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Narcissism v. Individualism

Probably the most influential essay I ever read was Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self Reliance."  One who understands this understands life: "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion []."  The individualist is what he is.  She is a person with a soul or identity.  He is not not a brand or object or commodity that demands the validation of others.  Some mistake the individualist for a narcissist.  Christopher Lasch explains the distinction in the must-read Culture of Narcissism:Narcissism represents the psychological dimension of this dependence. Notwithstanding his occasional illusions of omnipotence, the narcissist depends on others to validate his self-esteem...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on December 09, 2009 (boomark / email).