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Narcissism Rising

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a youth who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool and wasted away from unsatisfied desire. Although Narcissus himself may have faded away, it appears his descendents are in full flower. In an era where a book entitled You: The Owner’s Manual rapidly becomes a Number One bestseller both at Amazon.com and on the New York Times Bestseller’s List and then spawns a series of related “You” books, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that narcissism has reached epidemic proportions. Several recent studies jointly conducted by San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of South Alabama have found that rates of narcissistic personality traits have increased sharply among college students in the past 15 years.

The first study, published in Social Psychology and Personality Science, analyzed results of a test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI). The standardized test, which you can take by clicking here, was administered to 16,475 college students nationwide at several intervals between 1982 and 2006. By 2006, two-thirds of the respondents scored high for narcissism, an increase of 30 percent compared to1982. Young men scored higher than young women, but rates of increase among females outpaced males.

Certainly the fact that two out of every three college-age kids measured high for narcissism is alarming, but here’s something even more disturbing. A separate study administered the NPI test to over 20,000 college students between 2002 and 2007, and found that rates of increase escalated at twice the pace in the recent six-year interval compared to the previous 15-year span. At the current rates of increase, almost every college freshman will be a narcissist in the not-so-distant future.

Lest you conclude that everyone in the US, regardless of age, already has become a mirror-obsessed, self-centered egoist, here’s yet one more puzzle piece. A third study, this one conducted by the National Institutes of Health, surveyed 35,000 Americans of all ages, and found that three times as many people in their 20s suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder compared to people over age 65. Then again, one might think that some of these older respondents could have been narcissistic once upon a time, in their youth, and then outgrew it. But according to the researchers, only three percent of the older group experienced Narcissistic Personality Disorder at any point in their lives, compared to 10 percent of respondents in their 20’s. Note that clinical Narcissistic Personality Disorder represents the extreme end of the narcissism scale, where simple self-absorption grows into such pathology that the individual has trouble functioning normally in the world. The fact that 10 percent of young adults have at some point in their short lives had a positive diagnosis for this extreme personality disorder is extraordinary, and certainly these high levels of the disorder are something new.

The symptoms of narcissism are well known to anyone teaching at the high school or college level. Students show little empathy for others, manifest extreme materialism and overconfidence, disregard authority, and react aggressively to any criticism. Dr. Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, who led the most recent study, found that 30 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement, “If I show up to every class, I deserve at least a B.” While this sort of attitude may cause some annoyances in the classroom, it’s later in life that the truly destructive manifestations may appear. Twenge says narcissism can lead individuals to create bad marriages, indulge in wanton infidelity, act abusively at work, lie, cheat, and even justify engaging in such activities as Ponzi schemes [or looting the world’s financial system].

The researchers blame the “self-esteem movement” of the 1980’s for the plethora of narcissistic kids. Remember Mr. Rogers singing “You are Special“? Now, apparently, kids at preschool sing new lyrics to the tune of “Frere Jacques” “I am special, I am special. Look at me, look at me.” The researchers contend that such activities push kids from realistic self-perception over to the realm of clinical narcissism. Plus, Twenge says, “Current technology fuels the increase in narcissism. “By its very name, MySpace encourages attention-seeking, as does YouTube.”

Back in the 80’s, experts thought that boosting self-esteem would help kids to achieve more and do better in school, and they did indeed find links between high self-esteem and good grades. But here’s an example of how research data can be misinterpreted. Twenge says that the positive, healthy correlation between self-esteem and high performance represents cases where kids performed well and so their self-esteem naturally went up. But telling kids they’re great before they manifest any corresponding achievement simply leads them to expect rewards for doing nothing.

Where will all this narcissism lead? Twenge says that, “The increase in narcissistic traits is just the tip of the iceberg. Even more disturbing is how narcissism and attention-seeking have become rampant in our culture, from girls sending naked pictures of themselves on cell phones to plastic surgery rates more than doubling in just ten years.” And I would add those medical doctors who believe that they and their brethren are the only ones in the world who know anything at all about health and healing. How narrow minded. How narcissistic. How limiting. It’s also certainly rather chilling to think about the escalation of narcissism in conjunction with the escalation in rates of obesity. Do we face a future of fat narcissists who most likely will have a very difficult time exerting self-control and will instead find reasons to justify their self-indulgent ways even more than the generations that preceded them? Perhaps instead of teaching kids to sing “I am special. Look at me,” we ought to be serenading them with the old show tune from Bye Bye Birdie: “Kids, what’s the matter with kids today?” — just to restore balance.

:hc