Narcissism versus Altruism

Narcissism a common personality disorder
Definition: “Exaggerated care of one’s own image at the expense of the self.”

Social narcissism
The societies in the industrialized cultural area complain about the loss of human values, the lack of interest in the environment, the quality of life and in fellow human beings.

A society that sacrifices the natural environment for profit and power reveals that it is insensitive to human needs.

“ Wealth has a higher rank than wisdom, fame is admired more than dignity, success is more important than self-respect. ”(Alexander Lowen, doctor and psychotherapist).

The psychiatrist Hans-Joachim Maaz describes in the book “The Narcissistic Society” the Western consumer societies as such “ without Orientation and Morality ”.

People are of one Greed for consumer goods or other advantages.

Narcissism is very pronounced among celebrities (politicians, managers, stars), but affects the population as a whole.

Greed is the expression of a narcissistic personality disorder; More and more people are becoming narcissists, ie personalities who struggle for recognition and confirmation, but who are really deeply insecure.

The narcissistic deficit needs to be compensated for by the distractions of the consumer, entertainment and tourism industries ubiquitous in people’s lives. “Not getting your neck full”, the incessant search for the “kick” are deeper causes of the persistent crises in the financial, economic and social systems of modern societies; these can only be remedied when narcissism ends.

The psychiatrist and court expert Reinhard Haller describes in his book the “narcissism trap” narcissism as a phenomenon with sociocultural, not just individual psychological implications. He attested that the leadership elites in business and society had the same character structures that, as a court expert, he was also able to determine in felons.

Haller calls for a return to altruistic values.

In 2012, GEO-Verlag titled a reflection on narcissism “Are we becoming society on the ego trip?

In 2013 Pope Francis defined “theological narcissism” as “Illness of a church that revolves around itself”. Instead of proclaiming the gospel, be this Self-adulation and “ mere administration of faith “stepped in: The evils that develop in the church institutions over time have their roots in this self-centeredness.

After the speech he became Pope. In the Christmas speech in 2014 he repeated the diagnosis, criticizing the narcissistic self-centeredness within the institution as an elitist turning away from God:

“It is the disease of the rich fool from the gospel who believed to live forever and of those who make themselves masters and feel superior to all instead of serving everyone.”

Narcissism as a collective trait, according to which whole groups and organizations show narcissistic traits in their ways of looking at things and in their actions.

It is important to counteract this.