Way before the first selfie, the ancient Greeks and Romans had a myth about someone a little too obsessed with his own image. In one telling, Narcissus was a handsome guy wandering the world in search of someone to love. After rejecting a nymph named Echo, he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in a river and fell in love with it. Unable to tear himself away, Narcissus drowned. A flower marked the spot where he died, and we call that flower the Narcissus. The myth captures the basic idea of narcissism: elevated and sometimes detrimental self-involvement. But it’s not just a personality type that shows up in advice columns; it’s actually a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists.
The psychological definition of narcissism is an inflated, grandiose self-image. To varying degrees, narcissists think they’re better looking, smarter, and more important than other people, and that they deserve special treatment. Psychologists recognize two forms of narcissism as a personality trait: grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. There’s also Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), a more extreme form which we’ll return to shortly.
If They Show These Early Signs They are a Narcissist
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