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Originally Posted by VeeDDzz`
The category - narcissist - is more clearly defined than the category - 'selfish jerk'. A narcissist is a narcissist based on very specific criteria.
To what extent are criteria purely arbitrary, because a bunch quacks (aka psychiatrists) got together and said "hey, I think it's better this way because it makes me money and gives me more patients.
To give you an example:
In the DSM IV, a diagnosis of ADHD required the presence of traits before age 7 to be diagnosed
In the DSM V, a diagnosis of ADHD required the presence of traits before age 12.
That's a huge difference. An coincidentally, it hugely increases psychiatrist wellbeing and drug company profits and insurer liability to pay for those profits.
All the profession have really done in defining these terms is take common categories of socially undesirable behavior, put clinical words (akin to religious jargon) around them, and called them a new thing. OP's point is that they're really not. A narcissist is a selfish jerk with a few clinical words and constraints added. It's no different to a selfish jerk. There's nothing new here; it's just now couched in cult jargon and given a stamp of authority by the high priest; it becomes canon. It's really no different to priests in the old times diagnosing sins or spiritual maladies according to the church-decided list of no-nos
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A 'selfish jerk' to a hippy is different to what a 'selfish jerk' is to a capitalist. In fact, is there such a thing as a selfish jerk to a capitalist? This may be a more interesting thread.
And narcissism is different from one psychologist to another. A person can go to different psychologists and get different diagnoses and treatments. Repeatability is very low is psychiatric diagnosis, except for major obvious illness which a child could classify.