What an excellent piece you have written Dr. Stolinsky! Bravo!
I wish there were a clear cut solution to the burgeoning mass of narcissists but they are too self-absorbed to notice the path of destruction trailing behind them.
Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder -Michael Savage
And lest we forget the King of ME
Misleading. Here's why...
1. Put the phrase in quotes for greater accuracy. That drops the figure down to about 60,000,000.
2. Note that Google eliminates most of these as irrelevant/not very relevant to the search request. In fact, when I just did the search, all results past page 47 were omitted, i.e. Google only found 470 results that were truly relevant to the search phrase.
3. Look at the actual results. For example, the phrase "How to find yourself" often ends with things like "a lawyer," "a doctor," "a pool man," or even "on Google Earth." None of these is remotely narcissistic.
Want credibility? Get rid of the bogus Google stat.
But you put too much importance on a person ordering food. When I walk up to a fast food place they rush me to order before I read the menu. We are being narcissistic to try to rush people into ordering faster! If you don’t like to wait in line, go someplace else, don’t complain about the line. Perhaps you have had the experience of trying to grab a quick lunch and get back to work, only to be delayed while someone dithers at the counter. This person may be trying to figure out what kind of yogurt to order â as if it were a problem of such complexity that Quantum Theory seems like childÂs play by comparison. On another occasion, a yuppie couple ordered a complex concoction of yogurt, fruits, and nuts, which the single attendant worked to prepare. A line formed behind them, which could have been avoided by ordering a simple yogurt dish. After five minutes I left, but the concoction still wasnÂt ready.
Excellent article. I have to admit. I often wonder how much lower we can go as a nation. It doesn’t help that I’m old enough to remember when people were different, and no. I’m not just saying that, because my perception has changed. As bad as some people were in the past, the rest of society, its media, leaders, and even most average joes, at least paid lip service toward morality and polite behavior.
The people you described may be a product of the culture and the times, and could be described by the word "narcissist" used as an ordinary adjective instead of the name of a mental disorder. But there's a big difference between people being rude and oblivious and those who have a genuine mental illness.
I have a relative who has NPD; it is extremely difficult to spend any length of time around her. The belief that she is and should be the center of everyone's attention and her constant manipulation of people to ensure that they remain fixated on her at all times is stressful and exhausting.
Apparently, some experts in the mental health field aren't happy with the decision to remove NPD from the DSM. Perhaps they will prevail upon the task force to reverse their decision.
This article completely describes DC. I have called it Mass Narcissism for years. It is almost a cultural.
I agree with every point except the yogurt thing. If I am paying for something, I want it the way I want it. The Dawdlers that aggravate me are the ones who stand in line for 10 minutes and wait until they get to the counter to say “Hmmm, what do I want...?”
Also, after the woman was arrested and charged with spanking her kid, some people DON’T know what to do with jerky kids. The state has many afraid to be good parents and that case this past week just confirmed their fears.
“I was driving though an expensive residential area and stopped to let a middle-aged man cross the street. He stopped directly in front of my car, turned his back, and began stretching exercises. I yelled, Its safer to exercise on the sidewalk, not with your back to traffic. He replied, F**k you! and continued his routine. I had to back up before pulling around him, though the thought of driving forward crossed my mind.”
Wow.
Excellent article!!!
Good (short) article ping.