We are tempted at times to call our enemies Narcissists. But narcissists are harmless. It is the vain that are the trouble. We live in the Kingdom of the Vain.
In chapter 28 of Leviathan Thomas Hobbes explained why he had likened the state to the sea monster called Leviathan in the Bible. He wrote that he had taken
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” But narcissists are harmless”
You CANNOT be serious. Clinical Narcissists – and I pray you never tangle with one – I did and it was utterly appalling, all the more so as I had known him for 40 years, since we were students together – are extremely dangerous people. Like all sociopaths they have neither conscience or shame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder
Absolutely. Turdeau is just one textbook example of a narcissist, as confirmed by Dr Jordan Peterson below. Laughably I was accused of being a narcissist by one of my long-time haters on here ( they can’t stand being challenged or contradicted, don’t you know? ), but as projection is one of their main tactics it didn’t surprise me in the slightest. Accuse others of what you are guilty of yourself, being their number one strategy when unable to effectively hold a debate, then when all else fails ad hominem all the way..lol;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uNIfIe0wgE&ab_channel=TheTelegraph
Indeed. My wife and I spotted Trudeau as severe NDP rapidly. One bonus of tangling with one (regardless, I’d still council against it!) is that from then on, you can spot them a mile off.
Add to that, everything they say is by definition TRUE. Even if it contradicts what they said yesterday; the NDP you see, cannot lie, as they are too magnificent to do so..
This guy – Sam Vaknin is interesting; that rare beast, a self-aware Narcissist. He has much to say and write on the subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXYlJLWG3qk
It’s an interesting article, but, yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Narcissism is not harmless. I’ve also had, and continue to have, first-hand experience of dealing with a narcissist. When you only see the world though a self-serving bubble, and all your deeds and promises are driven by self interest in its purest form, and the lies you tell others are not lies to yourself, then the impact on those around you is almost 100% negative. That negative experience is certainly not harmless. If you then shape a society around reducing pride and humility, increasing vanity, and, crucially, breeding narcissist personalities, then society will crumble. Why? Because society can manage vanity and pride as both are still capable of sacrifice. A narcissist is not.
What an absolute stonker of an article.
Thanks, James.
Yes but no but. In pre-woke practical psychiatry Narcissism and Borderline were both related yet opposites, though many personality traits overlap. Narcissists had irrationally high self-esteem (“I know I am always right”); borderliners had irrationally low self-esteem (“I know I am always wrong.”); both are capable of extreme Hate[1]. Extremes of both caused problems to themselves and others, especially regarding relationships whether personal, familial, work, or politically. Each flourishes when surrounded by people with similar traits and each rigorously exclude those with non-similar traits (“birds of a feather”). There is a third category, which has become an unfashionable diagnosis in the new culture of acronyms rather than inventor names: “Nightingalism”, which is what in these columns we would denigrate as “virtue-signallers”. (I suspect that the adoption of the word comes from historiccal attitudes to insanity: “Grandma says she is Florence Nightingale; grandad says he is Napoleon”. While was rarely literally true, the stereotype was useful to describe people’s behaviour. Nationalist terms like Mongolism, German Measles and Spanish Flu have been replaced by TLAs, by nudging: labels change, but the spectrum of human behaviour does not! ) Nightingalists are people who are become deluded into believing that they are possessed with vastly superior abilities to detect, cure and eliminate “illness” in other people, and assert, and are often granted, the right to deploy these alleged abilities. (“Illness” is in the general sense, not merely physical illness, but includes mental illness, “wrongthink”, “evil”, “incorrect religion” and general scepticism or dissent.) Crucially, Nightingalists team up in a folie à deux with their “Patients”, that is, people who exhibit the complementary disorder of irrationally believing they are ill (or sinful) and fall into a relationship with their “nurse”, believing they will be cured of their illness or (forgiven for their sins). These relationships last for a while, but end in tears and recriminations.
Are narcissists more dangerous than borderliners? I think that these days borderliners have the edge on danger. They present themselves “victims” of some malefactor, the offences often grossly exaggerated and sometimes completely fictitious and the accusations hateful. (Sydenham was sympathetic to people who suffer irrational hate.) In the present age victimhood is a virtue and heroism is a vice, so the borderliners win in the courts and in charity fundraising. In other words, borderliners are dangerous because, though below average in ability to deal with their emotions, they can access far more powerful and (mostly) sane “champions”; conversely, narcissists are already in that position of power and can control their emotions anyway. Borderline management is an area in which projection and counter-projection thrive.
However, I believe Nightingalists pose a bigger danger than either narcissists or borderliners, by virtue of their knack of getting into power and being maintained their by their “patients”. Borderliners believe in their imperfection; Narcissists believe in their perfection, without seeking perpetual reassurance; nightingalists want everyone else to enjoy the same “perfection” and cannot understand why anybody cannot share that objective. In short, our modern ‘narcissists’ are indeed more than narcissists: they are nightingalists. They seriously believe they have the intelligence, competence and power to Make The World A Better Place, and will be quite prepared to imprison, section, de-platform, demonetize and exclude anyone who is not 110% in agreement.
[1] Thomas Sydenham: ‘They love without measure those whom they will soon hate without reason.’ [referring to Borderline in 1682 and Covid(?), climate change and mass hysteria following the unprecedent global freezing of 1683 ]
I’m not sure there are that many differences between psychopaths & narcissists. Watch any documentary and they are very similar. The Killer Butler comes to mind. There was a drama based on him last Sunday on TPTV, a channel based mostly on older films and dramas and on FREESAT 306. Great channel. True Crime Drama Series 1993.
There is no pride. I see it everyday except in overseas people from eastern Europe. There is no appreciation of greatness in English society, no sense of a life of the mind or spirit. It is as if not only Christianity was expunged in the last few decades but with it any notion of transcendence. That is quite a victory for our enemy you might want to look at it.
I think the author gets it right and you are also correct that there is no pride. It has often been labelled as one of the 7 deadly sins and that is harsh as humility has been promoted as the virtue.
Entertaining our Church of Scotland Minister one evening some years ago, he suddenly leaned across the table and said “Bruce, you have no humility” and I though that very telling because I am very confident and say what I think and argue forcibly with pride.
The country needs more pride and less grovelly, vain narcissists – is that an oxymoron?