Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a phrase Americans have been hearing a lot recently. Well, besides phrases such as “the media are the enemy of the American people” and “alternative facts.”
So, what is the disorder? How would I know if someone else, let alone me, has it?
Mayo Clinic defines it as “a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that’s vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”
This is important to know: Narcissism exists, to varying degrees, in everyone. In order to survive, everyone needs some form of positive self-esteem, confidence, and sense of significance.
No one was raised in a perfect environment. No one is perfect. The notion that a person can attain or possess some state of perfectly balanced mental health is a myth. As Sigmund Freud, neurologist and founder of psychopathology noted, we are all neurotic to some extent, an inescapable aspect of being human.
Sociologist Christopher Lasch believes we live in a culture of narcissism as witnessed by Americans’ reverence for powerful business people, successful entertainers, ethical employees, strong school board and city council members, respected community leaders and confident politicians. A growing narcissistic tendency in parenting has also helped narcissism to become normalized in American culture.
However, when you are witness to verbal abusiveness, deception, manipulation, hypersensitivity to events or behavior like that of a spoiled child who insists upon having everything their way, you are in the midst of pathological narcissism.
Only mental-health professionals can identify people who are narcissistic. However, arm-chair psychologists, such as you and me, observe and judge people’s behavior all the time. I can only presume this is called “natural.”
Many “normal people,” let’s assume that is you and me, have known narcissists, including power-hungry politicians such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Osama bin Laden; cult leaders including Jim Jones and David Koresh; and such criminals as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Of the 10 bosses I worked for, I’m convinced one was narcissistic. After his forced resignation, it took my colleagues about a decade to mend fences and bring back business as usual.
The need for power of the narcissist is never-ending. S/he is always seeking more attention, compliments, publicity, and adoration. S/he becomes overly arrogant and self-centered. For severe pathological narcissism, the person avoids assuming responsibility and considers themselves smarter than or above the law.
The mental health and stability of those in power must be carefully and regularly monitored for significant signs of underlying or acute mental disorder.
When we observe leaders at any local, state, or national level continually make inappropriate comments, refuse to receive well-intended intelligence briefings, make inappropriate tweets or public comments, blame others, exaggerate one’s intelligence, continually lie, cover up facts, self-congratulate, dismiss conflicts of interest, become hypersensitivity and grandiose, expect a bumpy ride while s/he is in charge as it could lead to an unmitigated disaster.
Believe me.
—Steve Corbin
Steve Corbin is a professor emeritus of marketing, University of Northern Iowa.
