Le narcissisme, l'un des facteurs psychologiques de la crise?

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Le narcissisme, l'un des facteurs psychologiques de la crise?

Dedefensa analysant souvent notre époque sous l'angle “psycho-politique”, permettez-nous d'apporter une petite pierre à cet édifice.

Nombreux sont ceux qui, aux Etats-Unis même, s'élèvent contre le narcissisme et le sentiment du “tout m'est dû” (entitlement) auxquels ont conduit les dérives d'une culture du moi et de l'estime de soi mal comprises et portées à leur extrême.

Spécialistes du sujet, puisque auteurs de plusieurs études et de livres soulignant ces dérives et mettant en garde contre leurs effets, les professeurs de psychologie Jean Twenge (Université de San Diego) et Keith Campbell (Université de Géorgie) n'hésitent pas à faire de ce trait de personnalité l'une des causes de la crise économique.

Extraits de leur ouvrage commun The Narcissism Epidemic; Living in the Age of Entitlement (Free Press, avril 09, http://www.narcissismepidemic.com/index.html) :

«Narcissism is not simply a confident attitude or a healthy feeling of self-worth. As we explore in Chapters 2 and 3, narcissists are overconfident, not just confident, and – unlike most people high in self-esteem – place little value on emotionally close relationships. We will also address other myths, like “narcissists are insecure” (they’re typically not), and “it’s necessary to be narcissistic to succeed today” (in most contexts, and long-term, narcissism is actually a deterrent to success).

»Understanding the narcissism epidemic is important because its long-term consequences are destructive to society. American culture’s focus on self-admiration has caused a flight from reality to the land of grandiose fantasy. We have phony rich people (with interest-only mortgages and piles of debt), phony beauty (with plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures), phony athletes (with performance-enhancing drugs), phony celebrities (via reality TV and YouTube), phony Genius students (with grade inflation), a phony national economy (with 11 trillion dollars of government debt), phony feelings of being spécial among children (with parenting and education focused on self-esteem), and phony friends (with the social networking explosion). All this fantasy might feel good, but, unfortunately, reality always wins. The mortgage meltdown and the resulting financial crisis are just one demonstration of how inflated desires eventually crash to earth. […]

»Narcissists have a high tolerance for risks, because they are so confident they are right and that things will go well. For this reason, narcissists are successful when investing in bull markets, when their overconfidence and willingness to take risks pays off. In a study using a simulated stock market, narcissists did better than others in when the market was headed up. Of course, this Superior performance disappeared as soon as the market turned south – then narcissists lost their shirts due to their higher tolerance for risk…»

Sylvain Michelet