say it, but George Bush tends to conform quite adequately to this model of narcissism) One thing is certain however, the higher the office the greater the likelihood that those elected will exhibit symptoms of the disorder as opposed to merely traits or styles. Therefore, we will suffer, more or less, dependent on the degree of Narcissistic Personality symptoms the elected office holder is afflicted by. Based on this, and my strong belief that regardless of one’s professed religion, seekers of Deep Inner Spirit tend to be more inclined to a more generous “worldcentric” perspective and a vision that integrates all levels of our evolving global society. This vision is completely opposite of narcissism and actually demands the clearing of narcissistic symptoms (traits and styles) in order for others, as opposed to ‘self,’ to be even considered, let alone considered through a correspondence with a deeper Spirit within. However, Narcissistic individuals are very adept at “lip-service” or telling us what they believe we want to hear regardless of the truth factor (this is why outright ‘lies’ are referred to “mis-stating” the facts) in order to enhance likability and acquire votes . Due to this magnified self-absorption, they tend to lack a “worldcentric” perspective and are terminally ‘stuck’ in an egocentric view of the world and others. In fact, they tend NOT to be capable of considering any other perspective but their own (unless, of course, other perspectives are similar). The Narcissistic personality is dysfunctionally self-absorbed and wholly self-oriented and obviously not amenable to the progress of an evolutionary collective consciousness that seeks to encompass all perspectives, all the time. So, when you cast your vote this November, stop to consider which of the politicians seeking office seem to meet the above psychiatric criteria. This may help to insure that you are not voting for a candidate who is Narcissistic Personality Disordered having one chief value in mind above all others and that is the glorification of self. If this is the primary perspective they hold, then most likely they should not hold public office. Clearly, we are approaching difficult times ahead and the leaders we choose will need a foundation of Deep Spirit in order to help us seek that same foundation within ourselves. If we elect officials, no matter what party, who are personality/character disordered, we have no one to blame but ourselves for the disorder and corresponding symptoms we will no doubt experience. Of course, this statement may initiate an examination of the two-term election of George Bush and the question: Peace Angels, |
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Alan said Oct 12, 2008, 3:01 PM: |
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| A narcissist is simple a man or woman who’s ego is so out of control that even in this egoic age they’re out of balance.
I have had up close personal views of narcissists. Of course, power draws people who live solely for themselves and to please their self-image. As does wealth. These are the flames the intensely ego-centric flock to, like moths, only to burn.
This is why we have this pain-filled world, I agree.
Time to declare war on greed. (for money, power, pleasure, whathaveyou)
Time to stop declaring war on eachother. Every time we do, we lose sight of the real enemy
as surely as Iraq had little to do with bin laden.
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Nicole said Oct 13, 2008, 9:36 AM: |
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| Alan and Mike, thanks.Mike, I am very grateful for you beginning the discussion with this marvelous blog of yours. It’s interesting, I just read a blog by Marmalade which is an in-depth personality analysis and comparison of the current candidates and past presidents, with a lot of detail of what leads to success in presidency, including the ability to lie well and being impulsive and passionate rather than collegial. It’s a very detailed blog though and I can’t do it justice so I hope you will check it out yourselves – Politics, Personality, and Character I would love to hear what Marmalade and others think about this thread. Alan, you’re so right about losing track of the real enemy. It has never been other people. Light and peace, Nicole
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 13, 2008, 2:20 PM: |
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| Thanks for the advertisement of my blog, dear Nicole. As you know, I have a strong interest in personality. Its quite fascinating all of the info that is out there.I noticed this thread when it was first posted. I don’t know that I have much to add. I can see the perspective of leadership roles attracting narcissists. The one thing I would question is the issue of personality disorder. If narcissism has offered survival value to the human species, then its not fair to call it a personality disorder. Similarly, I’ve heard the theory that Attention Deficity Disorder may simply be a type of personality that no longer has a place in our society and such people are unfairly medicated. The problem is that the world now is different than it was when humans evolved personality traits. Narcissism may be quite benificial in a leader of a tribe but maybe dangerous on the largscale of international politics. Also, maybe traditional cultures had ways of controlling narcissism from going out of control. Marmalade | |||
Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Alan said Oct 13, 2008, 2:46 PM: |
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| Marmalade,
Having lived with a narcissist, while I disagree with the very idea of ‘personality disorders’ a great deal, I can say that if the definition of personality disorders includes maladaptation, eg a state of being that causes extreme harm to the self or others, Narcissism must be a personality disorder. We probably disagree about the idea that this state of being is or has ever been helpful. Narcissism ruins everything it touches. The story of King Midas is a very good myth about it.
In leaders, it is the most dangerous thing in the world…. whether tribe or nation. These are just my .02 though…
Also, I’d be interested in reading a study about narcissism cross-culturally. In Japanese culture, for example, as far as I know the children are so asked to empathize with each other that an individual who seemingly has no empathy at all (eg, a narccisist) is probably less of a likely phenomenon. In fact, this set of behaviors, to me, is no more than a symptom of the larger imbalance of this particular society.
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 13, 2008, 3:20 PM: |
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| Alan,I haven’t ever studied it much, but from my meager research it seems that narcissism is a broad category. I guess its important to know whether this thread is about narcissism in general or only narcissism as a personality disorder. Here is something from the Wikipedia article: Johnson [9] discusses Narcissism as constituting a spectrum, from a severe disorder with much in common with borderline personality disorder, to a much less severe, high-functioning form he calls “the narcissistic style.” “People who have a narcissistic personality style rather than narcissistic personality disorder are relatively psychologically healthy, but may at times be arrogant, proud, shrewd, confident, self-centered and determined to be at the top. They may not, however, have an unrealistic image of their skills and worth and are not so strongly dependent on praise to sustain a healthy self-esteem.” [10] As there are different types of Narcissism, I’d guess there are probably different causes of it also. As an example I noticed acquired situational narcissism: Acquired Situational Narcissism is a form of narcissism that develops in late adolescence or adulthood, brought on by wealth, fame and the other trappings of celebrity .
disorder. pesonalityI was wondering about the social components to narcissism in our culture. Maybe narcissistic personality style is common, but maybe narcissistic personality disorder isn’t. Furthermore, maybe they exist on a gradient and maybe there is something about our society that turns the personality style into a
, but this leads people to an even greater focus on their own personal problems because they have no one else to turn to. is discouragedA cross-cultural study would be interesting. I’ve read something about Japanese culture that relates to your comment. The author was saying that Japanese culture has the opposite effect from what would be expected. Individual expression
I liked your last point. Is Narcissism a personality disorder or a societal disorder?
Marmalade
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?mikeS said Oct 13, 2008, 3:48 PM: |
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| I realize the title of this post was rather pejorative and exaggerated. Nevertheless, I was not addressing “leadership roles” per say since clearly in many industries and fields leadership does not rely as heavily or at all on ‘likability’ or attractiveness. Many leaders rose to leadership positions meritoriously or through talent and there is not the need to tailor the personality so acutely as with politics.If narcissism has offered survival value to the human species, then its not fair to call it a personality disorder. That would be an interesting discussion as to whether personality disorders have survival value. As Alan points out, they are maladaptive to the person and society and do tend to impair the individual or others in some way. There are many different personality disorders and I’m mostly familiar with antisocial (sociopathic) and narcissistic from 8 yrs of work in a prison. Actually, it seems to me that Narcissism would have little survival value since it is not amenable to leadership roles beneficial to the tribe. In addition, although I use psychiatric diagnoses in my work, I am also very suspect of the criteria. Rarely do individuals meet even the minimum requirments and personality disorders often overlap with mood disorders. This is why I mentioned “traits” and “styles” in my initial post. Attention Deficit is a mood disorder and treatable through drugs and personality disorders are frequently untreatable since it involves impaired ego development usually traced to childhood parenting in combination with genetic predispositions My point was that diagnosable “narcissistic personality disorder” may be more observable through the political arena than in any other public realm. In addition, due to the postmodern politics, and the cult of celebrity, this may be more true than in previous times. In that sense it would be a societal problem particularly if the society is narcissistic, but that would also make it less visible TO the society. A good book on sociel narcissism would be “Culture of Narcissism” by Christopher Lasch, which is quite an indictment of American society. Thanks : ) mike S |
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 14, 2008, 1:16 AM: |
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| Hey Mike! I’m not really in disagreement with you. I just like to complicate things. I was reading that research shows that Japanese are more self-critical. Self-criticalness intuitively seems quite opposite from Narcissism. But I also noticed that in an articleabout narcissism that strong self-criticism is sometimes seen in relationship to strong self-regard. I came across the view that it might be helpful to separate two types of narcissism. One more overt and what is typically thought of as narcissism, but the other more hidden. Here is a paper that speaks about narcissism amongst Japanese being more of the latter type: http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol1Iss1/Asian_Aggression.htm That paper also points out how narcissism relates to dependence. Its not Of course, narcissism is very different in various populations. The narcissism As a different perspective, here is an book excerpt about the relationship http://books.google.com/books?id=K-LLSx-n0lwC&pg=PA234&lpg=PA234&dq=narcissism+ffm&source=web&ots=oyZrnfCrwl&sig=cH6QbfKisuHszOWarrR8pG1mZYs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result And here is narcissistic personality disorder translated into FFM traits: http://www.ptypes.com/narcissisticpd.html irritability, anger, dejection, hopelessness, guilt, shame; difficulty in inhibiting impulses: for example, to eat, drink, or spend money; irrational beliefs: for example, unrealistic expectations,perfectionistic demands on self, unwarranted pessimism; unfounded somatic concerns; helplessness and dependence on others for emotional support and decision making. friction; inability to spend time alone; attention seeking and overly dramatic expression of emotions; reckless excitement seeking; inappropriate attempts to dominate and control others. understanding of different points of view or lifestyles; emotional blandness and inability to understand and verbalize own feelings; alexythymia; constricted range of interests; insensitivity to art and beauty; excessive conformity to authority. quarrelsomeness; too ready to pick fights; exploitive and manipulative; lying; rude and inconsiderate manner alienates friends, limits social support; lack of respect for social conventions can lead to troubles with the law; inflated and grandiose sense of self; arrogance. academic performance relative to ability; disregard of rules and responsibilities can lead to trouble with the law; unable to discipline self (e.g., stick to diet, exercise plan) even when required for medical reasons; personal and occupational aimlessness.
Here are some other links that interested me: http://www.ptypes.com/narcissistic.html http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2277465 Marmalade |
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?mikeS said Oct 14, 2008, 5:39 AM: |
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| Whoa! Marm,You are ‘researcher extraordinaire’! In addition, I did not necessarily perceive you as disagreeing or agreeing. The point is achieving synthesis through the ongoing dialogue. I only feel disappointed if my posts stimulate NO discussion (I think you have said as much before).The point of ALL my posts, blog and threads, is to either initiate discussion, for OR against, and continue it possibly toward such a synthesis. I have not cornered the market on knowledge, nor am I narcissistically certain of anything (neat how I slid that in!) You seem to have deconstructed the DSM-IV Narcissistic classification. I love deconstructing accepted beliefs and although I have not heard of FFM It certainly looks credible (although i do take issue with the old freudian term “neuroticism” which is rarely used in clinical circles due to its being so nebulous).
The narcissism of politicians is probably quite different than narcissism of prisoners, and the narcissism of both of those populations probably would be quite different than narcissism amongst more average people.
disorder shine brightly as the prison environment lends itself to that presentation. narcississtichis disorder in politics, but as soon as we put him behind bars we would see his demonstrateon environmental factors. In other words, the same narcissist would covertly be dependent psychosocial environment. To say that one type is overt and another covert, I believe, would the thebased on be differentI disagree in that the “narcissism” would be the same, however, the behaviors would
japanese narcissism, but could we posit then a further contrast in that the narcissism of Japanese culture is much more covert than American? Yet, the narcissism is the same psychological phenomenon, only tailored to the cultural norms? regardingI have not yet read the link you provided
I will look over the links you have provided since they seem highly informative.
However, my general point from the previous posts was that we could see, if we know what to look for, Narcissism (based on the DSM, but maybe even more adequately based of FFM) in the highest level of politics. My hypothesis was that at the highest level of political functioning, those most deeply afflicted by this disordered personality could be seen. But, again, only if we know what we are looking for and thus, I used the DSM criteria as model. I do feel we need to differentiate between average everyday narcissism, or selfishness, and the narcissism of a disordered personality.
My suggestion that the disorder is “destroying the world” is related to the idea that if you place a conglomeration of Narcissistically disordered personalities in one big room, say the U.S. Congress for instance, with the intent of making decisions beneficial to the world, most likely nothing will get done and thus the world will gradually devolve into some form of self-destruction. Quite a leap, I know, but that’s my general thesis.
Sometimes I wonder if, in our politically correct society, we have a tendency to water down what are truly dysfunctional personalities. I feel this neither serves well the person nor the society.
believe me when I say that I genuinely look forward to your complicating things further!! : ) Peace Angels, |
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Nicole said Oct 14, 2008, 9:11 AM: |
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| Mike, I too am very pleased at the level of discourse this has generated, with Marmalade and Alan’s input! You guys all rock!I’m really looking forward to getting my teeth into that link about the Japanese, seems particularly relevant this week as I’m in the midst of arrangements for the pre-conference activities in early December with my colleagues in Tokyo and surroundings 🙂 Light and peace, Nicole | |||
Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 14, 2008, 3:11 PM: |
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| Mike, this comment of yours stood out to me.My suggestion that the disorder is “destroying the world” is related to the idea that if you place a conglomeration of Narcissistically disordered personalities in one big room, say the U.S. Congress for instance, with the intent of making decisions beneficial to the world, most likely nothing will get done and thus the world will gradually devolve into some form of self-destruction. Quite a leap, I know, but that’s my general thesis. Its always a strange experiment when you stick a bunch of similar people together. The similarities become magnified. I first noticed this when visitng type forums. Put the same type in a single forum and you get weird social dynamics. Its an educational experience because you quickly discover what distinguishes people amidst their similarities. I wonder what the social dynamics are in a group of narcissists? I wouldn’t want to be the observer. It could get ugly. Marmalade |
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 14, 2008, 2:13 PM: |
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| I just thought of something amusing.I learned about FFM through studying MBTI. FFM is a popular topic on MBTI forums and there has been correlations made between the two systems. Both models have been researched on their own, but also some research has been done on how well they correlate. Here is a paper about this: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3852/is_/ai_n9213480 FFM Extraversion correlates to MBTI Extraversion FFM Openness correlates to MBTI Intuition FFM Agreeableness correlates to MBTI Feeling FFM Conscientiousness correlates to MBTI Judging The fifth FFM factor of Neuroticism doesn’t correlate as strongly but does have some correlation to MBTI Introversion. So, the fun part is if we take the FFM correlation to MBTI (ignoring Neuroticism) and add it to the FFM correlation to Narcissism. What we get is that the ESTP type correlates to a Narcissistic personality. The real fun part is looking at the MBTI analysis of politicians. I’ve looked around at various blogs, articles and forum discussions. There seems to be a consensus that McCain is an ESTP. Of course, MBTI focuses on the positive and isn’t designed to understand psychiatric disorders. But its a fun game to play. Here is a humorous page about negative descriptions of MBTI types: ESTP: The Conman Famous ESTPs include P. T. Barnum and DR. PETER OKOYE, SON OF THE LATE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA M. B. OKOYE, WHO REQUESTS YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE IN HELPING TO TRANSFER $150,000,000 (THE SUM OF ONE HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION USD) INTO YOUR U.S. BANK ACCOUNT SO THAT IT MAY BE DISTRIBUTED TO NEEDY CHILDREN, IN GOD’S CHARITY.
Marmalade
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 14, 2008, 2:46 PM: |
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| Related to FFM is the SLOAN model that takes the traits and describes all of the possible combinations. This makes it more of a typology system like the MBTI. MBTI ESTP translates into 2 SLOAN types:http://similarminds.com/global5/scuen.html SCUEN (2.9% of women; 3.2% of men)
http://similarminds.com/global5/sluen.html SLUEN
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Nicole said Oct 15, 2008, 8:26 AM: |
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| Thanks, Marmalade, I really enjoyed that link with all the twisted MBTI characters! LOLOL!Thanks too for the SLOAN model, that’s an approach that was new to me. You are a veritable wealth of fascinating information. Love, Nicole | |||
Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Marmalade said Oct 15, 2008, 12:50 PM: |
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| Yeah, I love that site. I wonder if it was written by a disgruntled INFP. The INFP description is not entirely unflattering. Its good that the INFP population is kept from outgrowing its niche.There are few things that interest me more than personality. Its researching personality that got me interested in the world wide web. Its the web is a veritable wealth of fascinating information. Marmalade
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Re: Is “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Destroying the World?Nicole said Oct 16, 2008, 9:05 AM: |
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| I think it’s quite likely that it was a disgruntled INFP, LOL! I especially enjoyed “The Cult Leader”, as an ENFJ :):)Love, Nicole | |||
Marmalade 