Interesting PDF on Narcissism

[atreestump]

Today people generally are called "narcissistic," because of their preoccupation with "inner" processes. Bookstores offer walls of popular psychology. On subways and buses one hears psychologically sophisticated, introspective talk, with subtle distinctions and puzzlements. Twenty years ago such talk could be heard only in a therapist's office.


Millions are involved in psychotherapy, self-help networks, ashrams, encounter groups, meditation, interpersonal training, and other experiential processes.


Some have called all this the "Awareness Movement." One cannot simply approve, condemn, or ignore it all, but it is difficult to evaluate. We can say, for better or worse, that a major social change is taking place.

I started reading this earlier, please feel free to join in and we can talk about this.

[notathoughtgiven]

I am looking forward to reading this and discussing it. For the simple reason is that I feel it is something I have noticed over time. That the preoccupation with exploring one's self is good to a point, it does become a problem. That we have in a way swing to the other extreme and only seem concerned about ourselves because of that preoccupation.

Thank you for posting it. I will read it and join in on the discussion :)

[atreestump]

Please feel free to upload any PDF's you have to the forum, the upload limit is unlimited, but each file can be no larger than 1MB.Most PDFs are well within that size anyway.

[Socrates]

Narcissism seems to be the key theme in philosophy, especially when we think of natural law as being an 'echo' back to us from the universe itself. If there is an essence for human beings, it would be narcissism imo.

[atreestump]

Ok. I am going to finish reading this today.

[Socrates]

Great PDF so far, up to page 23 or so. I have the same misgivings with the term Narcissism as the ones described. It means everything and therefore nothing. If someone has a weak sense of inner experience (nonego) then they are Narcissistic, if they are too concerned with inner experience they are Narcissistic too.

How could Kohut have put them both in the same category? The answer is that, since the standard Oedipal material is not principally important in either type, he left them together.