OTOH. . .why did we have 'Ted'; or have 'Obama'; and a gazillion like them; and have the goodness of a 'Dave Peltzer' (A boy called IT; A man named Dave and others)?
The intervention here; of course; is critical. (Obama had Frank Marshall Davis/confessed-but-proud/ sexual abuser and confirmed communist.)
Don't know. . .is there a 'viral' component to 'narcissism'? Never mind. . .just 'waxing rhetorical'; but not dissimilar by MO's and threat so contained.
I believe that many (most?) can and do rise above a less than ideal childhood situation.
However, the lack of an intact, stable, traditional monagamous, heterosexual core family unit certainly increases the chances of deviancy/pathology/criminality. This is not to disparage the yeoman work done by any number of single parenters out there- they can GREATLY lessen to liklihood of later problems, but the facts are what they are.
Godspeed Ward and June Cleaver.
Narcissism is actually an extreme psychological reaction undergone by some children who find their childhood unendurable. As some have pointed out, children react differently to horrific situations, and certainly not all become narcissists. The common threads among those that do are (1) childhood abandonment or abuse by one or both parents, (2) wholesale dysfunction in whatever unit they end up being raised in, and (3) a complete lack of a bottom-line core of self-worth.
Iow, the actions of one or both parents say to the very small child, in so many words, “You are worthless.” To which the narcissist-in-the-making responds, “I will become the center of my own private universe. In my personal world, I’ll not only have worth, I’ll be the most superior human being alive. I’ll be better than EVERYBODY. I’d be better than God if there was one, but there isn’t or He wouldn’t have let me go through this. So I’ll be god for myself.”
It is a witch’s brew from which recovery is difficult if not impossible. Bill Clinton was a narcissist, but Obama makes him look like a piker. Fwiw.