Narcissism

Every society has the rights to reproduce its own culture and the norms underlying all the assumptions. It is the mode of organizing the experience in individuals in the form of personality. Personality of an individual is derived form the social aspects and the social set up of the environment or community. Fromm discusses the individual and social narcissism and some published books devoted to the religious perspective of narcissism. The books provide examples of the inclination of the therapeutic age that looks at solving the moralistic platitudes on psychiatric garbs. He believes that narcissism in the current society is associated to the existing sharp disparity between the intellectual development of humans and the mental-emotional development. In his opinion, narcissism appears as the antithesis of the watery love for humanity. On the other hand, Sennett believes that narcissism has to do with self-hatred rather than self-admiration.

 Taking into account the discoveries of the social developmental theories by Freud, Fromm’s concept of love have formed the basis for the comprehension of the social role of objects relations in the development of narcissism. It reveals narcissism as a social defensive mechanism against aggressive impulses rather than the self-love. For instance, the signs of primary sources of narcissism can be derived from the onset of the development of the child. For instance, when a child is deprived of the mother’s love during infantry, he/she grows up developing hatred rather than love due to the feelings of rejection.  It takes several weeks before the children after birth identify their omnipresent gratification for their needs.

Secondary narcissism attempts to analyze the pains associated with disappointment. It attempts to nullify the rage of a child against the people who respond to his/her needs. Pathological narcissism cannot be considered as the fixation of the normal primitive narcissism. It arises when the ego has developed to the point where it can distinguish itself form other surrounding objects. If a child experiences separation and trauma, he/she might tend to re-establish prior relationships. According to pathological narcissism, most of the patients through internalization try to re-establish love relationships that existed. These patients through ingratiation of the emotional relations lack the capacity to mourn which does not give them the opportunity to get rid of the feelings borne deep inside their hearts.

Recent critics of narcissism have diverted from the discussion of the aetiology of narcissism. They have also failed to pay attention to the growing research on clinical writing. Narcissism represents a clear picture originating from the fear of the emphasis of the clinical syndrome of the narcissistic syndrome. They have failed to explore the characteristic traits associated with the pathology of narcissism. It is the less serious form which appears in the daily life. It is the dependence on the warmth provided by other people as well as the fear of dependence. It is represented by the sense of inner emptiness and bundles of rage as well as unsatisfied craving. There are several social influences on narcissism. This is because every age develops its own form of pathology, which is an exaggeration of the underlying structure of characters. According to Freud’s time, obsessions and hysteria carried many personality traits that were associated with the acquisition of schizophrenia.

The preservation of the images of oneself at the various stages of developments helps in weakening the older ideas of development as a moral education and promotes more passive ideologies which hinder the development at the right time. The current life embraces development which consists of the passage through several stages at the right time. This brings a different kind of cultural change, which displays a wide range of narcissistic responses that give encouragement to self-scrutiny. The ideas of normative development create the fears that any deviation from the norms has pathological sources. Narcissism appears in the daily life in an effort to cope up with tension.