ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΓΡΑΦΟΣ: "Narcissism: The New Disease of the "Me" Decade" article by Constance Rosenblum Evening Independent August 1978 Ψυχολογία ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗ ΣΚΕΨΗ

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"Narcissism: The New Disease of the "Me" Decade" article by Constance Rosenblum Evening Independent August 1978 Ψυχολογία ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗ ΣΚΕΨΗ

Narcissism

The New Disease of the “Me” Decade

Tom Wolfe

Heinz Kohut

Arnold Goldberg

Christopher Lasch

David Riesman

Otto Kernberg

article by Constance Rosenblum

Evening Independent August 1978

Ψυχολογία

ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΚΗ ΣΚΕΨΗ

( ο τίτλος του άρθρου )

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Top social scientists are calling narcissism the major disorder facing Western society today.

New Narcissism – a self-centered, self-serving creature so preoccupied with himself and his problems that he has no energy left to relate to others.

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Heinz Kohut:

“ These people have a sense of loneliness, abandonmet, of not feeling worthwhile. They have terrible swings in self-esteem, are easily depressed by slight rejection because they feel their self is crumbling falling apart.” Often they try to fight their depression with drugs, alcohol and wild sexual flings, but with little success.

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Everyone has a dash of narcissism, but the abnormal case is totally self-absorbed, with an exaggerated sense of self-importance. He craves admiration, but puts others down. Though charming, he has few emotional contacts. He flourishes best in highly impersonal settings, like bureaucracies, which put little premium on personal attachments.

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Tom Wolfe sees the flowering of this trend in the wave of therapies preaching self-indulgence and guaranteeing instant gratification, in the treatises urging us to be our own friend, to look out for No. 1.

Tom Wolfe writes “The new alchemical dream is: changing one’s personality: remaking, remodeling, elevating and polishing one’s very self… and observing, studying and doting on it.”

For generations, Tom Wolfe says, this was a luxury reserved for the very rich. But by the ’60s, anyone with a few hundred dollars could buy, for example, a week of self-improvement at a trendy place like Esalem.

Tom Wolfe says “The appeal was simply enough. It was summed up in the notion, “Let’s talk about me!” You had finally focused your energies on the most fascinating subject on Earth.”

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How does such a person evolve? Through very early experience.

Arnold Goldberg (Chicago analyst):

“Generally, a person has basically good feelings about himself, even as a very young child. And very early on, the child needs to have that good feeling reflected by the parent.

If a baby gets that good feeling about himself reflected or validated, by the parent early on, he’ll probably grow up with positive feelings about himself. But if he doesn’t, he’ll probably have a poor self-image.

Such a person will continue to seek the responses he never got as a child and, unable to satisfy old needs, will feel listless and hollow as an adult.”

[ (… θα αισθάνεται άτονο και κούφιο/κενό ως ενήλικας ). ]

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There are several reasons why there might be more self-love today.

Heinz Kohut:

“Today’s families are smaller, its members more remote, and they may be producing other problems, such as a new crop of lonely self-involved people.”

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Chistopher Lasch (social historian)

“ Haven in a Heartless World ” (1978)

“The child no longer identifies with his parents of internalizes their authority in the same way”. The New Narcissus is the result.

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David Riesman (Harvard sociologist)

“ I see a lot of the New Narcissism. We used to call these children spoiled, but that no longer strictly applies. It seems that many students were understimulated as children. They have a tremendous need for the parenting that was lacking in the original family setting.”

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Otto Kernberg (New York psychoanalyst)

Though on the surface the New Narcissus might seen to suffer from an excess of self-love, the reality is quite different.

“The abnormal Narcissus does not, as it turns out really love himself or herself at all. Narcissists have very low opinions of themselves, and this is why they constantly seek approbation.”