So this clip below, from an interview with the authors of “The Narcissism Epidemic” sits neatly alongside other critiques of the “reality” of reality television.
With celebrities, you watch the Real Housewives of New York City [or] My Super Sweet 16, and the narcissistic traits are just obvious in every episode. Reality TV shows in general are highly narcissistic, and [reality TV stars] are the most narcissistic of all celebrities, in the study that Dr. Drew Pinsky did. What concerns me about that is that those are the shows that are really popular among young people. They’re supposed to show real life; they’re not supposed to be scripted or fictionalized. What they really are is a showcase for narcissistic people and behavior that makes narcissism seem normal.
Pinsky is the author of “The Mirror Effect: How celebrity narcissism is seducing America.” But it might be one you get from the library…
Spot on. That has always been the main tactic of the psychopaths and other anti-socials. Blending in. Making themselves seem normal. And warping others into enablers.
More and more, it seems the whole mainstream cultural enterprise is narcissist catering classes extolling narcissists…