What Is the Narcissism Epidemic?

Narcissism was introduced into the large clinical practice by psychiatrists, sexologists Richard and Nack, and refers to individuals putting too much energy and interest on themselves. When exaggerating and lacking self-worth The public perception of others can lead to narcissistic personality disorder.
Narcissistic epidemic generally refers to narcissism (psychological term)

Chinese name: Narcissism

Foreign name: narcissism
Applied discipline: psychology

Narcissistic development process

Narcissism was first extended to the clinical description from literary concepts. The credit was attributed to psychiatrists, sexologists Richards and Nuck, who described the pathological phenomenon of narcissism in their respective papers in 1898 and 1899, respectively. It shows an attitude that an individual treats himself like a sexual object. Narcissists appreciate, touch, and play with themselves until they are completely satisfied.

Subsequently, in 1914, Freud, the master of psychiatry and the ancestor of psychoanalysis, for the first time systematically discussed the issue of narcissism. Freud believed that narcissism was an undifferentiated spiritual energy, which originated from Libido, and was originally Used for self and the woman who nurtured himself, which he called primitive narcissism. Freud also believes that this first love is a kind of self-sexual sexual satisfaction, which is experienced as a living function. Its purpose is to protect itself. Primitive narcissism is assumed to be seen by everyone. . In the original narcissism, the child loves and raises the woman who loves herself as a body to love. The child does not have the ability to separate the woman who raises herself, but for the future, love an independent Individuals laid the foundation.

Freud believes that people first invest more of their love into themselves, then develop healthy and target it, and the mother as the child's first caregiver is always regarded as the original bettor. The mother or mother substitute, therefore Became the earliest object of love, but here the mother loves as an object different from herself. If the love to the object suffers setbacks, this outward-facing love will return to itself, a phenomenon called secondary narcissism, which is clinically pathological narcissism. In the choice of love in the future, such people are not modeled on the mother-that is, not the other as the model, but the self as the model. They obviously use the self or their ideal as the object of love. This is an extreme example. For homosexuals.

From Freud until the 1960s and 1970s, the field of narcissism was almost dominated by Freund s, and although many analysts mentioned it, no one could rival Freund s. This field is gradually becoming active. It's been something for almost three decades.

In 1967, Joffe and Sandler took the lead in clearly stating the research direction of narcissism and narcissism disorder. They believed that "the understanding of narcissism and narcissism disorder in bed must consider the impact of social culture on it. Emotions, attitudes, values and ideals are Postmodern psychology is an important part, so research on narcissism must take into account the above factors, not just the issue of internal drive or hypothesis. "

Pulve (1968) considers narcissism as "a broad, non-specific concept that describes many phenomena, all of which are attributed to the evaluation of the self."

In 1968, the American Association for Psychoanalysis defined narcissism as "a psychological interest focused on one's own attention."

Narcissistic type

Narcissism

This is an empirical observation, referring to the psychological state of the baby, the baby's experience of the mother and its parenting experience, and you are undifferentiated. Retaining direct traces of the basic narcissistic tension that pervades all levels of personality throughout life, and differentiates into two forms (narcissistic self (exaggerated self) and idealized parental image). Expressionism can be broadly regarded as a major narcissistic aspect common to all driving forces, which is the narcissistic emphasis on the self (as opposed to the driving object) of the driver (i.e. the object is invited to participate in the child) The subject matter is important only when the narcissistic fun of the child is identified and confirmed for the child). Psychological separation, different stages of maturity, and sequential attention to the main functions and actions must be gradually de-sexualized (ideally through gradual setbacks and accompanied by love's support). If expressionism is the driving force of narcissistic self, exaggerating fantasy is the conceptual content of narcissistic self. The extent to which instincts are de-instincted and integrated to meet self-realistic goals determines the pros and cons for the individual.

Narcissism

Narcissism was once attached to external objects, but in secondary narcissism, those objects were withdrawn and placed in a position to serve the self (and not towards the object in the subconscious fantasy). This means that the original desire of the object is transformed into the original desire of the self. For example, when a schizophrenic patient degenerates, he withdraws his original desire from reality, and the original desire attaches to his pathologically magnificent idea, and is called secondary narcissism. As Freud puts it, it is closely related to infantile exaggeration.

Klein Narcissistic Kleinist Perspective

Kleinists convert the differences between Freud's narcissism and inevitable narcissism or object power into differences in internal or external object relations.

Herbert. Rosenfeld, a loyal follower of Klein's theory in Abraham's (1919) description of narcissistic resistance in empathy, elaborates on the structural characteristics of narcissistic personality and the development of empathy during the analysis. He developed the first modern theory of pathological narcissism. The core of the theory can be summarized as follows:

1. The narcissist completely projects himself to the object he is concerned about, and denies that he is any different from the object, or does not separate himself from the object at all, as a person. Such indistinguishment between self and object causes the patient to deny that he has any need for external object dependence, because relying on the other person also depends on himself. For them, it means love, but he who has hurt himself is very " The need of the "hateful" object.

2. The narcissist has a very high idealized self-image and completely denies any person or thing that hinders this perfect self-image. Such a personality structure comes from the patient's subconscious idealization of the part that he does not agree with. Under these prerequisites, the patient subconsciously hates everything that is good and valuable, not only the external object, but also the internal normal one. Part of its own dependence on the object.

3. Such indistinguishment between self and object may indicate that patients subconsciously merge the male and female qualities of their internal and external objects, so that they can become immune to dependence. In fact, in the treatment, when these are overcome by the explanation, the patient can show a deep and true dependence, enter a state of depression and experience the Russian-low conflict.

4. Narcissism is the expression of the original inner spirit of death instinct. This formulation is from Freud, the earliest argument that narcissism is related to offensiveness. Narcissistic object relationships can escape frustrating offensive emotions and any awakening of jealousy. Can very quickly assimilate the values and opinions of others, and treat them as their own, or may subconsciously reduce the value of others and devalue what they get from others.

The followers of Klein's theory have described the structural characteristics of narcissistic personality for the first time since Freud, and first proposed that narcissism is related to aggressiveness, but the most obvious mistake is that narcissistic personality denies separation from the object. Subsequent development holds that narcissistic personality does not deny that they are separated from the object, but denies that they are different from the object, which is obviously different from the experience of schizophrenia who cannot distinguish between them and the object.

Kohut Narcissistic Kohut

Kohut modified the previous definition of "narcissism" by Freud, and proposed that narcissism is actually the essence of libido, or more directly that narcissism is actually the general nature of human beings, and everyone is essentially All narcissistic. Narcissism is a true sense of self-worth generated by a competent experience. It is a real feeling that you deserve to be cherished and protected. That is to say, the narcissism of ordinary individuals is not unhealthy, and our society is also allowed to be moderately narcissistic, and it is unhealthy only if the individual is excessively narcissistic and exceeds the scope of social intercourse and narcissism.

Narcissistic narcissistic development axis

Kohut argues that there is a development axis that is separate from Freud libido's concept of development. Freud's understanding of libido has developed from self lust to narcissism to object love. Kohut's independent development axis transformed from self-eroticism to narcissism to a higher form of narcissism. This basically changed Freud's concept of narcissism, that is, viewing narcissism with different maturity.

Normal adults have a narcissistic need, and continue their needs for self-mirroring through self-objects throughout their lives. The constant importance of self-objects can be seen briefly in the difficulty of dealing with a non-responsive person. If we try hard to represent someone who is indifferent and unresponsive to us, we will feel helpless and empty, with low self-worth and narcissistic anger. We can also conceptualize adult love in the form of a person as a self-object, because love involves mutual mirroring and idealization, which can enhance the self-worth of the people involved.

Then, narcissism will continue to be transformed into various forms throughout its life. Healthy narcissism in adulthood can take various forms, such as creativity, humor, and empathy. What determines a person's personality traits are the narcissistic self (ie, exaggerated-expressive self), the ego, and the superego (with its internalized ideals).

From Kohut's point of view, development is far more than a driving force. Kohut's development model shifted the emphasis from emphasizing drive to emphasizing self. Traditional psychoanalysis's emphasis on drive is not enough to explain why a child may be immobilized during orbital and anal periods, for example. Kohut believes that when the fragile self is not responded properly and begins to lose its coherence and break, the drive will emerge. Just consider the children's autophasic and anal stages. The need for food and the excitement of stool are not primitive. What children need is a self-object that can give food, and a self-object that can accept stool gifts. The mother's response to the child's driving force is not as much as the response to the self, a self that is formed and seeks confirmation by mirroring the giving and receiving of the self-object. The child will take pride or rejection of the mother as experiencing the acceptance or rejection of his or her active self-not just the acceptance or rejection of a certain driving force. ^[1]

Narcissistic and narcissistic disorders

Patients with narcissistic personality disorder usually present symptoms that are difficult to define at first. They may vaguely complain about work difficulties, misplaced sexual fantasies, or lack of sexual interest. Other symptoms presented include difficulty forming relationships, complaints about illness, and a tendency to anger.

However, when analyzed, the most significant diagnostic feature emerged in the form of narcissistic transfer. It is the appearance of this narcissistic metastatic effect that confirms its diagnosis as a narcissistic or autologous disorder. Narcissistic transfer can be a mirror transfer or an idealized transfer. These metastatic effects are a therapeutic rebirth of childhood or a critical developmental stage of childhood. The mirror transfer effect uses the exaggerated self. In other words, the patient reappears that early stage of development, during which the child tries to maintain a portion of the original narcissism by focusing on perfection in the exaggerated self and distributing all imperfections to the outside (world).

Mirror transfer effects can manifest in a variety of different ways. In the most primitive manifestation, the patient's own experience will include the therapist, almost as if the therapist did not exist separately. Kohut called this a fusion by exaggerating the expansion of the self. In a less severe form of metastatic effect, the patient assumes that the therapist is like the patient itselfa process that Kohut calls "twin or alternative self-metastatic effects." Kohut uses the term "mirror transfer effect" in a narrow sense to represent the third form of transfer effect. Patients know that the therapist is separate, but the therapist only has the context of the patient's needs. Its importance-that is, only then the therapist has fulfilled the individual needs of the patient and confirmed their exaggeration and performance.

Another type of narcissistic transfer, idealized transfer, also mobilizes idealized parental imagery. That is, the patient reappears the early stage, and the child tries to maintain its comprehensive narcissistic perfection by an ancient object, that is, idealized parental imagery, and strives to maintain integration with the object. Separation from the perfect object means power fall and emptiness.

The development of idealization can be more primitive and more mature in development, depending on the position on which its solid works are used in development. Once the idealized transfer effect is established (that is, when the individual's own experience includes the idealized therapist), the patient will feel empowered, competent, and I am good. An idealized therapist who robs any such patient of any (psychological) disorder will reduce their sense of self-worth and make them feel unworthy.

The basic characteristic of narcissistic auto-morbidity is the defect of self-structure, which is the result of not completing the process of integrating and exaggerating the self and idealizing the object to enter the reality-oriented self-structure. Of course, the patient is not conscious or fully aware of his or her own pathology, which is why he or she only showed a vague sense of emptiness or lack of vitality at the beginning. The most important pre-consciousness center of this disease is the incomplete reality of the self, followed by the incomplete reality of the external world (Kohut, 1971, p. 210). There is also a primitive, ancient, unmirrored, exaggerated self and an idealized object that is bet on narcissistically. These claims can be shown in a relationship or in a way of expressing anger that does not match the level of damage. Only empathetic observers will understand the depth of the wound from what seem to be small stimuli.

Narcissism and other illnesses

Narcissistic personality disorders may share certain characteristics with other mental disorders, but there are significant differences between narcissism and metastasis psychosis, borderline disorders, and mental illness.

The personality involved in metastatic psychosis is usually a coherent self and a complete psychological structure. Its obstacles focus on a certain conflict, that is, its libido and attacking force are from the childhood to the object. These objects are distinguished from the self. The person feels anxious in the face of the danger of mental functionality--that is, the fear of competence comes to the level of consciousness.

In contrast, narcissistic personality disorders focus on the self and the primitive ancient self-objects (by definition this is not separate from the self). These primitive ancient exaggerated self and idealized object morphological structures have not been integrated into the rest of the personality, so the personality is deprived of a sense of self-worth and healthy narcissism. The anxiety of an autoimmune disorder progresses from the perception to its own vulnerability; the discomfort comes from its inability to regulate self-worth.

Marginal and psychotic personality has not developed a stable, narcissistic morphological structure; that is, a coherent self with a coherent, idealized object. They have difficulty holding themselves together, and they even use delusions and hallucinations to protect themselves from unbearable breaks and the loss of idealized objects. Their inner objects are often harsh and persecution. This inherent disintegration and severity often cause serious relationship problems for marginal and psychotic patients and later problems with establishing relationships with therapists. The symptoms of marginal and psychotic personality are usually clear and dramatic, while those with abnormal narcissistic personality begin to have ambiguous symptoms.

In contrast to borderline personality disorders, narcissistic personality possesses a coherent self and coherent primitive objects that allow the patient to establish a relationship with the therapist, and is established in a therapeutic context (which Kohut unambiguously calls psychoanalysis) Stable narcissistic transfer phenomenon. This transfer phenomenon allows the reactivation of early narcissistic structures and the process of repairing those structures in therapy. The idealized object comparison is almighty and comforting parental image, which is activated in the phenomenon of transfer, which helps to alleviate the emptiness and depression that the narcissistic patient presents at first. This is in contrast to the experience of treating borderline disorders, which is usually a severe mood swing experience.

Narcissistic personality disorder

When a person is over-narcissistic, a narcissistic personality disorder is formed. The basic characteristics are exaggeration of self-worth and lack of public perception of others. These people think that they are more perfect than those around them, and they are forced to be recognized by others. They exaggerate their achievements and talents without foundation. They think that they should be regarded as "special talents". They think that their ideas are unique and only special. Only characters can understand.

Regarding the causes of narcissistic personality disorder, the classic psychoanalytic theory explains this: the patient cannot bet his own instinctual psychological power on an external object, and the power stays inside, forming narcissism. Modern object-relationship theory holds that the narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by "self as an object", or, in layman's terms, "you don't distinguish between me and him," he said. The reason for this is that patients have experienced interpersonal trauma in their early experiences, such as long-term separation from their parents, discord between parents, or their parents' attitudes toward them are too rude or doting. Having such experiences makes patients feel that it is safe and right for them to love themselves.

In Kohut's view, it can be traced back to childhood as an infant. According to the study of the object relationship theorist Mahler et al., This obstacle is about one and a half to three years old. Kohut believes that every individual has a tendency to be arrogant and exaggerated during his infancy. For example, an infant will cry if it is not satisfied. In the infant s psychological world, he or she is almighty God. . When this God is satisfied by the parent (self-object), he is happy. If you are not satisfied, you are furious because your frustration cannot be achieved. This unsatisfactory situation often happens by accident in infant rearing, but if the baby-raising person treats the baby for such a long period of time, it means that the baby cannot obtain exaggerated self-narcissistic satisfaction for a long time. If the pairing with internal expectations is not successful, the baby will be disappointed with the external, and the brain will abandon the normal nourishing and nourishing loop circuit according to the actual situation, and replace the need for compensating for this narcissism with the self-fantasy loop circuit. Such fantasies often prevent the self from understanding the reality of normal narcissism, and beyond the acceptable range of ordinary people to form their own and excessive narcissism, so there will be similar exaggerated personality of the above narcissistic personality disorder which performed.

At the same time, if the caregiver often has emotional problems, he will also reflect the anger of his narcissism failure at the same time, and internalize it into the baby's psychological information processing system in the interaction with the baby, and become the baby's future. Unconsciously judging certain basic feelings in interpersonal relationships. So in a famous video experiment by British subject-relational scientist Winnicott, because a happy baby has been with a depressed mother for more than an hour, the baby's face has become as depressed as the mother. This is the famous view mentioned by Kohut: the internalization of transformation. In the long run, it will have a direct impact on the interpersonal emotional ability of infants and adults. This is the basis of internal expectations that affect the future development of babies. ^[1]