Think Again!

Appendices • 177

Appendix 6 Selected Quotes on Narcissism

I. In his book, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations , 86 Christopher Lasch makes the point that psychological problems change over time and across different cultures. What was common in the first half of the 20th century was different than the last half of the century. This suggests to me that the work of principalities and powers understand which deceptions are most effective in each culture, place, or time. Demonic efforts to steal, kill, and destroy are adapted to fit a cultural setting in order to keep people bound and under their controlling influence. Since the 1950s in the USA, narcissism appears to have been the strategy of choice for evil spirits to do their pillaging work. If so, it is helpful to know more about narcissism as a cluster of lies that is keeping Americans bound. People in other cultures will experience a different cluster of lies. The following are selected quotes from Lasch’s book (which is not written from a Christian perspective). A. “People have convinced themselves that what matters is psychic self-improvement: getting in touch with their feelings, eating health food, taking lessons in ballet or belly-dancing, immersing themselves in the wisdom of the East, jogging, learning how to ‘relate,’ overcoming the ‘fear of pleasure’” (p. 4). B. “He complains ‘of vague, diffuse dissatisfactions with life’ and feels his ‘amorphous existence to be futile and purposeless.’ He describes ‘subtly experienced yet pervasive feelings of emptiness and depression,’ ‘violent oscillations of self-esteem,’ and ‘a general inability to get along.’ He gains ‘a sense of heightened self-esteem