It may seem as if selfish, self-loving people have disappeared these days. Instead of, the world learned a new word: the narcissist. A few years ago, no one except specialists knew this concept, but nowadays everything revolves around it. Many are accused of it without knowing exactly what it means.
Narcissist has become a real buzzword in recent years, and self-proclaimed experts on the Internet are happy to throw it around, especially when someone complains that their partner doesn’t care about them, their mother-in-law annoys them, or their boss is demanding. But this label also appears when someone simply says no and is unwilling to do what is expected of them.
This is also very dangerous, because non-conformists are liked to be accused of such things, except that no one can be remotely diagnosed or condemned on the basis of an isolated conflict. Of course, there are so-called red flags that should not be ignored, but if someone takes a selfie or eats the last slice of cake, it is far from the same as someone compulsively lying or publicly humiliating those who do not deserve it. The latter two are what really characterize narcissistic people.
The term “narcissist” itself was coined by Sigmund Freud to refer to the Greek mythological figure, Narcissus, who was a morbidly vain man who fell in love with his own reflection. However, he also added that some level of narcissism is present in all of us from birth, and there is nothing wrong with that.
However, there is a pathological degeneracy of this that goes beyond the concept of ‘healthy selfishness’ and goes in the direction of psychopaths or sociopaths.
Psychopaths and animation, or why you should watch cartoons
I do not reveal a big secret with stating, that I’ve been a big fan of cartoons since childhood. There is nothing special about this in itself, children are fond of cartoons. But in my case, it went beyond a childhood fascination with things, so much so that today I already produce cartoons too.
I especially liked the negative characters because they were fun and exciting. I’ve always been interested in an animated work who is the main villain. They were impulsive, arrogant, and what they had in common was an inability to lose.
In the end, of course, following the mandatory aesthetics of the works, they lost all the way to have a happy ending, but of course they never learned from this, and as soon as they had the opportunity to do so, they continued where they left off. That’s why they were so much fun. The creators also showed in their personalities how extroversion and antisocial behavior go hand in hand.
However, don’t think that this infantile fascination with pests ends with adolescence, so much so the world falls for psychopaths. The world is ruled, dominated, manipulated and governed by psychopaths. The only difference is that, unlike cartoons, they are not easily recognizable in the real world, although if you pay close attention to the details, you can discover the same qualities in them as in the anti-heroes of our childhood. The other difference is that unlike in the cartoons, in the real world they don’t lose, but they always win in some or all senses. So the cartoons are lying to us in this, but they are very true in one other respect.
The psychopaths are designed to provoke adoration from averageness in their personalities, both in fictions and in real life.
The good news is that, if they are recognizable in cartoons, they are recognizable in the real world too, in the same way, and the trait they can’t hide, is the narcissism.
What are these traits?
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the following criteria must be met for a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder:
- An exaggerated need for admiration and the approval of others.
- Condescending behavior towards others
- Emphasis on omnipotence
- Impulsive behavior, rapid and strong mood swings
- Superficial human relationships
- Emotional unavailability
- A complete lack of empathy, resulting in an inability to recognize the feelings and needs of others
- Distorting the facts, blaming others, making false accusations
- The joy of breaking the rules
- Using psychological manipulations, such as public humiliation or accusing others of lying
- Inability to admit mistakes
- Inability of losing
- Aggression and antisocial behavior
Which a truly narcissistic person would never do
- Never apologizes, at least not sincerely and without ulterior motives, if does, just wants to manipulate the other person to make them feel guilty.
- Doesn’t help anonymously, he’s the protagonist in his own world, so doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit him, only uses help to fuel his own omnipotence.
- Doesn’t talk about his emotions because he lacks empathy, he has difficulty identifying his own and others’ emotions, much less sharing them.
- Cannot forgive and forget what happened. Even if he appears to have forgiven, he later uses his old grievances as a weapon to consolidate his power.
- Is unable to put others before himself. Their main motivation is to ensure their own well-being. This does not mean that they do not do certain things for the sake of the other, but there is always some hidden motivation behind it.
- Does not praise and acknowledge the merits of others, at most if the result achieved shines a good light on them in front of others.
To me, narcissistic personality disorder is a clear sign of a total lack of emotional intelligence, thus it can be either infantilism, or pathology of psychopaths. Cartoons are not fictions in this terms, but the definitive manuals for detecting the psychosis. The above can be observed accurately both in negative cartoon characters and in real psychopaths. Cartoons only reveal their true selves as a distorted reflection. If you want (and you should) to get to know them better, just listen to cartoons, and use it to spot them in the real life.
How to handle this phenomena?
Simple, treat the narcissist as they are, a cartoon character. The reason why the humor and sarcasm mean a fatal weapon on narcissists, because they can handle neither. We deprive them of what they are most desired, admiration. Their most vulnerable point, their vanity for which they are so dependent on the judgment of others. All you have to do, is targeting them at that point, making fun of them, and letting them suffer.
Thanks for reading!