Narcissism is not a new concept. The term was first coined in 1887, named after Narcissus from a Greek myth about a man who was punished to love his own reflection for all of eternity after rejecting all other romantic partners, because he never found any that matched up to his perception of himself. However narcissism is a growing epidemic of our time. It is predicted that 1/6 people in Western Society have some degree of narcissism, with around 20% of these people having serious problems with narcissim.However it is very rare for a narcissist to see that they have a problem, meaning most narcissism goes undetected, with those being treated usually brought in by family or friends who cannot cope anymore.
Everyone has narcissistic traits, everyone is a little self-absorbed at times but to some these can become extreme problems. Attention seeking, manipulation, thinking others are manipulating you, lack of empathy for others, lack of care for others if they do not have the same opinions as you and emotional abuse are all commonplace to those that have problems with narcissism.
However it has interested me to learn that problems with narcissism are a lot more predominate in the West then they are in Eastern culture. Narcissism is not a problem commonly associated to Eastern culture. fascinating.
After a conversation with my good friend last night I have put this down to two different possible reasons and I am undecided as to which one it would be.
My friend commented that in Eastern culture these problems would not be documented as much as they would in Western culture, as mental health and other personality disorders are really looked down on and viewed different. They are more a fault of the individual. This may be true.
However I personally think it could be the different doctrines of these different cultures. Western Culture focuses on the individual, where as eastern focuses on the collective. Western culture encourages everyone to be individuals, do things for themselves, achieve things individually and that you only really yourself. Eastern culture focuses more on the collective. The individual state is not as nurtured as the state of being in a collective group. Your viewed by your memberships.
Perhaps us in the West could be taking a leaf out of our friends in the East’s book.
For more information on how to spot an narcissist.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/08/04/how-to-spot-a-narcissist/
We were talking about this at the dinner table today. My dad mentioned that people from about 20-33 are (generally) terrible at hosting. His theory was that was due to a self-centeredness that their parents allowed to flourish. The Western doctrines of Christianity don’t push for narcissistic attitudes, but Western culture, especially in the US is nominally Christian. I think we’ve drifted farther into secularism than we as a culture would like to admit.
Good thoughts!
Thanks for your comments. I am not really religious or really familiar with huge amounts of religious teaching, but I do agee that these attitudes don’t come from religion. But I don’t know if I think that religion is the only thing keeping societies from being narcissistic, despite most morals coming from religion in the first place. Guess I would like to think that people are inheritantly good and society makes them selfish and self absorbed. Glad I’m not the only one pondering this laterly!
Very thought-provoking post!
As a member of an “Eastern” culture, I’d like to point out that all the symptoms you’ve described (manipulation, emotional abuse, lack of care for others if they do not have the same opinions as you) are present in countless individuals belonging to the “East” too. But as your friend said, there’s not much of a concept of “personality disorders” here. Yes, there is focus on the collective as opposed to the individual when it comes to socialization and stuff, but societies in the East do not live together happily as a whole – they’re made up of lots of small, and conflicting groups, which vie with each other and can be pretty intolerant when it comes to considering opinions and interests other than their own. And it probably is so in most parts of the world.