Narcissism among gen z is becoming very common and very few people are able to identify narcissistic trait in others which makes vulnerable to the abuse of a narcissist.
Narcissism among gen z is becoming very common and very few people are able to identify narcissistic trait in others which makes vulnerable to the abuse of a narcissist.
In this post I am going extensively talk about narcissists; who they are and how to spot them, in later articles I will talk about how to deal with a narcissist.
History of Narcissism
The romans and the greeks had a myth about a man called Narcissus; he was a handsome man who was very desirable. He wandering around the world looking for love. After being rejected by Echo, he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in a river and fell in love with his handsomeness. He was so fascinated about his looks that he was unable to tear himself away from the river so he drowned himself. A flower was used to mark where he died and flower was called Narcissus.
The myth captures the basic idea of narcissism elevated and sometimes detrimental self-involvement. Narcissism not just a personality by set of personality traits that was classified by psychologists.
The psychological definition of narcissism is an inflated, grandiose self-image. To varying degrees, narcissists think they’re better looking, smarter, and more important than other people, and that they deserve special treatment.
Psychologists recognise two forms of narcissism as a personality trait: grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. There’s also narcissistic personality disorder.
A narcissist is an individual who hold themselves of as highly important than others. In simple terms they are better than any one around them. Such individual disregard the needs of others and only care about what will benefit them. No one is born a narcissist but the conditions under which one grew as a child make one become a narcissist.
For instance a child was spoiled with a lot of attention will grow and think that everyone him or her should hold them up on a pedestal because that is what he or she deserve. Children who grew up under this type of parenting are most likely the ones who were spoiled with endless gifts and pleasure from parents and other adults around them. They were barely punished for bad behaviours hence they don’t see anything wrong with their actions and never take responsibility for them.
On the other extreme, is a child whose parents were too self-absorbed to acknowledge them. This enhance the child to develop self dependance at early stage. These type of children are the ones who will go extremes to get whatever they want even if the path is detrimental.
The way Narcissists deal with people in life is that, they see them as an extension of themselves. They develop an usual kind of relationship with people that make it hard for people to understand what sort of relationship they have them. This confusions often times make people around them suffer abuse behaviours without not recognising it as an abuse. They see people as instruments for attention and validations. They have a desire to control them and use them as they would to any part of their body.
Narcissist can be annoying and frustrating to deal with it and can be very harmful when one gets close to them. They entangle people around with an ending dramas and make us feels guilty if we are not continuously providing the needed attention. In end, they want everything to evolve around them.
On personality level we have the introvert narcissist and extrovert narcissist types:
Introvert Narcissist
The introvert narcissist are the hardest to spot; they spend most of their time in their heads and excuse their cause covertly. They retreat to a life of fantasy life, imagining a self that is superior to others. Since they will not get validations from others, they will often have moments of great doubts and even self-loathing. They try new personalities from time in other to fit in.
Extroverted Narcissist
These type function reasonable and thrive well. Because they are extroverted they are always the centre of attention which is what all narcissist thrive for. They become master of attracting and monopolizing attention which make them appear vivaciuos and exciting. These attentions stimulate them to feel whole and worthy.
Find out about some traits of a narcissist in Part 2.
