Discussion about this post

User's avatar
sunshine moonlight's avatar

Whenever I stumble across pop-psych pages on Instagram, they invariably assert the necessity to understand, accommodate, and tolerate annoying behaviors associated with neurological disorders, but then they say to ghost any potential narc. Then zoomer women proceed to label you a narc whenever they flip out at you over something and cite charm as a symptom of NPD to dissuade their peers from associating with you

Expand full comment
Sebastian Jensen's avatar

Narcissism is associated with some pathological tendencies (e.g. external locus of control, low levels of self-reflection, latent insecurity), neutral ones (e.g. willingness to take risks, low empathy, machiavellianism) and positive ones (e.g. extraversion, agency). The "60-80th pctile narcissism is adaptive" theory might be true, but it sounds too much like a cope to me. Regardless, the optimal play is to try to maximize the positive returns of narcissism while keeping the negatives in check.

If a subculture/organization/etc starts to become overwhelmed with the striver types, then it's time to jump ship. Narcissism is definitely not adaptive on a group level.

Expand full comment
25 more comments...

No posts