Narcissism and the self

Sennett: narcissism and character disorders

The foregoing sections imply that self-development in late modernity occurs under conditions of substantial moral deprivation. Sequestered from key types of experience which relate the tasks of day-to-day life, and even longer-term life-planning, to existential issues, the reflexive project of the self is energised against a backdrop of moral impoverishment. Small wonder that in such circumstances the newly constituted sphere of pure relationships may come to bear a heavy burden as an area of experience generating a morally rewarding milieu for individual life development. Does this phenomenon represent a defensive shrinkage of self-identity in the face of a recalcitrant outside world? Some writers have certainly suggested as much and, given their influential nature, their views demand detailed consideration.

The self in modern society is frail, brittle, fractured, fragmented -- such a conception is probably the pre-eminent outlook in current discussions of the self and modernity. Some such analyses are linked theoretically to poststructuralism: just as the

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social world becomes contextualised and dispersed, so also does the self. ²⁴ In fact, for authors writing in a poststructuralist vein, the self effectively ceases to exist: the only subject is a decentred subject, which finds its identity in the fragments of language or discourse. An equally influential view focuses on narcissism. Thus Sennett discusses the rise of `narcissist character disorders' in relation to his thesis about the demise of public life. As the spheres of public activity shrink, and cities become composed of thoroughfares rather than open meeting places, the self is called on to assume tasks with which it cannot successfully cope. ²⁵

Narcissism, Sennett says, should not be confused with the lay idea of self-admiration. As a character disorder, narcissism is a preoccupation with the self which prevents the individual from establishing valid boundaries between self and external worlds. Narcissism relates outside events to the needs and desires of the self, asking only `what this means to me'. Narcissism presumes a constant search for self-identity, but this is a search which remains frustrated, because the restless pursuit of `who I am' is an expression of narcissistic absorption rather than a realisable quest. Narcissism stands in opposition to the commitment required to sustain intimate relationships; commitment places restrictions on the opportunities the individual has to sample the many experiences demanded in the search for self-fulfilment. Narcissism treats the body as an instrument of sensual gratification, rather than relating sensuality to communication with others. Under the impact of narcissism, intimate relations as well as broader connections with the social world tend to have inherently destructive aspects. The horizons of the person's activity seem bleak and unappealing in spite of, or rather because of, the chronic search for gratification. At the same time, any sense of personal dignity or civic duty tends to evaporate. Authenticity substitutes for dignity: what makes an action good is that it is authentic to the individual's desires, and can be displayed to others as such.

The fact that public space has become `dead', according to Sennett, is one reason for the pervasiveness of narcissism. People seek in personal life what is denied to them in public arenas. The institutional origins of this situation lie in the decline of traditional authority and the formation of a secular, capitalistic urban culture. Capitalism creates consumers, who have differentiated

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(and cultivated) needs; secularisation has the effect of narrowing down moral meaning to the immediacy of sensation and perception. `Personality' replaces the earlier Enlightenment belief in natural `character'. Personality differentiates between people, and suggests that their behaviour is the clue to their inner selves; in personality development, feelings rather than rational control of action are what matters in the formation of self-identity. The entry of the idea of personality into social life helped prepare the ground for the dominance of the intimate order. Social bonds and engagements increasingly thereafter recede in favour of an endless and obsessive preoccupation with social identity.

Today, impersonal experience seems meaningless and social complexity an unmanageable threat. By contrast, experience which seems to tell about the self, to help define it, develop it or change it, has become an overwhelming concern. In an intimate society, all social phenomena, no matter how impersonal in structure, are converted into matters of personality in order to have a meaning. ²⁶

Lasch: the culture of narcissism

The theme of narcissism in relation to the modern self has been more thoroughly explored by Christopher Lasch. ²⁷ Lasch specifically relates the phenomenon to the apocalyptic nature of modern social life. Global risks have become such an acknowledged aspect of modern institutions that, on the level of day-to-day behaviour, no one any longer gives much thought to how potential global disasters can be avoided. Most people shut them out of their lives and concentrate their activities on privatised `survival strategies', blotting out the larger risk scenarios. Giving up hope that the wider social environment can be controlled, people retreat to purely personal preoccupations: to psychic and bodily self-improvement. Lasch relates this situation to an evaporation of history, a loss of historical continuity in the sense of a feeling of belonging to a succession of generations going back into the past and stretching forwards into the future. Against this backdrop, people hunger for psychic security and a -- disturbingly elusive -- sense of well-being.

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Lasch agrees with Sennett that narcissism is as much about self-hatred as about self-admiration. Narcissism is a defence against infantile rage, an attempt to compensate with omnipotent fantasies of the privileged self. The narcissistic personality has only a shadowy understanding of the needs of others, and feelings of grandiosity jostle with sentiments of emptiness and inauthenticity. Lacking full engagement with others, the narcissist depends on continual infusion of admiration and approval to bolster an uncertain sense of self-worth. The narcissist, according to Lasch, is

chronically bored, restlessly in search of instantaneous intimacy -- of emotional titillation without involvement and dependence -- the narcissist is promiscuous and often pan-sexual as well, since the fusion of pregenital and oedipal impulses in the service of aggression encourages polymorphous perversity. The bad images he has internalised also make him chronically uneasy about his health, and hypochondria in turn gives him a special affinity for therapy and for therapeutic groups and movements. ²⁸

Far from alleviating these symptoms, the therapeutic encounter often merely helps to prolong them because in therapy the individual is encouraged to become the centre-point of reflection and concern.

Consumer capitalism, with its efforts to standardise consumption and to shapes tastes through advertising, plays a basic role in furthering narcissism. The idea of generating an educated and discerning public has long since succumbed to the pervasiveness of consumerism, which is a `society dominated by appearances'. Consumption addresses the alienated qualities of modern social life and claims to be their solution: it promises the very things the narcissist desires -- attractiveness, beauty and personal popularity -- through the consumption of the `right' kinds of goods and services. Hence all of us, in modern social conditions, live as though surrounded by mirrors; in these we search for the appearance of an unblemished, socially valued self.

On the level of personal relations, Lasch agrees, there is a new search for intimacy. However, intimacy becomes unobtainable as a consequence of the very circumstances which lead individuals to be concerned to achieve it. The inability to take a serious interest

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in anything other than shoring up the self makes the pursuit of intimacy a futile endeavour. Individuals demand from intimate connections with others much greater emotional satisfaction and security than they ever did before; on the other hand, they cultivate a detachment necessary to the maintenance of narcissistic ego defences. The narcissist is led to make inordinate demands on lovers and friends; at the same time, he or she rejects the `giving to others' that this implies.

The decline of the patriarchal family, and indeed the family in general, according to Lasch, is closely connected to the rise of narcissism. In place of the old `family authority', and also the authority of traditional leaders and sages, there has arisen a cult of expertise. The new experts are an intrinsic part of the therapeutic culture of narcissism. A `new paternalism' has arisen in which experts of all types minister to the needs of the lay population. Many modern forms of expertise do not derive from the fulfilment of genuinely felt needs; in some large part the new experts have invented the very needs they claim to satisfy. Dependence on expertise becomes a way of life. Here we reconnect closely with narcissism, because the narcissistic personality originates as a defence against infantile dependency. Since in modern societies dependence extends into most areas of adult life, narcissism becomes intensified as a reaction to the feelings of powerlessness thus engendered.

In subsequent writings Lasch has elaborated, and somewhat modified, his original position. The theme of survival, in an encroaching and disturbing external world, is accentuated. Survival, Lasch emphasises, is the common preoccupation of individuals in day-to-day life as well as of social networks such as peace or ecological movements. In the contemporary era, survival has become a matter of overriding importance; yet the very publicising of the issue, which itself becomes almost an item of routine, produces a lethargic response on the individual level. The dramatising of the risks humanity now faces is a necessary enterprise, and some of the social pressures and movements it has helped to stimulate represent our best hope for the future; yet continual talk of apocalypse creates a siege mentality which is numbing rather than energising. What Lasch previously called the `culture of narcissism' he has subsequently come to term the `culture of survivalism'. Modern life increasingly comes to be

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patterned after the strategies of individuals forced to confront situations of great adversity, in which only a `minimal self', defensively separated from the outer world, exists. Apathy towards the past, renunciation of the future, and a determination to live one day at a time -- such an outlook has become characteristic of ordinary life in circumstances dominated by influences over which individuals feel they have little or no control.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 723