Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

blogs.scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 100 posts

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#71

Post by corey_moncure »

ModernMech wrote: post #59
wellpast wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I think I'm approximately the 100th smartest person in the world? But only when it comes to, say, J2EE? Like I'm the 100th smartest person at J2EE in the world, and everyone else besides the approximately 100 above me are J2EE-inferior. Am I a Narcissist? A J2EE-Narcissist?

A true narcissist thinks they're better than everyone at everything. Trump is the best example of a narcissist I've ever seen. For example: "I know more about renewables than any human being on Earth." "I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook maybe better than almost anybody" "Nobody knows more about debt. I'm like the king. I love debt." "I think nobody knows…

Is it possible he's just saying things that people want to hear, things that lead to popularity and success? How do we know he sincerely believes these lines as he's saying them?

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#72

Post by Sir_Substance »

Sharlin wrote: post #70
ada1981 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes sense if you understand that mental health “diagnosis” has a primary function as a tool for control and status (either boosting the status of the prescriber or reducing the status of the patient). Primate dominance games.

Mental health diagnoses are as valid and useful as physical health diagnoses.

Only when they are made by psychiatric professionals who are suitable detached from the scenario they are judging.

I can think of a few people I know who took one year of highschool psychology or once read a pop-sci book about it who like to tell people what the root cause of their behavior is. It's usually done as a dominance move.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#73

Post by ModernMech »

corey_moncure wrote: post #71
ModernMech wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A true narcissist thinks they're better than everyone at everything. Trump is the best example of a narcissist I've ever seen. For example: "I know more about renewables than any human being on Earth." "I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook maybe better than almost anybody" "Nobody knows more about debt. I'm like the king. I love debt." "I think nobody knows…

Is it possible he's just saying things that people want to hear, things that lead to popularity and success? How do we know he sincerely believes these lines as he's saying them?

The way I know he actually believes these things is because this is how actual narcissists I know behave. So I have a point of comparison. I recognize the patterns, which extend past just these statements, including: gaslighting, blame shifting, victim blaming, self victimization, inability to accept any blame whatsoever, the inability to admit he's wrong, etc. This goes faaaaar beyond the typical pandering you get with politicians. It's pathological.

Look at it this way, even politicians who pander are able to exhibit some semblance of humility and self awareness. You'll be able to find exactly 0 instances from Trump admitting he's wrong about anything. In fact, he once said (to Jimmy Fallon) that he has never had to apologize because he's never done anything wrong.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#74

Post by ouid »

dsego wrote: post #10

If you are interested in this topic and want to discover more about yourself and maladaptive behaviors and coping mechanisms, a great resource for personality disorders is the “Out of the Fog” website[1]. I also find Sam Vaknin has written a lot of interesting stuff on covert narcissism and the concept of narcissistic supply. (he also has a youtube channel) [2] I feel that covert NPD shares a lot of traits with BPD.…

All the "cluster B" disorders have similar diagnostic criteria.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#75

Post by Theodores »

JimboOmega wrote: post #68
Theodores wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are being a bit hard on themselves here. Narcissism is not something you truly understand until you meet someone who really is one at the far end of the spectrum. Until you spend weeks, months or even years trying to work out why they have had their empathy glands removed you just don't fully understand the 'narcissism' concept. We see narcissists like The Donald and think that is it, actually you need to be o…

I think the notion of "vulnerable narcissism" presented by the article is a very interesting one. It's not the same as the classic narcissism that you might have been on the 'sharp end' of. The "vulnerable narcissist" (as presented) is incredibly concerned with what other people think (at least on a shallow level), but often views themselves very negatively. They have a negative bias to self image and a lack of asser…

I had to read your comment twice to understand your take on the 'n' word (which I struggle to spell!). In my studying of the narcissism thus far I do look at what happens with the parents, particularly the mum and how extremely early things can go wrong. So I thought it interesting that you mentioned your mum, and it is not really possible to go 'no contact' on close family.

I am also interested in how our make up is determined by the mix of testosterone/estrogen that we get before we get born. As I understand it the mix can be set one way or the other at different stages of development therefore affecting the final outcome. You can get the mixture over-rided by the mum's mix of the two to end up far from binary male or binary female. If the anatomy is built on one mix and the brain developed on a different mix then anything could happen, including being left handed or being a 'gay man trapped inside a woman's body', or just straight gay. So much of our identity is complicated that it can be hard to see it as some changes in the mix. For instance, one of my school friends was the 'only gay in the village' but he was also the last child of eight siblings and I wasn't going to tell him that his sexuality and decade long coming out process was just because his mum's womb was just knackered and incapable of keeping the mix consistent. However, I wish that society was more accepting of this 'mix theory'.

Anyway, my original comment was really a reaction to comments of people self-diagnosing themselves as narcissist.

My main thought on narcissism is that we need to have some simple tests that we make our elected politicians take so we can weed out those that have no 'empathy glands'. Forget politics of the left and the right, just weed out those that are not wired for the job.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#76

Post by skedaddle »

corey_moncure wrote: post #71
ModernMech wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A true narcissist thinks they're better than everyone at everything. Trump is the best example of a narcissist I've ever seen. For example: "I know more about renewables than any human being on Earth." "I understand social media. I understand the power of Twitter. I understand the power of Facebook maybe better than almost anybody" "Nobody knows more about debt. I'm like the king. I love debt." "I think nobody knows…

Is it possible he's just saying things that people want to hear, things that lead to popularity and success? How do we know he sincerely believes these lines as he's saying them?

It's narcissism just the same. In fact, that "project a grandiose image that leads to popularity and success" thing is pretty much the crux of it.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#77

Post by selestify »

sbilstein wrote: post #62
nobody271 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I find the idea of promoting "mental health awareness" to be disturbing. It's far too tempting to say you know why someone acts some way, or that the way they are acting is a disorder, based on one or two observations. I do the same thing though. I really wish I understood myself half as well as I think I understand other people.

Armchair diagnosis is dangerous IMO. It can be a form of gaslighting. Sure everyone can benefit from therapy, meditation and improving systems for managing sadness, frustration, impatience but telling yourself or someone else you have ADD, compulsive disorder, anxiety is a great way to pop the self esteem bubble and confidence you need to get through life. In the workplace it's especial dangerous; you can force someo…

How do you, as an individual, tell if it's you or if it's the environment?

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#78

Post by DanBC »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #58
mxiia wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, NPD in women can be confused with Asperger syndrome. Can you expand on this or provide some more reading for me? I believe my mother has NPD and have, on occasion, sworn she was on the spectrum as well.

I say this as a person who has been abused by a string of relationships with folks who almost certainly have some variation of NPD, not as a clinician. So take this with a big 'ol grain of salt. A lot of the epistemological problems for people who are pathologically narcissistic come from understanding the difference between how they see things and how other people see things. Part of the pathology is that they have…

For fucks sake.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#79

Post by timr »

tanderson92 wrote: post #36
timr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You got anything to back up that claim? That sounds like a pretty big conclusion that you're jumping to without evidence." It's not a "claim". It's literally the null hypothesis: two traits are assumed to be uncorrelated unless proven otherwise. If you want to claim that a sense of "impostor syndrome" is actually indicative of increased skill, it's your job to prove it.

It's also not true that because only two outcomes are possible that the null hypothesis is a 50/50 split between them.

There are more than two outcomes. Competence is not binary.

Also, again: null hypothesis. If you want to argue that there's a positive correlation between X & Y, you provide evidence.

Re: Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

#80

Post by kmarc »

knaik94 wrote: post #5

This seems to share the same sentiment I have been hearing from a lot of places recently, the only person you should be comparing yourself to is the past version of yourself.

Wow, this is the most concise and deepest thought I read lately.

Thanks!

(Also this needs more upvote)

Post reply on HN