What is Narcissism?

Thank you for visiting my site! If you want an introduction to narcissism, I suggest you read What is Narcissism?. For an application of one philosophical account of self-deception, see Self-Deception and Peck’s Analysis of Evil, and perhaps my response to commentaries on this paper On Studying Evil. Self-Deception: Science moves the discussion onto a scientific footing by discussing two evolutionary theories of self-deception, and Self-Deception: Religion asks what religion may have to offer about self-deception. Feel free to ask questions or contribute your thoughts.

In light of the way we conduct political discourse these days, I would like to draw special attention to the self-deceptive mechanism of splitting. It is often considered the basic self-deceptive mechanism on which most others are based, and is prominent in narcissistic and borderline personality disorders. I think it bears a striking resemblance to the four biblical names for the devil pointed out by Bishop Barron:

1. Ho-satana: the scatterer, who breaks apart things meant to go together. When you split you images of people or groups into all good or all bad, rather than

2. Ho-diabolos: the accuser. Now that you got your all-evil image of a person or group, it is natural to make accusations against that false image of the other person or group, as

3. The Father of All Lies wants you to, and then:

4. The Murderer from the Beginning can use these lies to justify you in destroying others.

This, it seems to me, is how the far right becomes unable to distinguish between Bernie Sanders and Joseph Stalin, or the far left between Ronald Reagan and Adolph Hitler.