Culture of Narcissism?

I think I might agree with you, Khethil!

Narcissitic tendencies develop in children who are fed a constant diet of praise and are never disciplined. Stands to reason that these tendencies would develop after a couple generations of intense nationalism and overall economic and military supremacy. Happened to England and France during colonialism as well. Future history will Kick us in the pants and after a couple generations of has been-ism things might settle in to a less narcissistic society.

As opposed to which other country?

I think most countries act like babies like that to some extent.

I'd agree about most Modernized Industrialized Countries

Which non-modern non-industrialised countries act like grown-ups, do you think?

Are you saying narcissitic tendencies are the same as narcissism, and that they are developed?

No its not the same as narcissism, I'm not exactly certain that a country can be diagnosed with a psychological disorder. I tend to think that a society/culture has a mind-like expression and exhibits a personality-like thing, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it has a and actual singular mind which could be diagnosed as narcissistic. Hence narcissistic tendencies or maybe a better term would be exhibits narcissistic traits.

What my other post did not convey correctly because I tend not to proof read when I'm at work, is that the narcissistic tendencies are portrayed as adults because of the way the children were raised. And to further compound the confusion I misread your post about acting like babies and in a narcissistic response I assumed that you were talking more directly about what I thought I had written.

Er....what?

Could you run that past me again?

meh doesn't matter, comes down to I wrote sloppy post then misread a post

Hey, gosh, I and Roger miss you on the thread you quit. (Sorry, can't just link fast).

Years ago I read somewhere that a group of psychologists concluded in a report back in the 1970's, that U.S. culture is narcissistic as a whole.
Narcissism in individuals as I understand it, is believed to develop in early childhood, its causes are unclear, as it can develop from varied backgrounds.

Yes, and that makes sense.

To accuse US culture as wantonly narcissistic seems mean spirited, condemning and bitter. I'm really not and don't want to come off that way; re-reading my opening post here I could see this coming off quite badly. But I do believe its true - actually, scratch that - I know its true. I've lived in 10 states (long term) and 3 countries and while "people are people" (in that we're all individuals with our own issues), the pattern is quite clear and quite embarrassing.


Some call it the "free spirit", others call it "arrogance". I think narcissistic is the best characterization because it not only represents a core cause of many of our own internal difficulties, but seems to also apply to that brand of narcissism that could be applied to the entire culture.

Perhaps our prosperity, vast land stores or compartmentalization plays into this too. I understand that many (probably most) in the U.S. of A. see or would accept this, but its true. Yes we are different; yes we are absorbed with ourselves - and yes, I wish it were different.

Just random thoughts

A certain level of group narcissism is necessary to maintain group cohesion. I would think doubly so for a country, nation. or state which often has to manufacture cohesion through nationalist propoganda in order to gather a diverse population under an ideal.

I actually got your first post...I think it was very clear.

My point was that I think ALL countries are rather narcissistic. (I see narcissism in adults as being very infantile in nature...as if the person has remained a baby...

You responded that you thought western countries were more narcissistic (infantile in my view)

I responded by asking which non modern industrialized countries you saw as not having narcissistic characteristics.

This is a question I would be interested in having your views about.


I suppose I would add two things.....I suspect the US knows less about other countries' narcissism because it tends, en masse, to know little about other countries. (Too narcissistic to see others' narcissism? )


I also think that US culture and power is so bloody dominant that your failings are writ large upon the world consciousness and have a disproportionate effect. I do not know that these failings themselves are especially unusual...

I think humans have never been living in such huge numbers before and the need to differentiate oneself could be what we identify as narcissistic but in reality it might be just to seek identity in the huge mass of people in cities.

Yeah you are right, a world power's narcissism seems more intense because of their influence on media and economic policy. Does this make smaller countries less narcissistic? Maybe, simply by being deprived of the priviledge. maybe not Simply because of the latent narcissim that would happen if the country were in the position to do so. I have lived in less narcissistic countries than the U.S. Mostly because some of them were in the position to have to beg for assistance from more stable economies.

I am interested in which countries you saw less narcissism? It'd be interesting to see if we might be able to think of factors which might explain this.

I don't see smallness of a country as necessarily leading to less narcissism.

Never heard of "little country syndrome"?

Here's a lovely satire about aspects of this in Australian culture:

http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml

I lived in Cape Verde for a while and Ginea Bissau for a while