Both Conservatives And Liberals Are Narcissistic, Former Are Entitled Latter Are Insecure

managing

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2014
Messages
2,262
Well that make's sense, especially given your definition of a liberal. Liberal means something completely different where I live, in fact I'd class most people on this forum as liberal (and not socialist authoritarians). It'd be very weird if the people with essentially the views opposed to authoritarianism self identified or otherwise, were narcissists in general. Not impossible, but weird.
I still think you are trying to connect personalities to ideologies. And my point is that the study does not do that. It doesn't go this far, but it is my opinion that you cannot. At least not in a meaningful way.

You can take the most noble and pure ideology* and there will still be narcissistic hangers-on, egomaniacs hoping to ride the wave, scumbags hoping to exploit it, and so on. Now, the studies authors are making a very narrow claim that, when you select for the narcissists (which itself has many dimensions) the ones hopping on the liberal train tend toward exhibitionism-narcissism and the ones hopping on the conservative train tend toward entitlement-narcissism.

Notably, they are NOT saying "liberals are narcissists of the exhibitionist kind" and "conservatives are narcissists of the sense of entitlement kind". In fact, they are not, as you state, saying anything "in general" about liberals or conservatives.

They are saying that of all liberals, those who are narcissistic, tend toward exhibitionism. And, of all conservatives those who are narcissistic tend to be the entitled kind.

This next part is not in response to or aimed at you specifically @Spokey :

I think a lot of people jump on a thread like this hoping to be able to find that those they identify with are "good" and those they identify against are "bad". I give the authors credit for being neutral on this. But seriously, anybody who regards themselves as anti-authoritarian, who aspires to "Perceive, Think, Act.", owes themselves something. And that is, if you find yourself cheering for your team, and against the other team, you should immediately quit your team and question why you ever joined it. That is, unless you are actually watching a sporting event.


*And no, of course there is no such thing as a noble and pure ideology. Or, rather, they all are. But who cares?
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Messages
21,494
"...A new study has found that liberals and conservatives are on average no more or less narcissistic compared to each other. But the two political orientations are associated with different facets of narcissism.
I have been finding this subject of narcissism eye opening. Thank you for this fascinating post.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Messages
21,494
I wonder in what sense you consider narcissism to be "non-existant" in children? As far as I know most psychologists consider narcissism to be a result of retarded emotional maturation due insecure attachment during early childhood. Children believe that the world revolves around them and that they are the cause of everything that happens, a belief that narcissists retain on a subconscious level.

The other aspect of narcissism is the constant need for validation and inaility to empathize with others due to a constant pre-occupation with oneself, which I'm not sure if that applies to all children or only insecurely attached ones, but the general worldview of children would seem to be very narcissistic.
This has been my understanding too.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Messages
21,494
I guess it's about knowing one's fear or insecurity and being willing to face up to it where one gets to coming closer to knowing one's true self. Once once appreciates his true self, he would need less the armor of the false self, and he would be able to rid himself of his narcissistic tendencies.
Yes, once one gets to a place where they don’t need approval from anyone, they have the power to improve the world around them. It is never a good thing to do good to boost one’s ego, though it is still better than being self-serving.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Messages
21,494
Narcs will actually embarrass and humiliate themselves. It is a source of supply. what they don't do is reveal their true self.
This is true. Like the saying goes in the celebrity world, “negative attention is better than no attention.”
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2021
Messages
21,494
That's pretty interesting.
The only times that I had intense norepinephrine levels was when I trained (aikido) with a certain person. I would be doing fine in class but if I cursored over to him, I would immediately empty all liver glycogen and be flooded with NE the moment he touched me. The more I learned about this person, the more I realized my physiological response to him was spot on.
This is really interesting @Regina.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom