Posts tagged cultural epidemic

Narcissism–our postmodern cultural epidemic–is finally getting some press.

For anyone interested in spiritual evolution, narcissism has always been the issue at hand. As spiritual teacher and visionary Andrew Cohen explains:

“[Narcissism] basically means we see life and all of our experience through the prism of the separate ego. The way narcissism works is that the event of experience itself automatically creates, at a subtle level, the sense of being special—any experience at all. The experience itself, whatever it may be, is not a problem—the problem is what the ego does with it.”

And in our postmodern era, that separate, special, sense of self has become more inflamed than ever. As a 1979 baby, I grew up fully in this cultural milieu–a culture where  your own feelings and experiences become the “great story,” your life’s guiding principle. Duty, religion, family, country–moral structures that have held society together for centuries–have all, to a great extent, become submerged in the anoxic swamp waters of a “my way or the highway” philosophy.

Beyond the spiritually aware pioneers, narcissism as a culturally recognized disease has not had much attention until recently. We had some early warning signals, such as when Christopher Lasch published a book called “The Culture of Narcissism” in 1979, or when the next year, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders first recognized the emergence of “narcissistic personality disorder”. But even as late as 2006, when Time magazine awarded “You” the Person of the Year award, the irony was lost on the masses. With a reflective cover, the magazine officially made gazing at your image culturally approved–no more mocking that “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all” business (circa 1938).

“This is the cultural moment of the narcissist.”  –Emily Yoffe, Slate magazine

Then recently, Slate came out with an article entitled “But Enough About You … What is narcissistic personality disorder, and why does everyone seem to have it?”. The Slate article documents some recent accusations that it was America’s and Wall Street’s narcissism that got us into this financial crisis. They quote the researchers Jean Twenge (author of Generation Me) and Keith Campbell, for some scientific backup:

“Psychologists Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, authors of The Narcissism Epidemic, who obviously have a stake in proving there is one, estimate around 10 percent of today’s young people have clinical manifestations of NPD. They believe narcissism is a cultural virus that has spread throughout the population over the past several decades.”

But the real coup d’etat was Steven Colbert’s performance on his wildly popular late night comedy show, The Colbert Report (narcissism intentional). Enjoy!

Clip #1:

Clip #2:

(We apologize to our non-U.S. visitors for your inability to view this clip!)