Self(ish) Love

Diary,

Have you ever read the handbook for mental disorders? It’s called the DVSM I think...anyway, people joke that you shouldn’t read it because you wind up thinking you have every illness they describe (same goes for books on physical illness) but I guess listening to other people’s advice has never been my forte.

So, I had some time on the train and I decided to read up on what my favorite writer’s (Cat Marnell) ex best friend was diagnosed with. He had a type of narcissism that was mixed with antisocial personality disorder and it’s called malignant narcissistic personality disorder. It’s still not in the big book o’ crazy yet but it’s established enough that it has an asterisk.  

Anyways, it turns out there are many different types of narcissism. There’s amorous narcissism, elitist narcissism, literally there were so many subsets it made me think, what if I’m a narcissist?

Actually, my first thought was wow, that sounds a lot like Karl then I read more, and I realized it sounded like Jamie or Mickey...then I thought well what makes you think they’re not reading this very Wikipedia page and thinking about you?

Did you know there’s such a thing as “normal” narcissism? With the way everyone is obsessed with social media and the limelight, I’m beginning to think maybe we all fall into that category. There are even classes on how to build a “personal brand”. Maybe the reason narcissism is so rarely diagnosed is because it’s hard to tell who’s truly sick and who’s trying to make it in this crazy world.