Self-love or self-hate? The surprising truth about narcissists

They may seem grandiose, but some narcissists are just compensating for their deep-set insecurities. Others are out-and-out psychopathsName: Narcissism.Age:It was the Greeks who named it, withthe myth of Narcissus– the beautiful youth so in love with his own reflection that it killed him. The Roman poet Ovid producedthe Technicolor version of this cautionary tale of self-love.Appearance: Gorgeous, of course.And why, pray, is it in the news? Something to do with Boris Johnson? I do hope you are not suggesting our esteemed PM is a narcissist. No, it is something far more surprising: a newacademic study suggests narcissism is born not of self-love but of self-loathing.You ’re joking. No, this is not aVolkswagen-style early April fool. Narcissists are misunderstood, according toa new report by a group of psychologists at New York University, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.I don ’t think my copy has arrived yet, so you had better summarise the findings.“Narcissism is better understood as a compensatory adaptation to overcome and cover up negative self-worth, instead of genuine grandiosity and grandeur.”You mean we should feel sorry for narcissists?Exactly. They don ’t believe all that self-boosting stuff. It’s a defence mechanism. “Narcissists appear to harbour deep-seated insecurities,”writes Pascal Wallisch, one of the co-authors of the study,on his blog. “If triggered by challenges to self-worth, they tend to cope by flexing....
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Tags: Psychology Science Source Type: news