Ad:

How to create a little narcissist, i.e. do parental behaviours affect children's psychosocial behaviour?

Edyta Bańcyr

You can read this text in 2 min.

How to create a little narcissist, i.e. do parental behaviours affect children's psychosocial behaviour?

PantherMedia

Family time

Does narcissism result from overconfidence that has been ingrained in the child? Is narcissism "born at home" or is there really a narcissistic soul in each of us that can be awakened by external stimuli?

Ad:

The narcissistic personality was described by Freud as one of the causes of mental disorders. The term narcissism was first used as early as 1910 to refer to the homosexual choice for the drive of life (turning forces and desires in one's own direction, not towards other people). According to Freud's successors, narcissism can result from cold parental behaviour, and the creation of a cold child-parent relationship. Recently, however, the opposite trend has emerged among researchers, who suggest that narcissism may result from an excess of affection towards children.

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam decided to tackle this problem. In an experiment, they studied 565 children aged 7-12 years. Why was a group of children in this age range chosen? It turns out that this is the period of life when narcissistic personality traits such as egocentrism and vanity are most easily awakened. Child-parent and parent-child relationships were observed for nearly a year and a half. The results indicated that excessive or too weak parental love did not have a direct effect on the 'awakening' of narcissistic traits. However, an indirect influence was shown, which can be echoed in the child's adult life.

A team of researchers from Amsterdam suggests that a strong influence on the emergence of the narcissistic syndrome may be genetic, which may be 'muted', but under the influence of various external stimuli, may influence the sudden emergence of the narcissistic syndrome. Excessive narcissism is considered one of the psycho-emotional disorders and is therefore subject to categorisation. The diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality are not entirely clear and explicit. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health Problems (International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision - ICD-10) includes narcissism in the so-called 'other personality disorders'.

A prerequisite for classification is the long-term observation of disturbances in interpersonal relationships, cognitive processes, perception and interpretation of reality, attitudes towards other people, inflexible and maladaptive behaviour towards other people. Slightly different criteria are described by the American psychiatric classification system (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - DS-IV), which defines a narcissistic personality as an established pattern of self-importance (evident in fantasies or behaviour), a need for admiration from others and a lack of empathy. Undoubtedly, parental behaviour is replicated by children in later life.

It has been shown that patterns learned at home, such as slurping or doing things in a specific order, are often unintentionally reproduced. It is therefore possible that abnormal relationships in early childhood may manifest themselves in the future, in the form of a severe narcissistic disorder.