2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
The growth of narcissistic expansion in the modern civilizational space is articulated as "The era of narcissism", "The era of emptiness and the time of the narcissist." The modern socio-cultural situation with its imperative norm of a convincing way of life tells each of us to try on monarchist attire.
The image replaces the essence, and what K. Jung [1] called persona [2] becomes more lively and reliable than the real person. The French writer, philosopher and psychoanalyst Y. Kristeva describes the problem of narcissistic transformation in the following way: “A modern person loses his soul, but does not know about it, because the mental apparatus is what registers ideas and their significant values for the subject. Unfortunately, this dark room needs renovation. " [3].
Contemporary culture is narcissistic in its very essence and manifestations. The cult of noisy realization captures almost all spheres of life, leaving no chance to feel well for those who are vaguely aware of their goals, do not know how to make clear plans, foresee, God knows how many steps forward, not slender enough, fit, not competent, does not strive for development and is not looking for its purpose.
Modern sociocultural standards dictate a "convincing lifestyle", a lifestyle of a person with increased attention to himself, absorbed in his projects and concerned exclusively with his own well-being. It would seem incredible, but the fact is that the narcissistic personality defect, thanks to today's socio-cultural norms, has become "normal". To date, the degree to which psychological defects receive approval, how the defect becomes merit, is deeply troubling.
Many leaders, public figures, athletes and other people are “in plain sight”, exposing their narcissistic tendencies, and many people are eager to be like and imitate them. Fortunately, the Internet space allows this and is a huge part of the general soil on which narcissism thrives. Narcissistically vulnerable people “stick” to strangers, as a rule, borrowed from glamorous sources of representation and value.
Sometimes the frankly outrageous behavior of the narcissist delights many, makes them applaud and return him "for an encore" with an even more insane grimace. Noisy implementation becomes a cult, the pursuit of success and status, participation in everything - a cultural norm. I call this narcissistic expansion.
Mass-imposed narcissism does not leave zones free from conflict, the tentacles of narcissism invade the spheres, which, it would seem, should be free from its harmful influence. Narcissism, which has become an expressive feature of modernity, can be considered not only in understanding the narcissistic structure of the personality, but also be present in the structure of various personality types, giving them a qualitative originality of the problematics of their own value.
The passion for perfection manifests itself in modeling one's own body, arranging housing, business, family, as a downside, it has a painful disappointment and gives rise to a whole series of negative psychological states.
Modern parents with good immunity to narcissistic influences face a difficult struggle to raise a psychologically successful person. It is known that as he grows up, the parental influence weakens, the child enters the world of social relations with all its values and tries to consolidate his status in the world of equals. When all reality is saturated with narcissistic poison, the child's healthy aspirations seem to be wrong, outlived their time, in order to “fit in”, to join, not to feel “defective”. Note that the culmination of the myth of Narcissus, outlined by Ovid in Metamorphoses, unfolds when Narcissus reaches his sixteenth birthday. It follows from this that the drama of Narcissus reflects the youthful stage of a person's life, which is associated with the desire for self-determination and the search for one's own “I”. External sources of narcissism are superimposed on internal tendencies to change their position in the structure of group membership and interpersonal relations. Parents are faced with a difficult task: how to raise a psychologically healthy and adaptive child to social standards. That a cultural narcissistic defect will bear fruit in the future is beyond doubt; how far this will go is difficult to predict. There is a hope that self-preservation programs will work, and humanity will turn its gaze from the waters of a cold stream, before looking deeper than what is visible on the surface.
The culture of narcissism, with its overwhelming demands, becomes a culture of survival - the one who is able to set goals, formulate objectives, tactics and strategy with an inevitable desire for self-fulfillment survives. S. Bash [4] in this sense quite perceptively notes that "they (narcissistic type personalities, ed. Note) learned the methods of how to live, instead of learning how to be human."
The orientation towards possession and domination provokes feelings of envy. Today, on the Internet, one can find publications devoted to the positive aspects of envy, in which envy is viewed as a resource for personality development and an engine of personal effectiveness. Responsibility for these ideas is on the conscience of their authors. It already seems that there is only one step from approving and elevating a deeply vicious feeling to the status of a “resource” to the rank of virtue. This state of the state of psychological thought is a real professional crime. The feeling of envy is especially active with a short social distance, the shorter it is, the higher the likelihood of envy and the clearer its manifestation. Comparing one's own state of affairs with the success of another person reveals a lower position of the envious. In this regard, there is a desire to have results of at least the same level. As the comparison progresses, the envious person understands that it is impossible to equalize the situation, and he cannot achieve real superiority over a competitor, then the desire to possess is transformed into a desire to take away, destroy someone else's success and luck. Volitional efforts are directed not at self-improvement, but at the destruction of the other in all available ways. The softest among them are contempt and criticism, and the harshest are the real damage to the achievements of another person. The person experiencing envy experiences the excruciating affects of annoyance, irritation, discontent, and hostility.
The striving for "self" (self-love, self-realization, self-assessment, self-expression, self-knowledge, self-development) is based on a person's ability to realize his own uniqueness and specialness. The question is to demarcate narcissism and "sense of self", which can be based on the criterion of the severity of narcissism or the degree of "sense of self." Normally, the "feeling of specialness" is associated with the experience of one's own authenticity, however, it can be associated with narcissistic illusions, fantasies of omnipotence and bombast, which is characteristic of the narcissistically organized type of personality. The problem of “feeling of oneself” is a two-faced problem, firstly, it is connected with the problem of identity formation and healthy narcissism, and secondly, with the problem of autonomy of the boundaries of other people. In order to be oneself, one needs sufficient clarity in relation to oneself, as well as a delimiting relation to the world and other people.
[1] Carl Gustav Jung is a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology.
[2] Mask or Person - described by C. G. Jung's archetype (primary image), which is the social role that a person plays, fulfilling the requirements addressed to him by society, the public face of the individual. The persona hides vulnerabilities and painful spots, weaknesses, shortcomings, intimate details, and sometimes the essence of a person's personality.
[3] Kristeva Y. New diseases of the soul: soul and mental representation. - French psychoanalytic school. - SPb.: 2005.
[4] Bach S. Narcissistic states and the therapeutic process. New Jersey, 1985
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