PurpleCar

This week:  Narcissism

It’s been a long day.  After carting the kids around town on errands, you hope to do a quick return at the department store.  You are about to pull into a prime parking space when you are cut off by a man in a Mercedes. You finally get into the store and are standing in line for 15 minutes when the same man cuts in front of you in line.  This is Mr. N.  You protest to Mr. N, firmly, but he ignores you.  Trailing behind Mr. N is a frazzled store clerk, pleading with him that he is going in the wrong direction.  Mr. N loudly insists that the customer service return desk is where he needs to be.   Mr. N acts like his is the King of the Store.  In fact, he is so utterly rude that you wonder if he isn’t a regional manager of some sort.  Upon listening to his totally random and unrelated request, you realize Mr. N is not a manager of anything.  In fact, he’s just a self-centered jerk.  You have no choice but to sit and wait for Mr. N to leave.

Mr. N has what Sigmund Freud termed “Narcissism.”  Based on the mythology character Narcissus who was said to fall in love with his own reflection, Freud characterized narcissism by extreme conceit and self-centered behavior.  Narcissists also relentlessly seek admiration and are prone to a dramatics.

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