Tuesday 15th June 2021, 8:00pm

Session 241: The Selfishness of Others by Kristin Dombek

For this summer session, Linda Jensen selected excerpts from the book The Selfishness of Others by Kristin Dombek (FSG, 2016).

Have you heard of the “narcisphere”? It’s a subculture online that shares a collective contempt for narcissists (aka narcs) and advises on how to react to their ill behaviors as well as sharing grueling stories of their experiences. Kristin Dombek’s book The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism explores the rise of what is named the narcissist “epidemic” and goes through the history of NPD (narcissist personality disorder) and how it has become a cultural phenomenon.

For example, she looks at Freud’s interpretation of narcissism who stipulated that the archetypal narcissist was a beautiful woman or a homosexual man. Today the categorizing of narcissists is wide-ranging. There’s the Phallic Narcissist, the Corporate Narcissist, the Organizational Narcissist, the Medical Narcissist and also the Spiritual Narcissist. There’s even one that might seem forgiving, the Communal Narcissist: “Do you try to act generously, publicly align yourself with noble causes and “talk a lot about care and empathy”? You may be a Communal Narcissist.

Participants: 10

Location: Josefwiese