Well, you have to understand that the average person isn’t a mythology nerd. You might be, but to the average person, the word “narcissist” comes from self help books about the evils of people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In the common verbiage, “narcissist” is an accusation of personality disorder, in much the same way as other words like autist, schizo, or r*tard. You see the parallel?
Ok, if taken as medical term (which happens way too often with these words) it can be seen as derogatory and making fun of a psychological disorder.
But I’d argue that no average person thinks of the word that way. I don’t think narcissism is ever seen as disorder in popular culture. From outside perspective it looks more like a choice, especially when compared to autism, schizophrenia or mental deficiency. None of those look like choices (autism being the most debatable out of the examples).
In a colloquial sense narcissist is just a selfish asshole. When talking about horror story narcissist, sociopath and / or psychopath depictions, I’m hard pressed to feel empathy for these characters. I’m not saying they are not sick, but having a disorder doesn’t automatically make actions and motivations any more justifiable.
Well, you have to understand that the average person isn’t a mythology nerd. You might be, but to the average person, the word “narcissist” comes from self help books about the evils of people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In the common verbiage, “narcissist” is an accusation of personality disorder, in much the same way as other words like autist, schizo, or r*tard. You see the parallel?
Ok, if taken as medical term (which happens way too often with these words) it can be seen as derogatory and making fun of a psychological disorder.
But I’d argue that no average person thinks of the word that way. I don’t think narcissism is ever seen as disorder in popular culture. From outside perspective it looks more like a choice, especially when compared to autism, schizophrenia or mental deficiency. None of those look like choices (autism being the most debatable out of the examples).
In a colloquial sense narcissist is just a selfish asshole. When talking about horror story narcissist, sociopath and / or psychopath depictions, I’m hard pressed to feel empathy for these characters. I’m not saying they are not sick, but having a disorder doesn’t automatically make actions and motivations any more justifiable.