The Cult of Social Narcissism in the industrialized consumer Western Civilization (excerpt by A.K. Marthaller)

It is our own widespread social narcissism of epidemic proportion that eludes the majority from the fact that we humans too are fragile animals that could easily join the other 99.8% of all other species that once thrived on Earth but are now extinct. To vainly believe that our race is so superior and "entitled" to the point of negligent destruction of the world's biosphere reeks of the very arrogance and blasphemy of which many an ancient tale and holy scripture had warned against as it may anger God enough to allow us to perish. Indeed there are even those who observe the impending collapse of everything we know of as our world as a prophesy playing itself out into a manmade destructive crescendo of apocalyptic proportions. Narcissism arises in the child who "suffers from a prolonged state of unmet needs" (Winter, Koger, pg. 45). As a society who is displaced from the "source" of our being we too suffer a prolonged unquenchable thirst of unmet needs; thus, we have become a narcissistic society of starving consumers of material reality that just isn't as real as we think. The problem is, is that many of us are so far removed from the source of our being that we do not know how to properly feed our psyche; that is we do not know where to begin to find the correct and healthy food for our minds and souls. We will not find the proper nourishment on the television, nor will we find it in any consumer product or underwear ad, nor will we find it on any of the artificial summits of the mountains of distorted notions we climb in search of our selves. We're just not there, anywhere to be seen. We can never truly meet our psyche's needs by applying artificial and material things to ourselves to fill in the desolate void in our lives; inasmuch, we will always hunger and thirst for more money, more ego status, a faster car, a bigger house, and more power because these are not the things that our souls' and minds' need. This would be like eating nothing but cotton candy and drinking muck when we really need a sustainable meal and fresh clean water. This blinding epidemic of cultural narcissism and global ecological destruction allude to a greater dysfunction within the shared psychology of Western industrialized materialist consumer society.

Narcissism arises in the child who "suffers from a prolonged state of unmet needs"; thus, causing the individual to enter into a life long pattern of traits and behaviors which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition. This is a sever neurotic reaction to anxiety caused by lack of nurturing substance sometime during child development; inasmuch, the neurotic behavior eventually morphs into neurosis and eventually into a diagnosable (DSMIV) psychological disorder. The Narcissist must create and maintain a perceived reality that makes them the central figure, and all other persons merely extentions of themselves rather than real people with a seperate reality, lives, and boundaries. They will often think themselves to be elusive and somehow better than most everyone else, this may appear to them as being wealthier or more intelligent than anyone else; thus, relationships are very (black or white), they will either include others into their grand dilusion of being greater, or they will damn others to the opposite of them. If they think they are the most intelligent person in the world, others will be reduced to being imbeciles. The Narcissist believes much like an infant child, that the world revolves around their hunger for self and for nurturing. Often times the Narcissist will seek to feed their hunger-lust for nurturing and self by excessivley nurturing their false reality and delusion of grandure, or in manipulating others to gain the emotional attention they hunger for: much in the same way that a child cries when hungry.
That is the individual behavior of the Narcissist. It is a real disorder on a personal level, but it has also become a large scale epidemic as a social dysfuntion in the patterns of our societies behavior in terms of how we view ourselves, our rights, and our interaction with the rest of the world. Thus, we continue to hunger and inexhaustably consume our relationships, our natural habitat, and our spiritual identities. Narcissism is a sign of the times, and is the large scale psychosis that will dismantle our civilization as we know it.

Now think about that, then take a look around. Is it you? Is it someone you know? Is it a group of people you know? Do you belong to that group? Are the problems our world is facing a byproduct and symptom to the larg scale social epidemic psychological disorder of Narcissism?