Generation Me

As a mother of 1 teen and a 25 yr. old, bravo Raina Kelley!!!!!!!!!! This self entitlement attitude is not only college age, these kids learn this behavior from the time they come out of the womb and iv'e seen it in the Jr. high and high schools. I try very hard to let my kids know to " get over yourselves" and respect, priveledge, and such is earned and not a given right just because you walk this earth. Again, thank you.

What should we call this generation? The Me generation? nope, taken. What about the greed decade? nope, also taken. How about we call ourselves, ironically, the Greatest generation?

Tempest in a Teapot?
The primary scientific evidence for the existence of an ???epidemic of narcissism??? involves changes over time (1979 to 2006) in college student???s scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. However, there is ongoing debate in the psychological literature concerning the merit of this evidence (for a summary, see www.balancedpsych.com).
Given this debate, what remains is loads of anecdotal evidence based on selected segments of the population. It makes for fun and interesting reading, but I???ve been teaching at the college level for 35 years, and I???m not at all convinced that there really is an epidemic of narcissism.

Thank you Raina Kelley!

I totally agree with what you have to say. As a twenty six year old teacher I am currently nontenured. We are pretty much told not to make waves, let the parents get their way, and to watch how we address the children. Generally I'm scared to write comment on my kids papers and projects because they will fight their grade. Even if their work looks like they did it in the bus into school that morning. Board of Education members who have their kids in the system have their kid's teacher's jobs in their hands. It does not matter if you have your Masters in Education, your professional opinion means nothing!

This country is in sorry shape. As a history major, and a social studies teacher I can see the trends that develope through out history. Currently the 80s teens are the parents of the present generation. Their parents were the hippies of the sixties. Through the passage of time from the hippies to the 80s now to the present generation, respect for the gift of education has been lost. All one has to do is tune into the Disney channel and view the way the kids talk to the adults and how dumb the adults act to understand the average teen's attitude.

Thank God for the 10 - 15% of students who are naturally smart and well behavied. They will keep our country afloat as China and India take over the global economy.

Dear whocares44, it's amazing how you put religion in your statement, the author only used it as an example but I respect your opinion of God, you are as free as all the other people to think whatever you want about God. In any case I'm 31 years old from Mexico city and the source of the problem are, indeed, the parents of the teenagers that are the "ME" generation, but there should be a point when they (or shall I say you) realize whenever things are wrong, that idea Egocentrism is wrong, no matter what. So, if you want to say something, leave God out of it and help your mates to be better persons.

Love the article...totally agree. I'm actually working on a piece on how unhealthy social networking sites are psychologically, only promoting narcissistic ego-centricism. A lot of this is sociocultural too, though...if the tweens of America traveled a bit more they'd see how drastically different other coutries are and might humble themselves a bit, which in my opinion is much needed for this generation.
Very well done, hope many get a chance to read it. By the way, I'm 26 myself.

I see. You've brilliant condemned this generation as unliveably narcissicistic, mostly for the crime of . . . failing to live up to your own high standards. Was this meant to be an ironic piece?

And the article - meh? You've put together a mishmash of quote from unnamed subjects and married them to breakthtaking faulty logic. ". . . can range from discorteous . . . to billion dollar Ponzi schemes." Because the ill-actions of this generation are deeply at fault for the behaviour of people like Bernie Madoff, a man born in 1938, serving millionaire clients who are probably a fair ways out of college.

Give me a break! Don???t mean to sound too harsh, but isn???t it a given that all protagonists in novels ???struggle to be good.??? Isn???t that why we read, and why we identify with them to begin with since we, too, do the same? Duh. So for someone to even consider them self to be unique or special because they are trying to do the right thing is just b.s. since that???s what we all do. It???s absolutely normal and average. However, what???s not is for someone to think that they were destined for a beauty and stature completely impossible for their loved ones to comprehend. It???s completely bizarre. Who says such a thing??!! Who even thinks such a thing?!! Perhaps someone who???s them self narcissistic? Oh, and to point out a compliment that you received like ???pretty girls are a dime a dozen," in such a back-handed way is even worse. Come on!!

Give me a break! Don???t mean to sound too harsh, but isn???t it a given that all protagonists in novels ???struggle to be good.??? Isn???t that why we read, and why we identify with them to begin with since we, too, do the same? Duh. So for someone to even consider them self to be unique or special because they are trying to do the right thing is just b.s. since that???s what we all do. It???s absolutely normal and average. However, what???s not is for someone to think that they were destined for a beauty and stature completely impossible for their loved ones to comprehend. It???s completely bizarre. Who says such a thing??!! Who even thinks such a thing?!! Perhaps someone who???s them self narcissistic? Oh, and to point out a compliment that you received like ???pretty girls are a dime a dozen," in such a back-handed way is even worse. Come on!!

This country / continent is founded on the genocide of indigenous peoples your forefathers were such self righteous Christians, they were the ultimate combination of narcissism and evil, they committed a crime against humanity and justice has not been served. Christianity / Catholic Church is the oil that greases the souls and conscious of greedy politicians and corporations which the next generation aspires to take over. Just ask any republican or any politician what it means to be human and out will spew this narcissistic evil of self righteousness. We live in a system where right is wrong and wrong is left and other subliminal messages adding to this backwards place of insanity. So go Crazy man you deserve it. Now that???s justice.

where do you get the confidence to speak so bold? you lie to yourself, that what you say is relevant to anyone other than the rich and coddled such as yourself. "look in the mirror, keep on shinin'"...narcissist...usurper

to the president of T.I.N.A. --

I can understand your interest at this time in your life in squeezing as much out of life as you can in focussing on what makes you happy. I look at that as part of healthy narcissistic coping mechanisms. As the survivor of an abusive relationship with a true Narcissist, however, I want to emphasize that what you are talking about, and what it REALLY means to be a narcissist are two vastly different things. Redefine your life and your own paradigm all you want, there is no better time to be empowered than now, no better person to love you than yourself.

But please dont try to redefine the meaning of Narcissist. It is in reality a hopeless and never-ending starvation for affirmation by sucking the goodness out of other people, and I dont believe thats who you or your girlfriends are as human beings. Narcissists leave a path of destruction and broken people behind them. They are most often pathological liars, manipulators, conmen, betrayers of people's goodfaith, they charm their ways into all forms of taking rather than giving.

Flight attendants in telling mothers to place oxygen masks on themselves before placing them on their children increase the possibility of saving the lives of both mother and child. Thats not narcissistic. A Narcissist would reach over and grab the oxygen mask for herself while depriving it from passengers like you and push you away as you struggle for your own life and the life of your child.

Two VASTLY different things.

So please, think of the MANY survivors like me who know all too well, the ugliness, destruction and abusiveness of the real word when you use it for your support group of women friends.

Maybe think of doing some fundraising for your local womens shelter, where so many survivors of narcissistic abuse end up?

And thank your lucky stars you dont have appeared to have had to live with a spouse or a parent that was truly a Narcissist.

oops I note my comment should have been addressed to the author of the article, who is Raina Kelley and the book by Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, which I presume is on the same topic as Christopher Lasch's excellent book, "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations".

Sarah Kliff, while I commend your commenting on the current narcissistic society, I think you are confounding vanity, selfishness, the cult of celebrity, overblown self-worth and pathological narcissism (NPD), which is an emotional illness, all pervasive and not treatable with doses of humility, diminished finances or attempts to put others first. This topic was written about brilliantly in "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, a 1979 book by the cultural historian Christopher Lasch (1932 - 1994) explores the roots and ramifications of the normalizing of pathological narcissism in 20th century American culture using psychological, cultural, artistic and historical synthesis."

Mere self-centeredness or lack of consideration for others in children who have been badly parented are ugly traits but a person who is emotionally healthy can change that narrow perspective, become fully empathy endowed, caring and grounded. A person with narcissistic personality disorder however is stuck that way, for life. It's not a healable disorder and society needs to learn to protect itself from those who have it, may be very accomplished in some ways but brutally destructive and predatory in others.

If narcissistic young adults have children they will likely breed raging narcissists, truly disordered children, who will wreak havoc on the world. Healthier parenting is essential for a workable future of the world.

Sarah Kliff, while I commend your commenting on the current narcissistic society, I think you are confounding vanity, selfishness, the cult of celebrity, overblown self-worth and pathological narcissism (NPD), which is an emotional illness, all pervasive and not treatable with doses of humility, diminished finances or attempts to put others first. This topic was written about brilliantly in "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, a 1979 book by the cultural historian Christopher Lasch (1932 - 1994) explores the roots and ramifications of the normalizing of pathological narcissism in 20th century American culture using psychological, cultural, artistic and historical synthesis."

Mere self-centeredness or lack of consideration for others in children who have been badly parented are ugly traits but a person who is emotionally healthy can change that narrow perspective, become fully empathy endowed, caring and grounded. A person with narcissistic personality disorder however is stuck that way, for life. It's not a healable disorder and society needs to learn to protect itself from those who have it, may be very accomplished in some ways but brutally destructive and predatory in others.

If narcissistic young adults have children they will likely breed raging narcissists, truly disordered children, who will wreak havoc on the world. Healthier parenting is essential for a workable future of the world.

It's not really fair to compare this generation with ponzi schemes... Madoff was born before WW2. In fact, I don't even think anyone from this generation would even be smart enough to pull off such a scheme. In any case failed marriages are a problem in every generation and I can think of many generations prior to this one where working environments were far more abusive than they are today. At most we can call this a personality aesthetic issue, but without hard evidence of what this narcissism is actually causing, you just sound like an old man yelling "damn those crazy kids!" -- of course I'm sure the explanation is in the book you're trying to sell.