I don't usually get pulled into discussions of psychology in my travels around You tube but recently a number of videos started coming up on the subject of the narcissistic personality, quite a few psychologists discussion this particular psychological phenomenon, a cetegory or collection of categories in the Diagnositc and tatistical Manusal, and thanks to a n enounter with a difficult personality in my own life I found myself interested in paying more attention to these discussions. then I got hooked and have been gobbling them up, at least the videos of one particular psychologicat, a Dr. Ramani. She lays out the characteristics of different versions of this personality type in great detail and I find myself fascinated.
While I was in rehab after a medical condition landed me in the hospital back in April, I had one roommate who total threw me. I'd neve r encountered such a personality before. I asked her to please turn deown the TV as it was too loud for me and she said one flat ":no." Just No. Nothing more than that, just No. I'd already had two other roommates and both had wuite qillingly tried to turn it down for me. then after one horrible night of loud tv blaring incessangly I complained loudly to the urse about it and the roommate actually lectured me as if it were my own fault, that for heavens sake the world is full of noise, what is the matter with me that I can't stnad her tv being on? I was flummosedc. I'd enever enountered such a self justifying silly attitude beofre in my life. I could mention other qualities of this woman that fit the narcissistic profiles I'm hearing about but those two attitudes ought to get it across. i didn't have the concept of the narcissitic personality at the time to apply to her but I find it helfpful to have it how. I think she must be a textbook case.
Funinally by the way a friend intervened for me by calling the front sdesk and the head nurse showed up late at night to find the tv blaring and told my roommate she had to shurt if off, that's the rules. Blessed relief.
So I've been thinking a lot about psychological things that I don't usually think about these days. Oh I hear Jordan Peterson from time to time but he's kind of an oddball, and my main reaction to him is that he's way off the rails the wsay he talks about the Bible, about which I've wanted to do a blog post for omsome time and may yet. but that's about it for psycholgoicaly in my world until this narcissistic personality thing came along. It's quite a big fad these days. ther are at ledas six peop[le talking about it in great deptgh on You tube that I have run across, and Dr. ramani does a vidoeo on it every day. The purpose is to help people who are the victims of such personalities get free of their damaging influences.
But it's made me think how the culture itself seems to have been going in the direction of the characteristics ascribed to these personaltieis. Self entitlement,k disregard for the rights of others, lack of empathy for others, a gradiosse way of talking and thinking, proneness to rages against anyone who thwarts their wishes, justification of all kind of sabuse to others and projection onto them of all the blame for awhatever happens. It's kind of a picture of the Fallen World shorn of any correctives from , well, from Christianity in particular, or any moral system. As I was desdribing our situation in the previous post.
People are justifying criminals, the Left in particular is justifying criminality. They have no esympathy for those who are their victims, but plenty for the criminals who they think of as tuthe underdog opporessed by the normal people or something like that. they dcriminalize the normal people, vilify anyone who has succeeded by ahard work in acquiring some measure of comfort or wealth. envy is a characteristic of the narcissist. And so on.
Again I think of the loss of the ten Commandements in the culture. If they are taught and taken seriously at all they work to put a restraint on self serving abuses. If the truth that sin leads to death and ultimately to Hell is taken seriously such moral restraints are strongly internaliized and if widespread in the population make up a people who can live with others in a harmonious civilized way. Without those retstraints we get the chaos ahd criminalitiey run amok we are seeing today.
I guess I'm also sucggesting that although ramani thinks you can't change personaltiy, if such a moral restraint were still in force in our culture we woudl have a lot fewer of such personaltiies who seem to be proliferating these days. they could internalizie these restraints like anyone else its seems to me.
Later. It also occurred to me that Marxism, and in fact Marx himself, are strong purveyors othe of the narxissitic mentlaity in the cutlure. this is a theme I wanted to devlop in the above post but I'll have to come back to it some other time.
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