I'll agree with all of that, though to me 'full blown narcissism' isn't achieved yet at such a young age - it gets stronger into adulthood. But I don't think that's really how you meant it. I'm just trying to get used to the idea of a shy narcissist - but then I'm sure it's possible. Hell, I guess that would allow him to escape notice as a narc because people usually associate narcissism with overblown confidence and arrogance.
"Narcissists in the making were the people in school who were truly pissed and wanted to fight over the slightest appearance of disrespect, even from complete strangers who might have meant nothing at all. They guard their sensitive egos like they are guarding Fort Knox."
There are certain kinds of people who are like that, and it's not only culturally accepted in their communities, but in fact required in order to gain any status. In the ghetto for one, though now of course ghetto attitude is spreading out into the upper middle class suburbs as well, black white and all colors of the rainbow. Im not trying to imply it started in the ghettos (just realized it could be read that way) - in fact, in Black Rednecks and White Liberals Thomas Sowell makes the case that it's always existed among the poorest and most backwards peasant classes and that it was brought to the American south by the poor northern English and southern Scotts (think early versions of the Brit punk rockers) who settled there en masse and passed it on to the slaves, creating modern ghetto culture. Interestingly, those Britons at the time were still using an old-fashioned dialect from Middle English that included the word Y'all (not a contraction of you all as most believe) and using the sentence form "I be, you be, he be" etc - the original source of ebonics. Heh sorry, I know I'm getting way off subject, but this is fascinating stuff to me, and it does relate loosely.
But to bring it back somewhat on topic, I always suspected those cultures that promote ignorance, aggression, and touchy pride probably generate a lot of narcissism. Purportedly it's caused by trauma in childhood, like a chaotic environment that can't be escaped from or lack of parental love and affirmation. Of course, those conditions are rife in the ghetto or in a redneck community*, but I believe it's also amplified by cultural acceptance and even promotion of narcissistic traits.
* I'm using the term redneck here the way Thomas Sowell does, to refer to ignorant, arrogant, uneducated people, not simply southern people. He uses redneck to refer to people of all races/colors with that attitude. Don't take offense UM!
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