Narcissism is one of the many personality disorders in which an individual is self-centered, has a strong feeling for too much admiration and attention for oneself, lacks empathy for others, and has a self-esteem that is vulnerable to inconsiderable criticism. Narcissists believe that nobody is better than they are and expect to be acknowledged as superior. In addition, narcissists take credit for things that go well while blaming others for something that does not go as planned.
Sometimes it becomes difficult to define the relationship between narcissism and high self-esteem as narcissism and high self-esteem are considered to be correlated. Most psychologists say that there are certain differences between narcissism and high self-esteem. Narcissists show themselves as highly confident but deep down they do not feel good about themselves. Also, high self-esteem and narcissism are different keeping in view the value systems. There are two value systems i.e. communal and agentic. The Communal system is related to self-connection as well as self-enhancement in the areas like kindness while the agentic value system is related to self-dominance (Hudson 2012). People with high self-esteem relate themselves to communal as well as agentic value systems. On the other hand, narcissistic personalities only relate to an agentic value system.
Some of the common symptoms (Staff n.d.) of the Narcissistic personality are:
- Try to take advantage of others to achieve what they want
- Look down upon people
- Expect special favors from others
- Refusal to identify the needs and feelings of others
- Become angry when people don’t give them attention
- Try to belittle others to show themselves superior
It is complex to understand the causes of Narcissism but many scholars suggest that a toxic parent-child relationship can be one of the causes while this disorder can also be inherited.
There is no known cure for this type of personality disorder but talk therapy can be helpful to overcome narcissism.
