photocredit: talbot troy
It comes before the fall, I hear. Yet, according to new research, pride is often needed to pick oneself back up, and if overdone, become a narcissist. There is a saying that in order to be successful in politics you need a big head and broad shoulders. Is it any surprise that many politicians have an overabundance of pride and could be labeled, to a varying degree, narcissists?
The psychological diagnosis of a narcissist requires a healthy dose of pride, which itself breeds ambition and self-confidence. A person possessing narcissistic traits has nearly unquenchable ambition, a constant need for attention and admiration, and thinks quite highly of him/herself. Dismissed as just another obvious psychological type, the narcissist is now being carefully studied and separated into subtypes, some more flattering than the others. Pride is a constant in all subtypes, an indication of how essential it is in the makeup of a narcissist.
Politicians fit this mold perfectly: seek power, live off of a crowd’s admiration, and think enough of themselves to believe they are the best person to make important decisions about other people’s lives. As one clinical psychologist noted:
“In politics you see elevated narcissism, and in theatre and Hollywood and in journalism,” says Westen, author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. “The same people who want to have their face on television or want to be up in front of a crowd, those are situations that draw people who are narcissistic and want to see their name in lights.”
There is obviously a flip side to this. The constant need for everyone’s approval is like a dog chasing its own tail: held on for awhile, but it’s a struggle to be keep it for long. For a narcissist, this leads to frustration and self-doubt, which is what is now compelling so many psychologists. The duality of the narcissist is the duality of any politician. For every majestic presence in front of a crowd there is a somber, anxious moment in private quarters.
As much as pride might be the cause of downfalls (the governor who thought he would never get caught), it also helps us overcome internal and external obstacles. New studies show that keeping one’s pride intact, especially in these uncertain times, allows us to keep our sanity. From The New York Times:
[...]we are finding that pride is centrally important not just for surviving physical danger but for thriving in difficult social circumstances, in ways that are not at all obvious.”
People who have lost their jobs exhibit their pride by following the same routines they had when they were collecting a paycheck, and not unemployment. This helps them maintain emotional and mental stability in time of crisis. Pride is definitely not just used when you show off your child’s report card.
Pride is global, also. The same signals of pride (hands on hips, sly smile) are very similar across cultures. Pride helps us feel better about ourselves, similar to how we become a tad happier after we force a smile. Real pride, based off of actual achievements, is the healthiest type of pride. “Hubristic pride” is what makes the typical narcissist or arrogant bastard. Either type is still confounding experts in the implications, beneficial or harmful, this explicit emotion has on the person.
While pride is essential in the traditional template for a politician, or any person with influence for that matter, it is also a volatile, visceral emotion that can lead to the fall of kings. People like Barack Obama, Bono, or Beckham, are more than likely to the brim with pride. The tricky part is knowing when it is a full cup or a spilling disaster. In the difficult times we are in, one might want to err on the side of a little mess.
source: NYTimes article
source: narcissism study
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