Help In These Times raise $10,000 in three weeks! Donate now to support original and incisive journalism!

Narcissists Rђ Us?

Three decades later, Christopher Lasch’s analysis still neatly explains why self-love will tear us apart

By Silja J.A. Talvi

“It seems like just yesterday I was at the White House staying in the Lincoln bedroom, and everything was wonderful.” These were the words of former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland to a group of teenagers in early July. Rowland was trying to explain his downward trajectory from one of the Republican Party’s favored political “stars” to standing in line for toilet… return to article

  • subscribe to print magazine

  • Zoom OutZoom In Reader Comments (6)

    Page 1 of 1 pages

    Quoting the article: “We are the most affluent country in the history of the world, and that affluence breeds a pathological disconnect with the rest of the world.”

    Just yesterday I finished writing an article for my own website about the “pathological diconnect” of fundamentalists in general, and the “BoJos” of Bob Jones University in particular.  My layman’s conclusion: The Joneses are probably malignant narcissists.

    If you are so inclined, you can read my article here:
    http://www.nobojo.org/psycho.html

    United States Posted by nobojo on Aug 15, 2006 at 9:24 AM

    Some of these people are beyond narcissism—they are sociopaths.

    I highly recommend an interview with Martha Stout, PhD, author of “The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless Versus The Rest of Us ” (Broadway Books, 2005).

    Be sure to read the section titled: “13 Rules for Dealing with Sociopaths in Everyday Life”—unfortunately, I hadn’t seen this list at the time I really needed it a couple of years ago.

    I’ll try to place the URL here as a link.

    http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=1097

    If the link is broken, go to

    http://www.bookbrowse.com/

    and search the author interviews for Martha Stout ...

    http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/
    full/index.cfm?author_number=1097

    For the URL immediately above this line, you’ll need to copy and paste it back together for it to work.

    United States Posted by psstwife on Aug 15, 2006 at 4:39 PM

    Can countries be narcissistic?

    I’m pretty certain my own country would hit the 5/9 mark straight away. How would yours measure up?

    Philippines Posted by Kuya on Aug 16, 2006 at 8:19 AM

    However correct this article is in its premises (and I would agree that many in our culture are infected with narcissism) its solution in collectivism is exactly the wrong course to take.  Collectivism, which disregards the importance of the individual, leads directly to narcissitic personalities gaining control of the political machinery.  It often ends in mass murder.  Obvious examples that come to mind are the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and Communist China.  All fell under the control of Narcissitic personalities who, convinced they knew the way to a better society, committed mass murders on a huge scale.  We don’t need any more such experiments in utopianism.

    United States Posted by chopper on Aug 17, 2006 at 12:46 AM

    Granted, totalitarianisms are to be avoided.  On the other hand, there is nothing more utopian than unfettered, “free-market” capitalism, a la Randian ideology.  As in the U.S. today this concentration and centralisation of wealth and power merely devolves into a state-capitalist oligarchy.  As has been pointed out, this is simply “socialism for the rich”.

    Canada Posted by gha on Aug 24, 2006 at 3:12 PM

    “Granted, totalitarianisms are to be avoided.  On the other hand, there is nothing more utopian than unfettered, “free-market” capitalism, a la Randian ideology.  As in the U.S. today this concentration and centralisation of wealth and power merely devolves into a state-capitalist oligarchy.  As has been pointed out, this is simply “socialism for the rich”.”

    Our economy, with extensive government interference and interventions, is nothing close to any free-market ideal.  In fact government intervention in the economy often leads to “concentration and centralisation of wealth” that those on the left wrongly blame on the free market.

    United States Posted by chopper on Aug 28, 2006 at 9:50 PM
    Page 1 of 1 pages

  • register a new account »Posting Security

    To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.
     

    Retreive lost password »

Article Appeared in this Issue

Full contents
Past issues

Also by Silja J.A. Talvi
Popular Discussions