The Narcissism Epidemic Analysis

So many people today are still in this error of what success is. Having a lot of money, houses, cars, etc, is a good thing but it is just an aspect of success. You can have all the above mentioned items and more but you are not close to being successful. On the other side, you may not even have a dime in your bank account and yet you are successful.

In our society, everyone has their own interpretations of “success.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines success as “the attainment of an object according to one 's desire: now often with particular reference to the attainment of wealth or position” (Success). According to this definition, one must be affluent or materialistic to be considered successful. However, one does not need money to be considered successful in our society. Success is very subjective, so everyone has their own definition of it. Someone who is very wealthy might consider their fortune to be the highest level of success while someone who just received a promotion at work might consider that to be the highest level of success. Money is only able to buy physical objects which aren’t considered an achievement. Ultimately, reaching a goal, having a recognized career, and using the wealth for philanthropic work are good measures of success.

The definition of success differs from person to person. According to the “Poolside” Cadillac commercial, success is having a large house, nice family and a new car. How is that success accomplished? According to the mainstream media, success is achieved through hard work and perseverance. Not by taking extravagant vacations, or working for only a few hours a day. Success for others on the other hand could be having a large amount of free time. The media gives examples of what they think success is, but ultimately it’s up to the person to decide what is success is.

After watching the podcast that featured a discussion with Jean Twenge, a researcher and author, I learned that our society is in the midst of a full-blown narcissism epidemic. Twenge mentions that famous individuals (Donald Trump, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian) represent narcissism and she found that when looking at baby boomers in the 60’s in comparison to millennials, millennials are more likely to say that they think they are above average. Twenge states that the feature that the discussion always comes back to is that we are a more individualistic culture now, compared to the 50’s. Society is more focused on self and less focused on social rules.

When watching a television show, anyone might see success being portrayed as someone being wealthy, having fancy materialistic items and goes on great vacations. Yes, that might be true in certain opinions but not in every case. My extraordinary father, Matt Mills, is successful, not only in being able to support his family but, also in regards to being a role model for everyone around him. Mills provides his family with everything they need and more. When asked what success he has had in his life he responded with: “My family. My kids grew up to be respectable young adults that I love to brag about to others.” In retrospect, many other people may have mentioned money, having a good job, or materialistic items, when asked this question. Mills

Many normal people and even psychologists say that america is living in an age of narcissism. Each and every one of those people are absolutely right. The word narcissism originates from the story Narcissus and Echo(Resource A). This story is about a man named Narcissus who was loved by a nymph named Echo. Narcissus kept rejecting her because he felt that the only one good enough for him was himself. A god saw what was happening and cursed Narcissus so that he would actually fall in love with himself. Americans tend to only think about themselves, whether its sports stars, movie stars, music stars, or even just another regular american most of us are narcissists.

Narcissism is a disease that has always plagued this nation. It has been around for centuries and seems to get greater with each passing generation. The millennials are no different. Millennials alone are categorized as the most narcissistic group to date. Academics such as Jean Twenge, focus on topics such as this and use multiple ways of backing their findings with data. Jean Twenge has stated before that, “The problem is that when people try to boost self-esteem, they accidentally boost narcissism instead.”(Insert annotation here) What Twenge is saying is that at a young age, children are always told good job and that their special, which in turns makes them believe that they really are special and one of a kind. Children these days are raised much differently than how they were raised in the previous generations. Today kids are handed trophies for participation. How is that a good thing? It just tells them that they are entitled to something as long as they make an attempt, which in a way is what Jean Twenge stated above. By focusing on self-esteem of young children and teens, parents tend to overlook the deeper problem of narcissism.

There many ways to view success. Everyone has an ultimate goal in life, whether it’s to be the wealthiest person alive, or to just live a healthy life. But sometimes wealth can’t just be your greatest goal in life. You have to keep searching for new goals, and keep pushing to be more successful. Also, if wealth is the meaning of success, why are famous people always on the news

My definition of success is to work hard so you can live the life you truly want and deserve, so you can fulfil your satisfaction with loved ones without ever saying the words “I Give up”. You can have everything you see on television, but you can’t have it without putting the work in. Everyone measures success as money and power, but there’s many rich people in this world that are not truly happy. Money, cars, clothes doesn’t mean anything after you buy it. You can have a successful job, but those you surround yourself with makes your life even better; They’re one of the main reasons why your happy. What’s the point of having everything if you cant share it with the ones that are there for you. Legendary basketball coach John wooden once said

Narcissistic personality disorder is a personality disorder that is marked by a broad pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. Therefore, many people that have a narcissistic disorder they may take advantage of others. In our society today there has been more people that have came out as a narcissistic, for example the president talking down on women for being chubby, overweight etc. It's has because a problem as a whole because they are selfish and have self-esteem problem and want others to take action for them I think that the way people may act whether it's negative or positive they are having a narcissistic behavior by their actions or by what they may be saying. I think that even parents could be narcissistic

Many people equate success with money and money with happiness, but money ruins people. Having a mansion, a nice car, and material things does not mean that person is living a happy life. Many successful people, such as celebrities have this façade built up that their life is awesome because of all the money they have. Like the saying says, “Money can’t buy you happiness” which has been shown through many celebrities. Celebrities who have committed suicide and overdosed on drugs are the perfect examples of people who have a great life but they let the fame overwhelm them.

The first two words that come to mind when thinking of narcissistic behavior are Facebook and selfies. I find that with social mediums like Facebook, many young adults, and adolescence are spending a lot of their waking life updating their status with selfies they've taken in order to present a certain image or selling a certain view of themselves. I think that exploring these applications can be very interesting from psychological/sociological view point. In fact, I'd find such applications very useful for conducting studies and experiments to better understand how socializing has shifted in recent years. It is very common to see people taking pictures of themselves during various stages of the day and posting their picks online via various mediums to gather approval from peers, validation, etc. It would be interesting to conduct a correlational study between levels of narcissistic behavior measured and hours spend on social mediums online to see if there is a correlation. My hypothesis would be that the more one partakes in selfies and time put into social applications like Facebook, the higher the tendencies for narcissistic behavior, particularly those who check their statuses at an alarmingly high rate.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder remains a controversial diagnosis. With a prevalence of 6.2%, it is less commonly diagnosed in psychiatric settings but more frequently seen in private practice and attributed to people with higher functioning capabilities and is one of the least identified personality disorders. People with NPD are drawn to people of a high societal class and need people to think very highly of them. This continual need for admiration can have an ill effect on romantic relationships and cause them to be short lived, as they are continuously looking for something better. Adversely people with NPD may display challenging demeanor and act out in annoyance, anger and aggression in close relationships. These attributes may also

The desire to be successful and happy naturally exists in all people. Success is often associated with the acquisition of wealth and material goods. When an individual feels that money and goods will bring them happiness in their lives, they will become more and more determined to

Reading this week’s articles became all too personal for me as I began to reflect on the book that I am writing in which the protagonist is a narcissist. When telling people about my book most people cannot get past the fact that the protagonist is my mother, but her narcissistic personality is what created the storyline for my entire text. She has many of the classic attributes of a narcissist, my favorite (from a writer’s perspective) is her immense lack of empathy. It is extremely incredible that what little empathy she can find she can control based on who she is with and what the specific circumstances are. While the book may shed light on some of the negative things she has done in her past or the negative behaviors associated with her narcissism I have been sure to include an entire chapter detailing my belief that narcissism should be considered an objective personality type. Narcissism has an enormous amount of negative connotation surrounding it which is ironic to be because there are positive attributes some of which many of us share.