Psychotherapist Phillippa Perry Linked Lying about Alcohol Intake to Culturally Accepted Narcissism — and My Comment about Narcissism’s Spiritual Self-Destruction

© 2013 Peter Free

 

28 February 2013

 

 

Citation — to Phillippa Perry’s essay

 

Phillippa Perry, Lying about how much we drink is a symptom of our narcissistic society, The Guardian (28 February 2013)

 

 

Because genuine self-awareness is the first step to wisdom, I quote Ms. Perry’s critique of modern western culture

 

In attempting to explain why British alcohol sales exceed Britons’ reports of personal drinking habits by roughly 50 percent, she wrote:

 

 

This over-investment in self-image at the expense of our own health is a symptom of narcissism. And narcissism has become the norm in our society.

 

The proliferation of material things has become a measure of progress; wealth occupies a higher position than wisdom; and notoriety is more admired than dignity.

 

Our politicians, our institutions, our culture are seeped in narcissism – we have a culture that overvalues image at the expense of truth.

 

Lying to our doctors is but a symptom of this wider picture.

 

© 2013 Phillippa Perry, Lying about how much we drink is a symptom of our narcissistic society, The Guardian (28 February 2013) (paragraph split)

 

 

What is narcissism?

 

The most conceptually relevant definition comes from the personality disorder.  I especially like Sam Vaknin’s cogent summation of the elements that are contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (currently the DSM IV):

 

 

A pattern of traits and behaviors which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition.

 

© 2013 Sam Vaknin, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) Definition, HealthyPlace (02 August 2012)

 

Vaknin’s definition is useful because it transitions from the more narrowly applicable psychiatric illness into a pattern that characterizes an overwhelming number of prominent people — which is exactly the cultural “dis-ease” that Phillippa Perry is referring to.

 

 

Yesterday, I wrote about how sadly unremarked C. Everett Koop’s passing was — Perry’s insight about cultural narcissism explains why

 

Surgeon General Koop set aside his evangelical Christian’s objection to homosexuality in order to attack AIDS in a nonjudgmental and scientific manner.  In his mind, the battle was about health and facts and not about him.

 

Dr. Koop’s lifelong determination to serve others contrasts with today’s cultural paradigm — one that explicitly lauds serving oneself by reducing others to the role of admiring puppets.

 

Dr. Koop’s example was mostly unnoticed because serving the Whole, as he did, is out of fashion.

 

 

The moral? — When it’s all about elevating shallow conceptions of ourselves, we lose

 

That is why every major spiritual tradition has emphasized our personal insignificance.  And why each directs our focus toward that which is more encompassing than we individually are.

 

Most Buddhists (and a few ecumenical Christians) call this “loving kindness.”

 

Using the kindness standard, we see why cultural narcissism is destructive.  It is impossible to love and serve others, while treating them as puppets to one’s own self-idolizing ambition.

 

In narcissism’s infatuation with the illusion of personal worth, God is lost.