The Incensement of Narcissism in Modern Society

Narcissism is when one thinks superior of himself or herself. Narcissists take excessive interest in themselves and admire their own self more than anyone else. Being modest is the exact opposite of narcissism. Other words that can be used to describe the narcissistic personality are selfish, self centered, egoistic. Narcissistic people seems to lack the quality of empathy and they are always in need of validation by wanting others to admire and praise them for who they are. They sometimes even demean other individuals to satisfy their need of wanting to feel superior and pride in themselves. They seek attention and wants other people to like them every time. Narcissistic people often have high sense of self worth and sees others to be below them.

Signs of narcissistic personality

Narcissists are arrogant and have a high sense of self importance. They are usually preoccupied with their power, beauty and success. Narcissistic people lack empathy and may even treat others badly or inferiorly. They believe they must be admired and loved, so they seems to prefer roaming around or hanging out with those who makes them feel that way and praises them and their work. There is this belief in narcissists that others are envious or jealous of them. Often narcissistic people are hard to be with as they disturbs others mental health by commenting mean things and judging or blaming others unnecessarily.

Narcissist aren’t bad people, it’s just in their behaviour and thought process that makes them victim of narcissism. Narcissistic behaviour can be seen in normal individuals occasionally, but if the symptoms are severe and persists for a longer period of time, it may be diagnosed as narcissistic personality disorders.

Existence of growing narcissism in today’s world

Modern society and it’s functioning is giving rise to more narcissistic personalities and the act of narcissism these days. There seems to be a lot of competition, in the name of hustle culture that every individual wants to be superior of others, personally as well as professionally.

The concept of narcissism is 2,000 years old. In ancient times, it was believed that there was a Greek youth named Narcissus, who, when came to see his reflection in water of the pond, fell in love with his own beauty. He adored that reflection so much that he even stopped eating or drinking anything. He marveled that beauty without even knowing it’s his own reflection. Narcissus used to stay there and watched his reflection admirably his whole life and die there. After his death, people also believe that a flower grew at the same spot, and it was then named after Narcissus. That was the story from where the concept of narcissism came into reality.

However, in today’s modern society, narcissism has increased so much that every other individual behaves like a narcissist, trying to be superior to others and seeking validation from others. There are number of narcissistic parents who ruin their child’s life and narcissistic boss that seems to be ruining the work environment by putting lots of pressure on their employees and the workers.

Freudian Concepts to the Modern ‘Me, Myself and I’

Sigmund Freud first described the term ‘narcissism’ a long time ago. However, it is now referred to as a ‘modern epidemic,’ shedding light on the rapid changes in society during or after the industrial period. A large proportion of people these days have observed and witnessed the shift from a sense of collective society to an individual or self-oriented perspective. The self esteem movement also contributed it’s part in growing of this modern epidemic which makes people believe that it’s the individual’s self esteem that makes them successful and so people in modern society starts putting emphasis on their self esteem. Other people makes them believe that they are doing good and so people nowadays strive for perfection and appraisal instead of hard work. In order to increase their own self esteem, people try to suppress others and makes them feel undervalued.

Increasement in narcissism in modern society feels like creating a new little ‘me, myself and I’ versions everyday who values themselves and their beliefs more than any other individual.

Reasons of increasement of narcissism in modern society

• In modern society, where technological advancements increase with each passing day, the constant development has created a social gap that hinders meaningful face-to-face conversations and understanding. This increases the communication gap and people more often try to fake their personality on social media online. This leads to perceptions of creating a narcissistic personality. Furthermore, research has further demonstrated a close association between an increase in narcissism and internet addiction.
• The society nowadays values fame, success, beauty, celebrity personalities more and this leads to misperceptions or creating false beliefs. It makes the normal persons to believe that self esteem and the appearance or personality is more necessary than the hardwork and enthusiasm of an individual. It gives rise to narcissistic personalities in modern society.
• Cultural environment plays a major role in creating a narcissism community of people. There are mainly two types of cultures- individualistic and collective. Individualistic culture puts emphasis on creating the self loving, high self esteemed personalities who seem to be arrogant, self important and believes themselves to be superior than others around.

However, in collective culture, everyone shows concern for others and lives like a dependable beings. They often show support for each other and makes others feel valued along with themselves and also think about their feelings and emotions. People of collective community have a great empathy for each other and adapt to other’s way of living. Hence, individualistic culture promotes narcissism more as compared to collective cultures.