From Psychology Today:
…narcissism isn’t just a combination of monumental self-esteem and rudeness. As a personality type, it ranges from a tendency to a serious clinical disorder, encompassing unexpected, even counterintuitive behavior. The Greek myth of Narcissus ends with the beautiful young man lost to the world, content to forever gaze at his own reflection in a pool of water. Real-life narcissists, however, desperately need other people to validate their own worth. “It’s not so much being liked. It’s much more important to be admired. Studies have shown narcissists are willing to sacrifice being liked if they think it’s necessary to be admired,” says Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Deep desire to be at the center of things is served by extreme self-confidence, a combination that makes narcissists attractive and even charming. Buoyed by a coterie of admiring friends and associates—protected by the armor of positive self-regard—someone with a mild-to-moderate case of narcissism can float through life feeling pretty good about himself. Since they feel entitled to special treatment, they are easily offended, and readily harbor grudges. Yet narcissists are often very popular—at least in the short term.
The beauty of being a narcissist is that even when disaster stares you in the face, you feel neither doubt nor remorse. In a study, researchers asked a pair of participants to undertake a task that was rigged to fail. Most people tend to protect their partner, sharing either the credit or the blame. “But the narcissists would say, ‘It’s totally the other person’s fault.’ They’re completely willing to step on someone,” says narcissism researcher Keith Campbell, associate professor of social psychology at the University of Georgia.
Intensely narcissistic people often live tumultuous lives, as few people can tolerate them for long…
A narcissist can be hard to identify, in part because he is likely to be much more fascinating than you would expect for someone so self-absorbed, and in part because you wouldn’t think someone with such self-regard could be so defensive and needy.
See here.
What was clear from both his fact-avoiding presentation in the well of the Illinois State Senate and his post-removal press conference in which Ex-Gov B-Rod couldn’t help himself in seeking or basking in the attention of adorers and interlocutors alike, is that Rod Blagojevich loves the spotlight and cannot accept blame for his faults.
He also sees all the world as an extension of or a participant in his own personal dramas, as when he told reporters following his ouster that his plight was comparable in some way to all those people who’ve lost work in the recent recession.
Hmmm. What other impeached or nearly impeached, though neither removed from office chief executives might this remind us of?
[This has been crossposted at my personal blog.]