A pattern of traits and behaviors which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition.
Narcissism is a mental disorder. The word Narcissist is often used lightly in discribing someone who has obessively self-loving behaviours. Though obsessively loving yourself is a charater trait of Narcissism, one should not label another being with this disorder without much research and possibly a mental health consult. For the purpose of this blog, and the Anthropological rule I like to write by, I will not name the names any real humans around me. I am simply exporing on paper the characteristic of the disorder and expanding on a popualr fictional character who is indeed, Narcissistic.
Most narcissists (75%) are men.
The above fact is suprising to me. One would think that woman would be more likely to suffer from said disoreder due to the conditions we live in. To explain, woman are in this day age, exposed to many things in life that men are not. Saddly, for a woman to make it to the top she must become, well, a bitch. Confident, cocky, strong, and completely sure that weather it be looks or brains, that she will make it to her over all goal in life. The fashion trends of today, with the size 0 or smaller requirements, the hair, the make up, the skin, the shoes, the clothes, all of it is enough to make one very obsessed with themselves. But contrary to the asumption that Narcissism is purely self inflicted, this next fact proves that mostly wrong.
The onset of narcissism is in infancy, childhood and early adolescence. It is commonly attributed to childhood abuse and trauma inflicted by parents, authority figures, or even peers.
The begining of Narcissism in childhood eliminates the thought of Woman stress causing someone to act this way, but the aspect of chilhood abuse can still relate to thought above. Abuse, though can be physical, can also be verbal and psychological. These physical requirements and stress about apperance affects children as well.
A fictional character whom suffers from a text book case of Narcissism is Tony Stark (Iron Man):
obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting, all-conquering love or passion
The first time I watch the movie "Iron Man" I was appuald. I was enraged and wondered what mind would create such a self-obsessed, cocky, rude, almost irrational man such a the character of Tony Stark. The difinition above is from a Mental Health Dictionary of the is disorder and it is an exact explination of Tony's personality. Now, I am now in love with the "Iron Man" movies and this is mainly because I love Robert Downey Jr.. But, I am now very interested in the psychology of the character of Tony Stark.
Being a fictional charater, Tony has no real past, childhood, or to be honest, brain to examine. But from what we are given in the movie, I have examined and come up with a good reason for his behaviour. Tony is a strong business man, who has worked his whole life to get were he is. I believe his accomplishments have made his condition worse. When we suceed at things, we are praised. For a person who has spend most of their lives trying to get good attention, this praise becomes like a drug. They search for it and will do anything to get it. In "Iron Man 2" we see how Tony felt unloved by his father and thus spent all his time trying to live up to his fathers expectations. This in my opinion is a main issue in his life.
With Tony and his high profile family, when he did get praise, he would also get attention. Lots of it. Tony truely has an amazing mind for technology and thus when he suceeded, it was for something amazing, which would highten. All this leaving Tony a very cocky character from the start. I believe that all of Tony's Narcissitic thoughts about himself stemed solely from his fame. Had he not been born into a famous family, his condition would not have been as bad or not exsistant in the first place.
In my life I have come across people like this with the charcteristics above and also characteristics of feeling supirior to others, feelings of knowing more than another peole around them, and ultimately feeling that they have a high level of evrything from education to upbringing. Though Narcissism is a sad disorder and should be treated with therapy and other things, I cannot lie that when in close quaters with the disorder it is simply annoying and at times inraging.
****All things that are bold have come from HealthyPlace.com, I own none of that information and credit their wording completely****
