Narcissistic Personality - Narcissism in High Places

Narcissism in High Places

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You know — in celestial places, where the celebrated celebrities are. Beware the impression that you "know" these people. You don't. That isn't them on the TV screen or in the magazine photo: that's their image. Stars and politicians' images are the product of professional "image makers," who present them to us as performers in staged settings.

Don't trust an institution or organization to filter out the personality disordered on the road to the top. Indeed, narcissists have great climbing skills!

Narcissists are expert at tearing down whoever is above them on the ladder of success. That's what narcissists do, nonstop, all their lives, because that's what narcissism is. They get very good at it, because it's an aspect of the disease, an aspect that is more a benefit than a curse in society. In fact, they get so good at climbing over those they throw down that they come out smelling like a rose, because nobody even knows who instigated the talk that destroyed that person.

For this reason, many say that narcissism is an adaptation, not a mental illness — a character disorder, not a personality disorder — because it helps rather than hinders their functioning in society.

What's more, narcissists have no compunctions about exploiting and disgracing their betters, because they have no empathy, no conscience. Another big advantage over normal people.

Nor do they have any compunctions about "getting tough" with their subordinates and firing people. They love doing that, because that's what narcissists do — vaunt themselves on others by bullying whomever they can. It's an aspect of the disease. And it's an asset, because it makes them look like good "tough" managers of personnel.

Narcissists are shameless but subtle self-promoters, expert at carving out the perfect (false) image for themselves. Yet another big advantage.

In fact, being for looks only, they see no reason to work for credit or credentials, so they just fake it whenever possible. They may cheat their way through college or buy a degree from a diploma mill or fake their credentials altogether. On the job they steal the credit that belongs to others. In fact, I suspect that behind every charlatan who commits surgery without a degree in medicine or a license to practice it, you'll find someone with NPD.

Being expert in faking excellence is another social advantage.

In fact, you can view NPD as a trade-off the narcissist makes. He or she adopts a way of life (a personality) made-to-order for achieving success in society. What they give up is happiness in close interpersonal relations. In fact, they give up ever having real human relations with anyone else, because they dare not let anyone access their soul. In effect they have sold it. So they must be content with getting what they want from intimates by pushing them around.

NPD doesn't prevent people from occupying positions of power, wealth, and prestige. Many people with NPD, as Kernberg's classification makes clear, are sufficiently talented to secure the credentials of success. In addition, narcissists' preoccupation with a well-packaged exterior means that they often develop an attractive and persuasive social manner. Many high-functioning narcissists are well liked by casual acquaintances and business associates who never get close enough to notice the emptiness or anger underneath the polished surface.

— Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Now, I can almost hear those wheels grinding. You're picturing the typical corporate executive officer ambitiously climbing the ladder of success. Think again. This arena is not the favorite haunt of narcissists, I think. We hear of many in boardrooms and in stock brokerages, but boardrooms and stock brokerages aren't the same thing as corporate executive offices.

I should think that a narcissist would not be at home in a smart and sophisticated big business with competent personnel managers, one that measures job performance accurately by objective metrics. Most of the narcissists I have known were in the "helping professions," particularly education. Little real accountability and abundant means to fake it.

Among those who were teachers that I have known or heard about, I noticed a peculiar similarity. They avoided accepting any position that would set them up as the responsible party and a target for criticism. For example, they would come up with excuses for why they could not fill a vacant head-coaching position. They preferred to call the shots from behind the scenes as a "humble" assistant coach, who manipulated the head coach.

I know of two in particular who were amazingly manipulative puppet masters. They managed to get themselves adored as the coaches emeritus at a school, though only one had dared to ever accept a head-coaching position and quit after just a few years. Yet they had all the coaches coming to them for advice and for an evaluation of how well they had coached the last contest. One of these gurus even somehow got himself elected conference football Coach of the Year!

An exception to this avoidance of the top position is in private schools, which are allowed to operate in secrecy and where the principal has so much power that, like a dictator, he or she can game the system to get away with anything. Anything — denial of civil rights, slander, threats, extortion, you name it — without fear of exposure and prosecution. This is why narcissistic bullies in the workplace are a particular problem in private nonprofit institutions.

It is also a serious problem in the public sector, not because civil rights are easily trampled there, but rather because of a do-gooder culture or a moral elitist culture (which is also present in private nonprofit institutions). This culture creates an unwholesome environment, because many aren't there to do good; they're to be seen as doing good. They are self-righteous and love to show how good they are by pointing at someone else and telling you how bad they are.

Such people might as well have remote-control panels, because a narcissistic boss can aim and shoot off their mouths at anyone he wants, just as you'd aim and fire a gun. This enables a narcissist to manipulate the whole group to morally persecute anyone marked as having the wrong politics or attitude. Examples would be in academia and social work.

In fact, the "helping professions" in general attract more than their share of narcissists: little real accountability and plenty of ways to fake it. All you have to do is fool people: you never have to prove that you are doing a good job.

Unfortunately, narcissists in positions of high visibility or power—particularly in the so-called helping professions (medicine, education, and the ministry)—often do great harm to others. In recent years a number of books and articles have been published within the religious, medical, and business communities regarding the problems caused by professionals with NPD. One psychiatrist noted in a lecture on substance abuse among physicians that NPD is one of the three most common psychiatric diagnoses among physicians in court-mandated substance abuse programs. A psychologist who serves as a consultant in the evaluation of seminary students and ordained clergy has remarked that the proportion of narcissists in the clergy has risen dramatically since the 1960s. Researchers in the field of business organization and management styles have compiled data on the human and economic costs of executives with undiagnosed NPD.

— Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders

Another thing about the helping professions that attracts narcissists is the abundance of vulnerable prey they supply. Think not only of vulnerable children in the case of teachers, but also of the vulnerable children and grieving or hurt adults in the case of priests and ministers. Think of the vulnerable patients supplied to psychiatrists. And so forth.

The same thing can happen in business, but it's usually a small business in which the owner doesn't realize how bad for business a narcissistic bully manager is and doesn't closely supervise managers to make sure they're tough but fair and treating the employees right.

Politics is the ideal arena for narcissists, because it's all about image. The list of those who have conned whole nations to become dictators is breathtaking. When will the human race ever learn?

In a western democracy nowadays, a narcissist would prefer the legislature to seeking the top position as a conservative head-of-state, because of the target he or she would become for the liberal media. In a dictatorial regime, however, none of that matters. Narcissistic politicians tend to be political chameleons who espouse whichever ideology is advantageous to them at the moment, or they practice policies inconsistent with the ideology they profess. Their understanding of socialism, conservatism, or whatever is shallow and runs only skin deep, because it is just part of their act.

© 2004 � 2008, Kathleen Krajco � all rights reserved worldwide.
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It was last updated on 3/7/2008.
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