I know the 1970s are often romanticised as a halcyon age of strikes and power cuts and bad jumpers, but there was a refreshing simplicity about life back then. For example, somebody who lived by the belief that he or she was more important and lovely than everyone else was called a selfish or self-centred git. Short, straightforward, we all knew where we stood.
Then, in the 80s, these people became ‘egotists’ – as if giving them a more scientific label helped to make them go away. It didn’t. It just increased their sense of self-importance. In the last year or so, as if the Greek gods have descended from Mount Olympus on some sort of divine field day, all the egotists have been turned into narcissists.
You can’t bitch about anyone these days without someone branding them a narcissist. It’s enough to put you off criticising people less perfect and adorable than yourself.
But here’s the question: is ‘narcissist’ just the latest buzzword for people we don’t like or has there been an actual increase in narcissistic personality disorder in recent years? My friend Lisa (of the appendectomy) is someone I’ve heard use the word, so I challenged her over it and she gave me a really good definition, which took the wind out of my sails and left me wondering whether I should be questioning the use of this word at all. I wish I could remember it now but I was probably too busy thinking about what I was going to say next.
Anyway, it left me thinking, maybe we have created a plague of narcissists. We certainly spend a lot more time on ourselves than we did in the 70s. We’re encouraged to examine our feelings, talk about ourselves, tell friends and family how they make us feel (good or bad, but mostly bad), post pictures of ourselves publicly and check the reaction. Could it be that all these modern life ‘blessings’ have actually cursed us into falling in love with our own reflections?
I began this article with the intention of parodying our tendency to pick up and run with big words, but it’s turned into a serious reflection (pardon the pun) on human frailty. I feel ashamed by my own ignorance. I need to take a good, long look at myself.
