Narcissism is a typical Western disease. And more and more people suffer from it – Wel.nl

Delusions of grandeur, addicted to attention, little emotion, empathy or feelings of remorse, no, a narcissist is not a nice person to be around. Unfortunately there are more and more narcissists.

Most of them are men, but women are catching up, says Jan Derksen, professor emeritus of clinical psychology and psychotherapy, against RTL News. “This is because of liberation: they become less dependent on men. This requires narcissistic traits.” It is also a typical Western disorder, and is less common in Africa or the Middle East, for example. “Maybe this is because Western culture is more individualistic.”

Research indicates that there are more and more narcissistic people, says Dirksen. The scientist believes that this is due to modern upbringing. “Children are more special. Backseat generation, it’s also called. Parents think the drawings they bring from nursery are cool, are praised, and they (in part) determine what’s going on in the family – and when it rains they take them to school by car, reinforcing their narcissistic traits rather than weaken them.”

Twenties hurt
And all that narcissism is not pleasant to the environment, it creates selfish people. “In this regard, we must take some steps back in education and culture. Because the attention you give yourself comes at the expense of the interest of others.”

But it’s also not good for the narcissist themselves. “People with narcissistic traits get seriously hurt once they start working, for example because their supervisor said they didn’t handle something right. Now we see 23-year-olds with alleged burnout, because they had a poor performance interview. They are there. Totally devastated. What do we do? I think. People who, for example, have worked hard in healthcare for 40 years, you can expect them to get exhausted. Not from a twenty-year-old who’s heard “Not once.”