Re: Interesting book on narcissism and effects on relationships

Except perhaps, as one well-reknown philosopher once pointed out, the basic
absurdity of life.

Close enough. I wasn't making any judgements.

That said, how well does mmmousemaid get along with her husband?

Hmmm. I disagree. To me sometimes it's nature and sometimes it's
nurture
and one second nature wins over nurture and the next it's the other
way
round. What determines which happens when? I guess it has something
to do with The Dao.

O, and little incidentals like time and space... for instance, how
much of
a hurry am I in and how much of my time have other people wasted/saved
helps to determine my mood and how far away am I from where I wanted
to be? What a coincidence: that (space and time) about sums up the
material
world, doesn't it?

- Michaela

Read what she wrote.  Michaela wrote "The question for Michaela is..."  She
didn't make any statement about the question for _you_.

Hmm.  Maybe I think the opposite.  Everyone is born a narcissist, but
most people are socialized into tempering their narcissism.

Uhm, Michaela.... how do you know I don't get along with others?
I *do*.  And I am a very kind and compassionate person by their
feedback.  However, I agree with you that Robert Hare's (e.g.)  and
the above
classic are pop psychology.  Personality psychology is more
sociological
in observation; maybe close to anthropology though more specific.
Still, in some cases this book do describe habits of thinking that may
have orginated for a number of reasons -- developmental, upbringing,
culture,  or just ill will.  I don't think anybody is born a
narcissist.

Erin

Words like 'narcissism' remind me of the theme song of Weeds.

Seems to me that labels are only useful up to a point. And motives
for abuse of such labels may be hidden even to the labeler themselves.

I imagine we all have one/some/several/many/lots of narcissistic
tendencies
that do and don't manifest at different times.

If we look carefully we might begin to see a pattern emerge.

I think of it as 'separation'. When we feel separate from anyone or
manyone
else, we tend to do things that might be labeled narcissistic and when
we are
at one with everything around us we seem to flow happily along with
the rest
of the world.

The question for me is 'why don't I just try to get along with others
more often?'

- Michaela

Popular psychology:

http://samvak.tripod.com/archive20.html