Is Everyone a Narcissist These Days?
The problem seems to be growing larger but is actually shallower than we think
Narcissistic parents ruin children’s lives. Narcissistic bosses make work hell for underlings. Narcissistic leaders manipulate and defraud the populace. Narcissistic lovers abuse their partners. Therapists are flooded with patients complaining that their family members or mates are narcissists. Google searches are surging for the term “narcissist.” Yet research consistently indicates that only about 1% of the population are true narcissists.
Are a tiny number of narcissists powerful, devious, and industrious enough to wreck the lives of millions?
True narcissists exist. But certain behaviors are easy to mistake for narcissism. And often, it is our own self-centeredness, and our practice of concocting stories about what motivates other people, that confuses us and causes us to mislabel their actions.
From myth to modernity
When the gorgeous Greek youth Narcissus caught view of his reflection in a pond, he fell so in love with the image that he became numb to the rest of the world. (The same Greek word is the root for narcotics, drugs that desensitize.) Narcissus stopped eating or sleeping, dying from his self-infatuation. But here’s a…
