Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited

Excerpts from the Archives
of the
Narcissism List

Part 2

1. A Letter to a Narcissist

I am very happy that you found the power within you to share. I am a narcissist, probably even worse than you are. It took me eternity to talk about IMPERSONAL things like my shirt size, let alone my painful history, my inner world. I still do so with trepidation. You write well and from the heart.

This outweighs any stylistic advantages I or others might have. I was MOVED by your letter. It is a HUMAN letter.

Intuitively, you seem to have chosen a path of healing. I sympathize with you. I also try to give selflessly (my websites, etc.). It is the only way to fight malignant self love - by real self love. This is the chemotherapy of love.

Unrepentant and "true" narcissists (as you paint yourself, into a corner of unconsciously cunning egotism) - are EGO SYNTONIC. This means in humanspeak: they feel GOOD with themselves, they feel whole (well, most of the time, anyhow, according to the latest research). When a Narcissist begins to feel BAD, UNHAPPY, REMORSEFUL - he is shedding his narcissism. I am not at this stage yet. I am still ego-syntonic. I am still fairly content with my incredibly destructive path. I don't feel remorse, pangs of awakening conscience. Sure, I feel depressed at times - over lost chances for the obtaining further Narcissistic Supply. I envy you. The worse you feel with yourself - the closer your salvation. Healing is bought with pain, with reliving the old pains that made you what you are, with reenacting the old conflicts that defined you.

2. Narcissists in the Family

To react emotionally to a narcissist is like talking atheism to an Afghan fundamentalist. Narcissists have emotions, very strong ones, so terrifyingly strong and negative that they hide them, repress, block, and transmute them. They employ a myriad of defense mechanisms: projective identification, splitting, projection,  intellectualization, rationalization...Any effort to emotionally relate to a narcissist is doomed to failure, alienation and rage. Any attempt to "understand" (in retrospect or prospectively) narcissistic behavior patterns, reactions, his inner world in emotional terms - are equally hopeless. Narcissists should be regarded as "stykhia", a force of nature, an accident. There is always the bitter question: "why me, why should this happen to me", of course...

There is no master-plot or mega-plan to deprive anyone. Being born to narcissistic parents is not the result of a conspiracy. It is a tragic event, for sure. But it cannot be dealt with emotionally without professional help and in an unplanned manner. Luckily, as opposed to narcissists, the prognosis for the victims of narcissists is fairly bright.

3. Narcissistic Identity

Narcissists very rarely acknowledge that they are narcissists. A MAJOR life crisis and a very prolonged and frustrating (for the therapist) therapy are needed before a narcissist admits that something MAY be wrong with him / her.

Narcissism is not an identity, it is a humiliation. To define oneself as a narcissist is to define oneself as a ridiculously pompous, unrealistic, predator of human emotions. This isn't very flattering and it is not much of an identity either because the narcissist has NO identity. He feeds off of his FALSE self as reflected by others. It is there, in others, that he lives.

4. Narcissists, Right and Wrong

Narcissists know the difference between right and wrong and to a large extent they do CHOOSE to do the things they do. They are lazy and have no empathy. To be considerate and understanding one has to invest effort and thought and to empathize. I don't know what is the attitude of the courts: do personality disorders constitute a "diminished responsibility" defense? NPD is NOTHING like BPD. It is FAR more cerebral, premeditated and controlled. In this sense it is much closer to the Antisocial personality disorder than to BPD (Borderline) or HPD (Histrionic).

5. In Defense of Narcissists

Fortunately, humanity is not a monolithic abstraction, or a dull formula. Its essence cannot be captured by symbolic representation. Humanity is elusive, it is diverse, it is vast. Without narcissists, or women, or blacks, or Jews, or Nazis, or the tribesmen of the Amazon - humanity would be a far less intriguing and successful proposition. It is in diversity that the secret of adaptation and survival lies. It is from adversity that resilience springs forth. We need narcissists because without them life itself would be - by definition - incomplete as narcissists are part of life. We need their drive to excel, their ruthlessness, their pathetic pursuit of our adulation, their neediness, their emotional immaturity - this is the stuff untrammeled ambition is made of. This is the stuff of life. Narcissists are beasts of prey lurking beneath a thin veneer of civilization. But it is thus that humanity first emerged. They are a reminder of our beginnings.

They are enamoured with their reflection, which is the reflection of us all. Staring deep into the lake that is our collective psyche, they reach for themselves, forever frustrated. Their death brings about a great flower of simple beauty. This is to teach us that in nature nothing is lost and everything has a reason, however cruel, however morally reprehensible, however tragic.

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