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  • Home
  • Education
    • Take the Gray Wheelwright Winer Temperament Test
    • temperament and personality typing >
      • what are types?
      • TJ's – thinking-judging types ISTJ – Introverted Sensing Aided by Thinking
      • TJ's – thinking-judging types INTJ – Introverted Intuition Aided By Thinking
      • description of 16 temperament types
  • Library / Research
    • Articles >
      • Art and Psychology
      • Dreams and Dream Interpretation >
        • Jungian Dream Interpretation
        • Applied Dream Analysis
        • Practical Use of Dream Analysis CW 16
        • Amplification and Associating to Dream Images and Motifs
        • Greet the Bull
        • The Saint and the Bull
        • Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction
      • Hillman >
        • WHY "ARCHETYPAL" PSYCHOLOGY?
        • Psychology - Monotheistic or Polytheistic
        • Peaks and Vales
        • Image Sense
      • Jung >
        • Jung on Dreams from the 1938-1939 Seminar
        • Child Development
        • Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung CW 8
        • 4 Articles from C.G. Jung on the Psychology of the East
      • Neuroscience >
        • The Relevance of Neuroscience for Psychiatrists
        • Temporally-independent functional modes of spontaneous brain activity 2012
        • The Brain Activity Map - Answers for Alzheimer's 2013
        • Alzheimer's Conference 2013
      • Psychiatry / Psychology >
        • OVERCOMING CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH TBI -TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY, AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY
        • Comorbid Movement and Psychiatric Disorders
        • Bipolar II 2013
        • Social Withdrawal and Violence NEJM January 31, 2013
        • Neurodevelopmental marker for limbic maldevelopment in antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy 2010
        • Psychopathy as a Clinical and Empirical Construct 2008
      • Psychosomatic / Somatic / Somatoform >
        • Defining Mental Illness 2013 Discussion NY Times
        • On the DSM-V Somatic Symptom Disorder
        • Blindness, Hysterical
        • Body Dysmorphic / Cutting
        • Cogniform Disorder
        • Depersonalization
        • Epilepsy Seizures and Pseudoseizures
      • Robert Winer >
        • Dictionary of Analytical Psychology
        • Comments on “Inter Views” By James Hillman
        • Introduction to Dreams
    • Books >
      • Books by James Hillman >
        • Dream Animals - "Preface"
        • Dream Animals - "Introduction"
        • Dream Animals - "Snake"
        • Dream Animals - "Mouse"
        • Dream Animals - "Polar Bear"
        • Dream Animals - "Horse"
        • Dream Animals - "Rat"
        • Dream Animals - "Lions and Tigers"
        • Dream Animals - "Giraffe"
        • Dream Animals - "Pigs"
        • Dream Animals - "Bugs"
        • Healing Fiction - 1 Freud
        • Healing Fiction - 2 Jung
        • Healing Fiction - 3 Adler
        • Blue Fire Section I Soul by James Hillman
        • Blue Fire Section II World by James Hillman
        • Blue Fire Section III Eros by James Hillman
      • Books by C.G. Jung >
        • Tavistock Lectures from "The Symbolic Life," CW 18
        • 1 Approaching the Unconscious from "Man and His Symbols"
      • Collected Works of C.G. Jung
      • Books by John Sanford >
        • Dreams – God's Forgotten Language
        • Healing and Wholeness
        • Healing Body and Soul
        • King Saul – The Tragic Hero
        • Mystical Christianity
        • The Kingdom Within
      • Books by Marie Louise Von Franz
      • Religion >
        • BROTHER OR LORD: A JEW AND A CHRISTIAN TALK TOGETHER ABOUT JESUS
        • Jesus in Two Perspectives: A Jewish-Christian Dialog
        • Paul: Rabbi and Apostle
      • Business Law and Politics
      • Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Self-Help >
        • DeGowin's Diagnostic Examination, 9th Edition: The Examination of Neurological and Psychological Systems
        • The Divided Mind by John Sarno, M.D.
        • The Effective Clinician: Communication with the patient and family, Functional illness, Dealing with progressive, chronic, and fatal illness.
        • Free Will by Sam Harris
        • Netter's Atlas of Neurophysiology
        • "Snake Oil Science" : The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine by R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D.
    • Topics Relevant to Analytical Psychology >
      • FOR WOMEN GROWING OLDER: THE ANIMUS by JANE HOLLISTER WHEELWRIGHT
      • ANIMUS and ANIMA by Emma Jung
      • The Invisible Partners
      • ANIMA – An Anatomy of a Personified Notion by James Hillman
    • Videos and Images >
      • Von Franz Videos
      • The Introvert: 7 Steps to Understanding Them - A Comical Caricature
      • Psychology through Comic Strips >
        • Tiny Sepuka
      • Scientists have found a way to "read" dreams, a study suggests
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5/2/2014 1 Comment

Narcissism

Today, I re-read the following section from p. 77 of Erich Fromm's book "The Heart of Man." In this book, a sequel to the "The Art of Loving" he deals with the opposite trait from "love" (which was the topic of "The Art of Loving") — the destructive instinct that instead of loving life — takes it apart —  and so, affirms "death" rather than life.

This instinct has been rather consistently operating in Western society. And especially since Luther and the Reformation has been unconsciously blending itself with Protestant Christianity (in its Triumphalist versions), our attitudes toward the industrial and technological revolutions, and our unreflected ideas about development, growth, and progress. 

In this segment of the book he is talking about individuals who exhibit narcissistic attitudes, traits, and personalities.

Benign and malignant narcissism
In discussing the pathology of narcissism it is important to distinguish between two forms of narcissism — one benign, the other malignant. In the benign form, the object of narcissism is the result of a person's effort. Thus, for instance, a person may have a narcissistic pride in his work as a carpenter, as a scientist, or as a farmer. Inasmuch as the object of his narcissism is something he has to work for, his exclusive interest in what is his work and his achievement is constantly balanced by his interest in the process of work itself, and the material he is working with. The dynamics of this benign narcissism thus are self-checking. The energy which propels the work is, to a large extent, of a narcissistic nature, but the very fact that the work itself makes it necessary to be related to reality, constantly curbs the narcissism and keeps it within bounds. This mechanism may explain why we find so many narcissistic people who are at the same time highly creative.

In the case of malignant narcissism, the object of narcissism is not anything the person does or produces, but something he has; for instance, his body, his looks, his health, his wealth, etc. The malignant nature of this type of narcissism lies in the fact that it lacks the corrective element which we find in the benign form. If I am “great” because of some quality I have, and not because of something I achieve, I do not need to be related to anybody or anything; I need not make any effort. In maintaining the picture of my greatness I remove myself more and more from reality and I have to increase the narcissistic charge in order to be better protected from the danger that my narcissistically inflated ego might be revealed as the product of my empty imagination. Malignant narcissism, thus, is not self-limiting, and in consequence it is crudely solipsistic as well as xenophobic. One who has learned to achieve cannot help acknowledging that others have achieved similar things in similar ways — even if his narcissism may persuade him that his own achievement is greater than that of others. One who has achieved nothing will find it difficult to appreciate the achievements of others, and thus he will be forced to isolate himself increasingly in narcissistic splendor.

1 Comment
Bob Cohen
5/2/2014 05:07:23 am

Do you think social networking is creating a narcissistic society? If yes, what are the ramifications?

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