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Is "narcissism" a legitimate concept or category?

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The Laws of Biology

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In the field of professional, licensed psychology/psychiatry, narcissism is a stable personality type or stable cluster of behavioral or mental traits or habits that are not consciously chosen. 

My question is: As used by these mental health professionals, does the term "narcissism" describe an authentic human phenonemom that a rational personal can observe and recognize as a valid type or category?

For example, when observing clouds in the sky, a meterologist will put clouds into various categories or types, such as Cumulus, Cirrus, and Stratus. Identifying cloud types helps the meterologist make accurate predictions about weather patterns and events. So, I think no one disputes that the system of categories, classes, or types of clouds is a legitimate, scienetific, and useful system of taxonomy. 

Can the same be said about human personality types in general and in particular about the type called "Narcissist"?

NOTE: At this point, I'd like to side-step the issue as to whether being or acting as a Narcissist is ethical or unethical, moral or immoral, productive or constructive, happy or unhappy, or good or evil or neutral or "beyond good and evil." As I see it, a logically preliminary and distinct issue is whether "narcissism" is a legimate concept or category. Only after one takes a position on that issue does it make any sense to possibly make a moral/ethical/political judgment about the phenomenon. Also, at this point, I'd also like to side-step the issue of what is the correct or best defintion of "narcissism." There are some debates and disputes, even with the mental health profession, about how "narcissism" should be defined. But I think there is such a strong common core in how "narcissism" is defined that I think there is no need, for the purposes of this present inquiry, to get into that. Whether one looks into a respectable dictionary or into the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (the "Bible" of most mental health professionals), the basic concept of "narcissism" is basically the same, I believe. 

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1 hour ago, The Laws of Biology said:

In the field of professional, licensed psychology/psychiatry, narcissism is a stable personality type or stable cluster of behavioral or mental traits or habits that are not consciously chosen. 

My question is: As used by these mental health professionals, does the term "narcissism" describe an authentic human phenonemom that a rational personal can observe and recognize as a valid type or category?

In my above statement, I now think that I should NOT have written "traits or habits that are not consciously chosen."

For the purposes of this present philosophical inquiry, I think it is NOT relevant whether any person's "Narcissism" is consciously and deliberately chosen, or whether it is something not consciously chosen by the person. In general, the question as to whether personality types (and/or personality disorders) are chosen or acquired by genetics or by environment just isn't the issue that interests me at this time and I don't think there's any need to address it in this inquiry. 

Rather, the issue of interest to me at the current time is whether the concept or phenomenon of "Narcissism" is something that is objectively real.

Does "Narcissism" exist?

Do "Narcissists" exist?

Is "Narcissism" a legimitate and meaningful category? 

Most people would agree that the debate over whether Pluto is a planet or not is meaningless and unimportant. Pluto is what is it. Pluto is real. Pluto can be observed and has been observed. Much has been discovered about Pluto.

The precise bounds of the concept of "planet" are not important as regards Pluto, I would say, and I think most people would agree.

But not meaningless are the differences between elements as described in categories such as "Noble Gases" and "Heavy Metals." "Heavy Metals" (e.g., mercury and lead) and "Noble Gases" (e.g., helium, argon) are generally recognized as legimate and meaningful categories. These categories help scientists and engineers make predictions about how elements will act or react under various conditions. 

Is "Narcissism" a legimitate and meaningful category?  Does it help us make predictions about how certain people will act or react under various conditions? Does it help us understand oher people? Does it help us understand ourselves?

Edited by The Laws of Biology
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  1. One possiblity: "Narcissism" is a concept and term invented and used by people who promote the ethics of Altruism-as-a-Virtue and so are determined to denigrate those who promote the ethics of Self-Esteem-as-a-Virtue. 
  2. Another possiblity: "Narcissism" is a concept and term that is legitimately used to describe a man or woman who displays a very high level of Self Esteem BUT ALSO also displays these behaviors:
  • Has great contempt and disgust for nearly everyone else (due to their alleged inferiority)
  • Does not respect the rights of others, whenever respecting those right gets in the way of him or her getting or maintaining the status, power, or wealth that he or she desires. 
  • Unwilling or unable to empathize with the feelings, wishes, and needs of other people
  • Becomes wildly enraged with others, and obsessed with revenge, when others do not respect and defer to his or her greatness (e.g., Hitler, Stalin)
  • Intensely envious of others, and the belief that others are equally envious of them
  • Pompous and arrogant demeanor
  • Grandiosity, with expectations of superior treatment from other people
  • Fixated on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.
  • Self-perception of being unique, superior, and associated with high-status people and institutions
  • Needing continual admiration from others
  • Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others
  • Exploitative of others to achieve personal gain
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