As ManMachine has said, it depends what your definition is.
There was once a good friend of mine from college that, from my perspective, devolved into narcissism. Does that count?
I say "devolved" because I remember him differently in college. Back then, he was nerdy and at times socially oblivious but really seemed like a nice guy who would always apologize if he had one of those moments of being socially oblivious.
As he got older, he made a lot of really bad choices which basically resulted in his life completely falling apart in every department, financially, professionally, socially and romantically. If he'd taken any responsibility for his choices, he might have learned from his mistakes and turned things around. Evidently, his pride wouldn't allow that.
Instead, he developed a powerful victim mentality, always blaming other people who were always out to get him for no reason. Nothing was ever his fault. This was his psychological death spiral. The more he failed, the more he retreated into a fantasy world of persecution, the more he became disconnected from reality, the more he became incapable of coping with reality and so the more he failed.
Some good advice I once received but failed to heed in this case: if you are involved with a victim-conscious person, watch out because you'll be the next person who's fault everything is.
The psychology term that, from my layman's perspective, described his condition, is "compensatory narcissistic personality disorder." The "compensatory" part describes the victim style. Unlike normal narcissists who lash out in rages when they don't get their way, the compensatory type will whine like the stereotypical Jewish mother trope. But don't be fooled into thinking the passive-aggressive behavior is harmless. In his mind, you've wronged him by not catering to his narcissism and will look for ways to "get even".
There were warning signs of his deterioration that I see in retrospect. He started telling stories of his previous experiences and exploits that didn't seem likely. Since we lived in other states after we graduated from college, I couldn't say that these stories weren't true but they seemed kind of outlandish. They were the "...and there I was..." kind of tales. As the years past, the stories got better with the telling.
Narcissists, unless they have some unique talents or wealth, typically encounter failure since they antagonize others. As reality conflicts with their inflated view of themselves and their sense of entitlement, they begin to focus more on an invented glorious past that never happened and a vision of a glorious future that is unlikely to ever happen. The extreme form of narcissism is "pathological narcissism", where their grasp of reality is all but gone as the divide between their fantasy world and reality becomes blurry. At the end of our friendship, he was even remembering conversations that never happened and "promises" I never made.
What caused the end of our friendship was where he verbally poisoned a friendship I had with someone else. Oddly enough, when I confronted him, he simultaneously professed his innocence, that he hadn't done it, and also accused me of provoking him to do it with imagined slights that I had never done. He had completely lost it.
I don't regret my choice to break off all ties with my former friend. It was tragic what happened to him but I don't feel sorry for him. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't look on his condition as a mental illness he couldn't have helped. He made choices. They were tragic choices but they were his.
There was once a good friend of mine from college that, from my perspective, devolved into narcissism. Does that count?
I say "devolved" because I remember him differently in college. Back then, he was nerdy and at times socially oblivious but really seemed like a nice guy who would always apologize if he had one of those moments of being socially oblivious.
As he got older, he made a lot of really bad choices which basically resulted in his life completely falling apart in every department, financially, professionally, socially and romantically. If he'd taken any responsibility for his choices, he might have learned from his mistakes and turned things around. Evidently, his pride wouldn't allow that.
Instead, he developed a powerful victim mentality, always blaming other people who were always out to get him for no reason. Nothing was ever his fault. This was his psychological death spiral. The more he failed, the more he retreated into a fantasy world of persecution, the more he became disconnected from reality, the more he became incapable of coping with reality and so the more he failed.
Some good advice I once received but failed to heed in this case: if you are involved with a victim-conscious person, watch out because you'll be the next person who's fault everything is.
The psychology term that, from my layman's perspective, described his condition, is "compensatory narcissistic personality disorder." The "compensatory" part describes the victim style. Unlike normal narcissists who lash out in rages when they don't get their way, the compensatory type will whine like the stereotypical Jewish mother trope. But don't be fooled into thinking the passive-aggressive behavior is harmless. In his mind, you've wronged him by not catering to his narcissism and will look for ways to "get even".
There were warning signs of his deterioration that I see in retrospect. He started telling stories of his previous experiences and exploits that didn't seem likely. Since we lived in other states after we graduated from college, I couldn't say that these stories weren't true but they seemed kind of outlandish. They were the "...and there I was..." kind of tales. As the years past, the stories got better with the telling.
Narcissists, unless they have some unique talents or wealth, typically encounter failure since they antagonize others. As reality conflicts with their inflated view of themselves and their sense of entitlement, they begin to focus more on an invented glorious past that never happened and a vision of a glorious future that is unlikely to ever happen. The extreme form of narcissism is "pathological narcissism", where their grasp of reality is all but gone as the divide between their fantasy world and reality becomes blurry. At the end of our friendship, he was even remembering conversations that never happened and "promises" I never made.
What caused the end of our friendship was where he verbally poisoned a friendship I had with someone else. Oddly enough, when I confronted him, he simultaneously professed his innocence, that he hadn't done it, and also accused me of provoking him to do it with imagined slights that I had never done. He had completely lost it.
I don't regret my choice to break off all ties with my former friend. It was tragic what happened to him but I don't feel sorry for him. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't look on his condition as a mental illness he couldn't have helped. He made choices. They were tragic choices but they were his.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
