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1. 00:02 is pathological narcissism helpful in someone who wishes to become a leader in other words are you more likely to become a leader if you are possessed of some kind of pathological narcissism we know that healthy narcissism is as the name implies healthy it's a foundation
2. 00:21 of self-esteem and self-confidence a sense of self-worth it allows you to regulate internally your sense of worthiness and it's um also a foundational cornerstone of the ability to interact with other people from a position of self-awareness realizing your limitations and
3. 00:43 shortcomings as well as your strengths healthy narcissism is definitely a precondition for mental health and yet we are not talking about healthy narcissism everyone has a narcissism trait narcissism is hereditary genetic as a trait we are talking about pathological narcissism
4. 01:04 if you have a narcissistic style or if you have even a narcissistic personality disorder is this a good thing when you are in politics or when you are trying to become the leader of a social movement or when you're a guru or when you when you have followers and so on in
5. 01:23 other words is there a high correlation between pathological narcissism and leadership and guidance positions in life my name is Sam Vaknin i'm the author of malignant self-love narcissism revisited and a professor of psychology and the answer like everything else in
6. 01:42 psychology is it depends i know that's the answer you've been looking for and I'm here to enlighten you it depends on what it depends on the type of politics prevalent in the environment in which the individual operates on the type of society and on
7. 02:00 the type of the ethos the social mores and social norms and conventions and the narrative that binds the collective together let's break this down type of politics in previous videos I've made a distinction between webarian webbarian politics and charismatic
8. 02:23 politics webarian politics is a form of politics that is institutional bureaucratic and impersonal it's named after Max Weber the famous sociologist and so in webarian politics institutions determine policies and institutions implement policies and the individual
9. 02:46 gets in touch with a faceless and often heartless bureaucracy which implements almost robotically policies decided in the hidden corridors of power there's no face there's no individual which is identified with any specific element or combination of components of the
10. 03:07 institutional bureaucratic state the European Union is an example of a webarian institution and then we have charismatic politics charismatic politics revolves around an individual usually a single one sometimes a group of individuals and this individual is
11. 03:27 the face of the politics of the time this individual determines a variety of policies in in many fields and then uses existing or new in parallel institutions to implement his or her policies this individual is charismatic usually demagogic and there's a personality cult
12. 03:50 involved in the majority of cases it's a cult in effect these are the two and Donald Trump is an example these are the two situations these are the two types of politics and of course narcissism especially pathological narcissism pro affords affords the individual a
13. 04:09 competitive edge is a positive adaptation in a charismatic type of politics when politics revolves around charisma around um ability to communicate efficaciously around magnetism personal magnetism in this particular case pathological narcissism is very helpful and even
14. 04:34 psychopathy is helpful because of the superficial glib charm which is one of the main clinical features of these disorders the second condition is the type of society we have collectivist societies example Japan and individualistic societies example the United States in
15. 04:56 collectivist societies pathological narcissism is a hindrance it's an obstacle it's a disadvantage narcissistic leaders are not appreciated nor are they promoted or obeyed in collectivist societies it is the collective that is the repository of
16. 05:15 wisdom decision making and um action so
17. 05:21 in collectivist societies pathological narcissists are unlikely to rise to the top whereas in individualistic societies as Theodore Milan and others have observed in individualistic societies pathological narcissism is actually a positive adaptation an advantage and
18. 05:40 allows individuals with pathological narcissism to rise to the top to hijack power to leverage it and to enhance it time and again in the pursuit of the affirmation and butressing of a grandio inflated fantastic self-concept the third condition is ethos the type of ethos
19. 06:06 as Bradley Campbell the sociologist has had observed we are in the throws in the midst of a transition from the age of shame reputation dignity and reality an age where social control was channeled through the shaming of people and reputational costs associated with
20. 06:30 misbehavior where people have emphasized dignity and respectability in the eyes of others the external gaze defined them and where people were grounded in reality because they had no other choice they had to survive so we are transitioning from this era from this
21. 06:48 age to a new postmodern age where the emphasis is on negative effectivity such as rage negative effects such as rage or envy fantasy not reality a rejection of reality and spectacle is the organizing and explanatory principle of society obviously in shamebased reputational
22. 07:15 dignity or dignified societies where the emphasis is on reality pathological narcissism is an obstacle and impediment to personal development and the attainment of leadership positions whereas in postmodern societies where the emphasis is on negative emotions
23. 07:34 such as rage and envy and hatred on fantasy rather than reality and on spectacle rather than substance on appearances rather than substance in these type of societies of co of this type of ethos of course the narcissistic individual is uniquely equipped to take
24. 07:52 advantage and to climb to the top and to emerge as the predominant uh leader narcissists are experts at fantasy they do fantasy well they their entire lives are constructed around an ongoing uninterrupted spectacle and they're full of negative effects such as envy and
25. 08:15 narcissistic rage they're uniquely equipped and uniquely fit this new environment these are the three conditions so let's summarize if the um type of politics is charismatic if the emphasis is on charisma and a single leader with a personality cult if the society is
26. 08:38 individualistic and rewards individualism ambition competitiveness and so on and if the ethos is an ethos of negative effects externalized aggression fantasy rather than reality and spectacle rather than substance then this kind of environment kind of
27. 08:58 ecosystem and habitat are uniquely positioned uniquely accepting of narcissist narcissistic pathologies and pathological narcissists are likely to emerge on top as uh because they are uniquely equipped to survive and thrive in such environments