The Narcissism Epidemic and the Cult of the Self (A Book Review)
No one will ever care more about your life than you do. That’s not a judgement or anything, it’s just a normal part of being alive as a human. We’re intensely interested in ourselves, even though we also carry the capacity to act altruistically as well.
Self-interest only becomes a problem, however, when it shades into narcissism, and we lose the capacity for empathetic connection with others. Will Storr says that this has been happening for decades, and he’s not alone. Social scientists like Jean Twenge and a host of others have pointed to something they’ve been calling the narcissism epidemic, where people everywhere are becoming ever more self-involved and self-serving.
A lot of this has to do, of course, with getting along and getting ahead in the modern world. We adopt the attitudes and behaviors of those around us, and begin to act in ways that will lead to us being accepted, and achieving success in whatever kind of environment we find ourselves.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with this whatsoever — getting along and getting ahead is what human beings have always done — but there’s a point at which this all becomes pathological. According to the evidence compiled in Selfie, this point has been reached.
