Healthy level of self esteem is very much required and it is essential to lead a happy life.
When a person is having low self esteem there are two possible routes.
- One is to recognize low self esteem and try to focus on improving
- Second option is to feel very high and think very grand about oneself just to cover the same low self esteem – This is called Narcissism.
Narcissism might look like very very high self esteem. But it is not. In fact, narcissism is more dangerous than accepting low self esteem (and working towards improvement).Self esteem is a positive way of feeling good about oneself and narcissism is most negative approach to feel good.
Below are some of the symptoms of a narcissist.
- Arrogant behavior
- Grandiose sense of self importance
- Lack empathy
- Believes he/she is very “special” and try to associate with high status people
- Fishes for excessive compliments
Some of the very strong type A behavior people and people who focus on very high accomplishments (with above symptoms) may be narcissist category. Recently there was some debate on Donald Trump if he has narcissist personality. This is just to give an idea but I do not know if he has it or not. And, you will encounter narcissist people in offices, businesses, politics and ever where.
If you have any narcissist people with in your close circle of people, help them understand this concept. Most narcissist people are not aware that they have this issue.
YK