Статті в журналах з теми "Narcissistic foundations"

This paper is a critical response to the article by professors P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov “The Onset of Narcissistic Culture: Consequences for Education, Science and Politics”. The idea of treating Western post-war culture as narcissistic has been expressed in the United States since the 1970s of the XX century, but it will also be relevant in relation to the post-Soviet culture of Russia. Considering the ambiguity of the cognitive metaphor of Narcissus in relation to the described socio-cultural transformations caused by the possibility of an almost arbitrary interpretation of something as narcissism, the article presents its own interpretation of the foundations of narcissistic culture. Following the idea of opposing a narcissistic culture to a culture of service, modern narcissism is viewed not so much as an individual’s selfishness, but as a loss of an object and opportunity for service. Secularism, understood in the spirit of Charles Taylor as the loss of any higher, transcendent, hierarchical ontological concepts, deprives a person of a higher authority that legitimizes any service to something. This means a horizontal ontology of equivalent objects that do not have the highest value in relation to the individual. Post-traditionalism means impermanence, “fluidity” of any institutionalized forms of sociality and their perception, the dynamics of the emergence and decline of which does not allow the individual to find an object of service. A person remains in conditions of “minimal humanism”, which means that this person, having neither a higher reality that determines it, nor the constancy of social institutions, remains for himself the only possible value, a kind of “narcissist against his will”. We also believe that narcissism is not an external, but an internal factor of social processes that constitutes the motives and interests of the participants in these processes. While agreeing with the thesis about the connection between narcissistic culture and postmodernity, we believe that it is not a “young culture” opposite to mass society. On the contrary, narcissistic culture is the culture of a mass society that has gone further along the path of secularism, post-traditionalism and humanism, just as postmodernity is called late, far-reaching modernity by such sociologists as E. Giddens, U. Beck, Ju. Habermas.

Different conceptions of narcissism exist within the literature such as grandiose, vulnerable, pathological, collective, and communal, each of which can be measured using self-report measures. Within the current paper, we review and discuss most of the existing measures of these different trait (i.e., non-clinical) narcissism constructs. This includes an examination of their underlying theoretical foundations and an evaluation of the scale construction process. We start our review from the one-dimensional measures of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism such as the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen, the Short Dark Triad, the Narcissistic Grandiosity Scale, the Narcissistic Vulnerability Scale, and the Single Item Narcissism Scale. Then, we introduce the multidimensional measures to study narcissism such as the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire, the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory. The r view concludes by presenting measures of understudied narcissistic constructs such as the Communal Narcissism Inventory and the Collective Narcissism Scale. In general, using one-dimensional scales might provide important insights into the general underpinnings of narcissistic personality, however assessment via multi-dimensional tools better reflects its complex nature.

The article contains a response to the previously published (Ideas and Ideals, 2021, vol. 13, iss. 3, pt. 1, pp. 84–102.) article by P. A. Orekhovsky and V. I. Razumov “The Onset of Narcissistic Culture: Consequences for Education, Science and Politics”. The author considers that the definition of culture as a narcissistic is an effective metaphor that allows to conceptualize a general tendency that now manifests itself in a number of outwardly disparate phenomena. The ethos of modern culture is the self-centeredness of its representatives, the organization and assessment of reality in relation to this center as a natural attitude. The article suggests some of the possible directions for the development of the concept. The foundations of narcissistic culture go back to the demassification of production and devaluation of objective knowledge in information dynamics. The author traces the connection between the spirit of narcissistic culture and the development of subject-practical knowledge (systematized and didactically formalized experience) as a special epistemic type and a kind of alternative to classical scientific knowledge. The article indicates the problems associated with the parallel functioning of two types of knowledge in the educational system. Another natural consequence of the onset of narcissistic culture is radical formalization of the education system, since demonstration and positioning in this type of culture are more important in comparison with the real content. In this regard, the author notes an increasing gap between the circulation of information in communication flows and the achievement of the knowledge by their participants. The generic sign of knowledge is consistency, which, among other things, involves the establishment of meaningful relationships between areas of knowledge that form both the general and professional picture of the world. Constant transformation of the organizational framework of education, controlled by formal signs, destroys, firstly, these relationships. In addition, the author evaluates pseudo-scientific knowledge as one of the manifestations of narcissistic culture. The traditional foundation of the pseudo-science is an intermediate level of education, which connects a reverence towards science with an inability to assess the content of scientific ideas. This foundation is complemented in a narcissistic culture by a general belief in the justification of any views and the sufficiency of one’s own opinion in any case. At the same time, the narcissistic culture has its own resources for growth, and the author sees the opportunity to use them, including the educational practice.

The motivational and behavioral underpinnings of three narcissistic styles were assessed. Participants completed measures of adaptive, maladaptive, and covert narcissism along with instruments assessing unconscious and conscious motives and patterns of daily behavior. Adaptive narcissism was associated with dominance and affiliation motives, maladaptive narcissism was related to high dominance and low affiliation motivation, and covert narcissism was inversely associated with both dominance and affiliation. The notion that maladaptive and covert narcissism are two distinct styles representing different forms of dis-affiliation is discussed.

In the field of psychopathology, “narcissistic and identity-related suffering” refers to a type of suffering characterized by a lack of being that centrally affects narcissism and identity continuity/discontinuity. Present in many clinical and psychopathological pictures, these problems in turn invite us to undertake a rereading of the modalities of structuration of subjectivity in the course of development. Elements for a model of identity construction are proposed based on the paradigm of the double. Approached from the angle of paradox, identity is thought of as a process in the service of “becoming a subject” based, essentially, on the role of the object and its reflexive function. Drawing on the concept of “transitional double,” this perspective allows the foundations of subjective identity and their stages of construction to be described; these foundations underlie the creation of an internal psychic mirror, the locus of one’s relationship to self. These considerations give us a better understanding of the logics of narcissistic and identity-related pathologies, which are characterized in particular by a failure of reflexive capacities, revealing the uncertainties of the dual relational dynamic in the course of early development.

A response to the article by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov “The Onset of Narcissistic Culture: Consequences for Education, Science and Politics” is proposed. Agreeing with the theses of this article, the author offers a look at the problems posed from the standpoint of institutional and communication approaches. This approach seems methodologically justified and no less relevant, since the problems posed require a deeper explanation. It is shown that narcissism as a special cultural phenomenon is not only a factor external to the subjects, but is also a factor affecting class and group interests. Narcissistic culture should not be recognized as an object of manipulation, since it decisively affects state institutions, as well as social, economic, political and spiritual spheres. The ability of any cultural phenomenon to orient the state towards a person and his spiritual development is also expressed in the possibility of disorientation. It is proposed to consider narcissistic culture as a result of the influence of the theory of separation of powers introduced into the domestic state-building, which does not always contribute to the preservation of the state’s right to identity, dissimilarity and originality. The choice of such a principle of state development can be explained by the aesthetic ideal and the desire for beauty and perfection. At the same time, ignoring the influence of narcissistic culture on the relations of executive, legislative and judicial functions of state power, it is impossible to determine the state of group and class interests and the ways of further development of the state, security of its citizens. The influence of narcissistic culture on the activities of state institutions and authorities does not contribute to their consolidation and unification to solve current problems and ensure the real public interests of modern society and each of its members. The culture of narcissism, being a complex social phenomenon, has affected almost all spheres of human existence; from the psychological foundations of intimate relationships to the philosophical understanding of the structure of society. Personalization, narcissism, and the experience of inner emptiness are accompanied by depression, cruelty, indifference, lack of mercy and reverence for the world around them. The connection between narcissism and the materialization of thinking, the influence of the philosophy of science and technology on interference in human nature and its habitat is substantiated. The ways of getting out of narcissistic captivity and filling the deficit of a favorable attitude to oneself are proposed. The author concludes that youth, one of the properties of narcissistic culture, is a strong external factor capable of restoring the ability to live objectively here and now.

The subject of this research is the individual psychological characteristics for learning teamwork skills. The relevance of the selected topic is defined by solving the tasks of teaching team interaction skills in the process of professional training of specialists, as well by insufficient empirical data on psychological mechanisms of pedagogical influence upon the effectiveness of tram-building process. The goal consists in comparing individual traits of the students and nature of their relationships, which determine the type of team interaction. For achieving the set goal and verification of the advanced hypothesis, the author surveyed teams of students (N=11) based on quasi-experimental plan. Along with the comparative design and correlation design, the author also applied the following psychodiagnostic methods: Eysenck's Personality Inventory (EPI), questionnaire for emotional intelligence by D. V. Lusin, “lifestyle index” method (adapted by L. I. Wasserman and others), characterological questionnaire by G. Shmishek, self-esteem model by A. Budassi; as well as statistical methods: Kruskal-Wallis criterion, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Based on the acquired results, the author empirically describes the types of team: “introverted”, “restless-intellectual”, “inconsistent”, “narcissistic”, and “aggressive-manipulative”. Comparability of the types of teams with characteristics of “dark triad-tetrad” is determined. The novelty of this work consists in the empirical substantiation of differential approach towards teaching teamwork skills, as well as in outlining the two key trends in pedagogical work with the students. The first is aimed at overcoming social insecurity by means of intellectual self-affirmation. The second implies the students’ desire to exercise control over emotions and the object of relations. The proposed recommendations for work with each type of team can be implemented in pedagogical practice of the higher school.

The current research seeks to know the nature of the relationship between narcissistic leadership and dogmatic behavior in the men's ready-made garments factory in Al-Najaf Governorate, and its importance is represented in its attempt to bridge the knowledge gap between the two variables of the study. In addition to laying the correct and appropriate foundations to address a realistic problem that directly affects the work environment in one of the most important production institutions, so the researcher used the random sample method and distributed 125 questionnaires to a number of male and female employees in the aforementioned factory. The number of questionnaires retrieved was 124. As for the valid for statistical analysis, the number reached (122), with an average of (97%) of the retrieved questionnaires.

The work continues the rethinking by the authors of the phenomena of changes in education, science and the structure of power in the 21st century within the framework of the philosophy of culture. The concepts of “carnival” according to M.M. Bakhtin, “the soul of culture” according to O. Spengler, Dionysianism (and neo-paganism) by F. Nietzsche are used for this work. The central problem of this study is the legitimation of the political regime of liberal democracy in the context of a narcissistic culture. The latter, due to its internal characteristics, does not allow the existence of any internal authority, the approval of which would provide a moral sanction to the rule of certain political actors. History provides several options for the ontology of the legitimation process. The fi rst of them are associated with the priesthood that existed in the conditions of the domination of pagan culture, the Abrahamic religions that replaced it developed their own sacred mechanisms for granting sanctions to power. The most important shift occurs during the Modern: mass culture is forming, the role of moral authority is shifting from priests to scientists. To achieve legitimacy, political actors must ensure the progress of society on the basis of new advances in science and technology. The legitimacy is also challenged with the help of scientifi c argumentation – the authorities are presented with claims of erroneous technical and economic decisions that have entailed negative socioeconomic and/or environmental consequences. An extreme but signifi cant case is the challenge of scientifi c foundations of politics, as was the case in the case of Soviet Marxism. Expanded reproduction of science and education in the 20th century erodes the former exclusivity of the scientifi c elite and at the same time eliminates the scientist mechanism of political legitimation. The situation is reversed: now, in order to continue pursuing science and education, the former authorities must prove their usefulness to the authorities and society. But the same thing happens with the authorities themselves: offi cials and deputies turn into “servants of people” and explain their necessity to society with the help of representatives of the humanities. They do not rule anymore but produce public goods in exchange for taxes. Bakhtin’s carnival is triumphing. The regime of liberal democracy that ensured the protection of rights of minorities is close to narcissistic culture, in the center of which is the need for freedom and self-realization of the individual. At the same time, however, any authority – political or scientifi c – has a conditional legitimacy here. The proportion of partisans is growing – actors who recognize the legality of the existing social order but deny its internal justice. Fragility and instability are inherent in liberal democracy. The longevity of such a political regime is ensured by the rise of neo-paganism. Unlike previous pagan cults there is no separate social group of sacrifi ces. Thus, the problem of legitimation is removed: what is already there automatically becomes legitimate. With the help of the liberal discourse, each individual political personality is instilled that it has all the full rights, and the state is left with only responsibilities for the service of this personality: this is the uncontested meaning of Fukuyama’s ‘last man’.

The edifice of civilization stands on water-energy-food nexus, speech, trading management and complexity. This paper, presents a mini review of these issues which are the foundations of civilization, and discusses their role in social prosperity. Recent year public discussion emerges that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could strike cities due to natural or artificial reasons therefore, we attempt to describe the impact of an EMP from the viewpoint of civil engineering. To do so, we analyze the fundamental parts of civilization in present, their roles, and their functions. Analysis estimates that an EMP will not regress cities of developed world to the 1970s or even in the Middle Ages, but rather before the agrarian era. It is noted that while the developed world will be more vulnerable, the least developed countries, could exhibit more resilience. Additionally, this paper considers the way societies and cities could demonstrate more resilience, framing the need for further research such as: technological adaptation; study and simulations of related scenarios; design of water-energy-food nexus for survival clusters; resilience measures for money, economy, communications, and trading. As we have a very small timeframe of data (less than 200 years) of the appearance and the effects of EMP, we have to study it, even if the wish is that we will never confront it. It seems unreasonable for our narcissistic and wonderful civilization to behave like ostrich hiding its’ head in the sand in order to be hidden by this threat.

In ensuring the success of an entrepreneurial endeavor, multiple factors come into play. One important aspect is the personality trait of said individual such as narcissism. In Malaysia, there are studies conducted on narcissism in publicly listed companies and CEOs’ earnings management, but lacking research on entrepreneurs and their impact on business performance. This conceptual paper aims to explore the level of narcissism in Malaysian entrepreneurs and how narcissistic traits impact businesses. The theory of Stimulus-Organism-Response is used as the underpinning foundation for framing the relations of the variables to narrow the gap of understanding entrepreneurs’ narcissistic traits impact specifically in the Malaysian region. After reviewing abundant related literature, three main factors are poised as the stimulus portion of the framework; risk-taking activities, propensity towards entrepreneurship, and business competencies. Meanwhile, the organism portion is represented by the narcissistic trait, and the response portion is evaluated in terms of business performance. The implication of this paper is to spur a more in-depth probe into this matter and further enhance entrepreneurs’ successes in the future with preventive measures.

Many studies today mark significant increase in narcissistic personality traits among youth population of western countries. Highly destructive impact of narcissistic pattern on individual and society is making their timely recognition, assessment and treatment to be the task of great importance. Results of primary empirical approbation of Russian language version of measure for pathological narcissism assessment in the sample of 75 Moscow University level students are presented in article (grunt RSF № 14-18-03461). The seven-factor structure of the instrument was replicated in the data analysis accounting for 64 % of the variance. Measures of internal consis- tency and external validity were acceptable. The study was performed by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (grant № 14- 18-03461) at the Federal Medical Research Centre of Psychiatry and Narcology under the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation.

Abstract In the game of drive, the Eros has the role of psychically binding excitations, so that a tolerable quantity of psychic energy is maintained, avoiding a traumatic spill of libidinal energy. Freud discovers the possibility of impulse entanglement by directing destructiveness outwards through the action of the libido. When the child is insufficiently invested by the environment he develops in, his psychism will develop on a fragile foundation. This frailness can be encapsulated in a rigid protective shell that will not allow for authentic development. We speak of a narcissistic deficit that leads either to an internal dynamic that aims to repair the deficit of primary investment, or to an internal dynamic that perpetuates this deficit. Defense mechanisms specific to narcissistic functioning are idealization and devaluation, and the need for reparation can emerge only after acknowledgement of the narcissistic wound. The sentiment of one’s own worth is disturbed in both situations, the identity nucleus itself being affected. The person would feel shame, sentiments of inferiority, permanently in need of reassurance regarding his/her worth. The capacity to love will be conditioned by the establishment of a good contact with the authentic self, through valuing the self, recognizing one’s own needs and identities.

The rising prevalence of alcoholism has prompted numerous studies investigating its co- occurrence with mental health disorders. This research investigates the connection between alcohol dependency and the co-occurrence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) traits in individuals residing in Biratnagar. It aims to assess the prevalence of BPD and NPD symptoms in alcohol consumers using an exploratory quantitative research design. The sample consisted of 100 respondents from ward number 12 of Biratnagar Metropolitan City. BPD is associated with an addictive personality, extending beyond substances, while NPD involves distorted perceptions of one’s life and others; opinions. Non-probability sampling methods were used due to the absence of official records on alcoholics in the city. Findings suggest a low likelihood of developing BPD in individuals with alcohol dependency, and alcohol consumption does not significantly contribute to the development of NPD. This research offers valuable insights into the correlation between alcohol consumption and personality disorders, shedding light on potential directions for future studies and potential clinical strategies. The research provides a foundation for improved clinical practices, future research directions, and community-based efforts to address alcohol dependency and its connection to personality disorders in Biratnagar. It underscores the need for a holistic approach to mental health and substance abuse, recognizing the complexities of individual experiences and needs

During the second half of the 20th century the literary work of Philip Rieff remained almost unnoticed due to his “reclusive” life and the development of ideas that are relevant for the future. This paper presents Rieff’s vision of the processes of culture transformation in the second half of the 20th century in the context of secularization and post-secularization, as well as in the framework of the development of a “psychological person”, which echoes the personality type of a narcissistic culture. Rieff’s conceptual foundation influenced the views of a number of thinkers of the Western type of civilization; his ideas received publicity in the Hollywood cinema, in K. Lash’s theory, and at the present time can be useful for the analysis of the emerging post-secular culture. Long before the official trend of the “return of the religion”, Ph. Rieff outlined this tendency in the cultural paradigm.

In his paper, the author points out the negative aspects of the social, political and economic development in the Republic of Slovenia, following its independence. What stands out is the uncontrolled privatisation of former public and state property, which was rooted in dishonest intentions, profiteering and greed, and resulted in a small part of the population becoming very rich. The legal system and the politics are largely to blame for the situation, as they failed to prepare suitable laws that would prevent it from happening. Trust, the very foundation of democracy, is not something that would currently be associated with the politicians. The society has witnessed the rise of narcissistic characters who only care for their own well-being and who trample over others, while the companies' executives are doing their best to eradicate any social concern. Society is being shaken by severe ideological conflicts, which prevent a national consensus on the ethical foundation of the Slovenian state and the purpose of its existence. Those who fully embraced the national sentiment and expected a historic rise of Slovenianism when Slovenia became independent were disappointed by such development of events. In recent years, historiography and psychiatry have been examining the issue in a number of publications, including monographs.

The world is competitive in every possible way, especially in the education sector, so university students tend to seek success in their academic field and try to get attention within their social circle often at any cost or effort. This leads to the presence of narcissistic personalities among the university population, stemming from underlying low self-esteem and contributing to aggression. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of narcissism in the relationship between self-esteem and aggression among university students in Sagaing. The sample comprised 1058 undergraduate students with 519 females and 539 males from undergraduate classes. Rosenberg (1965)’s self-esteem scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory by Raskin and Terry (1988) and the aggression questionnaire by Buss and Warren (2000) were used as the data gathering instruments. The findings revealed that self-esteem exhibits both a direct negative effect on aggression and an indirect positive effect mediated by narcissism. Interestingly, while high self-esteem typically acts as a deterrent to aggression, its mediation by narcissism can increase aggressive tendencies. This suggests a suppressor effect, termed competitive mediation, where the positive relationship between self-esteem and aggression is reversed when narcissism serves as a suppressor variable. As this suppressor effect is enticing for the researchers, further studies should explore the moderating factors in the relationship between self-esteem, narcissism and aggression. The study’s findings are expected to provide the foundational insights for the education policy makers to develop prevention programs for narcissism and aggression, promote professional development of educators, integrate curriculum components that address self-esteem, and implement counselling programs in educational settings.

This paper deals with an important aspect of ethics in computer society: isolation in communication systems. In the first part the author analyses the notion of self-help intimated by the computer’s many possibilities for “do-it-yourself” and working at home. Some experiments (from Denmark and Japan) concerning “the electronic cottage” prove that modern electronic communication entails the risk of being isolated and perverted by the narcissistic love of privacy. The second part focuses on some moral philosophers (especially Jean-Paul Sartre in his posthumous ethics) in order to define an ethics of help in interpersonal relations. This ethics is opposed to the ethics of self-help and may constitute a foundation for an ethical criticism of computer society. In the third part the limits of the personalist ethics of help are recognized: this ethics stresses face-to-face relations, but today it is necessary to take new considerations into account regarding responsibility at long distance in the space and time of electronic society.

What is the root cause of political polarization? In this philosophical short story, Professor Gault is having a rough day. His graduate-level class on the growing polarization in politics is just as heated and polarized as the subject they're discussing. He thinks his students are the bugs trapped in the web of rhetoric, instead of being the spider. In a daze after class, a strange woman strikes up a conversation with him and presents an alternate theory. Perhaps, she argues, the underlying foundation of our time is narcissism. Maybe politics is just fertile ground for those who want to feel like gods in a fantasy world of their own creation, where only they can fight the eternal battle of good versus evil. Perhaps polarization isn't genuine, but merely the result of narcissists attempting to wage epic battles to avoid realizing that, outside of the world they've imagined, they don't really matter.

Promoters of art-oriented non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and online NFT auction houses like Foundation, OpenSea, and SuperRare claim to be “revolutionizing” and “democratizing” the worlds of art and art collecting by deploying blockchain technology to track sales and purchases and thereby eliminating the threats of transactional opacity and fraud that have long plagued art markets. This article complicates such claims by arguing that with NFTs, the usual clamoring for authenticity in art becomes so abstract that only code remains, as the aesthetic object becomes effectively indistinct from the account of its provenance and transaction history. An NFT, like a financial derivative, has no necessary or representational relationship with any actual underlying object. The artwork associated with the token is, rather, prised apart from its existence as property and finds its use not in being seen or felt, but in the truth of its copyability. Looking beyond the NFTs themselves, this article interrogates the discourses promulgating this trend. Comment threads in Reddit and Discord groups, for example, do much to channel the libidinal energy elicited by an artwork, while the digital token itself generates an acquisitive enthusiasm wholly apart from the sensation of seeing or hearing the associated work. Despite fronting radical social change, NFTs ultimately reinforce traditional forms of property and ownership, exhibit reactionary aesthetic and cultural values, and anticipate increasingly authoritarian modes of social control. Taking a wider view, I consider ours an age of post-information, wherein, contrary to Bateson’s classic definition of information in terms of a doubled difference, we find data-based artifacts like NFTs (following cryptocurrency) to be increasingly productive of widespread social and political indifference, a perpetuation of sameness, and an augmentation of the narcissistic ego. In this case: data as the afterlife of art.

IntroductionHospitalization in neonatology constitutes a narcissistic wound for the mother. This mother-baby separation disturbs the maternal identity and generates a strong feeling of failure and guilt.ObjectivesTo assess self-esteem in mothers of babies hospitalised during the postnatal period in the neonatal unit and to identify risk factors associated with the persistence of low self-esteem 3 months after discharge.MethodsThis was a longitudinal, descriptive and analytical study conducted between April and September 2021. The sample consisted of mothers of babies hospitalized in the neonatology department of Sfax-Tunisia for a period ranging from 5 to 15 days. Socio-demographic data were collected using a pre-established form. Self-esteem was assessed during the baby’s hospitalisation and 3 months after discharge, using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, with 10 items, validated in Arabic.ResultsThe sample consisted of 86 mothers with a mean age of 32.17 years.Low to very low self-esteem was found in mothers in 81.20% of cases when their babies were hospitalised and in 68.40% of cases 3 months after discharge.Some factors were significantly related to the persistence of low self-esteem in mothers after 3 months of their babies’ hospitalisation, such as a low educational level of the mother (p=0.017), an unattended pregnancy (p=0.034), the occurrence of a post-partum complication (p=0.043) and the absence of the first smile in the baby at the age of 3 months (p=0.008).ConclusionsThis study shows a high prevalence of low self-esteem in mothers following hospitalization of their babies in the postnatal period. The concomitance with several socio-clinical factors contributes to the persistence of this low level of self-esteem in these mothers.Appropriate early and multidisciplinary care helps to rebuild strong self-esteem in the young mother so that she can overcome her psychological difficulties and build a solid foundation for the mother-baby bond.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Psychotherapeutic consultations of drug addict's patients in a Care, Support and Prevention Center in Addictology led us to propose several hypotheses on the genesis of addiction and its articulation with currently available neurobiological data. This care center dispenses both pharmacological maintenance medications for heroin dependence, such as methadone or buprenorphine, and psychological support. Our first hypothesis posits that the addictive process is driven by the narcissistic vulnerability of these patients, its neurobiological foundations being mainly mediated by the activation of endogenous opioid systems. Drug use/abuse could be a way to make arise the “True Self,” therefore overcoming the defensive system's set up to protect oneself from early traumas. The neurobiological impact of traumas is also developed and articulated with psychodynamic concepts, particularly those of Winnicott. Additionally, functions of addiction such as defensive, anti-depressant roles and emotional regulation are discussed in relationship with their currently known neuroscientific bases. Although the experience in the psychodynamic clinic is at a level of complexity much higher than what is currently accessible to the neurosciences, most of the research in this domain stays in line with our psychological understanding of the addictive process. Finally, we outline some critically sensitive points regarding the therapeutic support.

AbstractMindfulness is said to be a connecting thread between an ancient philosophy on the one hand and a contemporary psychological practice on the other. However, some contemporary mindfulness practices have arguably become so disconnected from their roots in Buddhist ethics and wisdom principles that the fundamental essence of the practice is no longer recognisable. It appears that when mindfulness is disconnected from its Buddhist ethical and wisdom-based foundations, being applied as a purely concentrative practice, it can yield adverse effects (such as decreased prosocial behaviour, increased self-centredness, and reduced psychological well-being) for individuals with low-trait empathy or narcissistic traits. Consequently, we propose a novel threefold categorization that aims to build bridges between contemporary Western and traditional Buddhist approaches to mindfulness. This categorization, rooted in the traditional “three trainings” or “triśikṣā” Buddhist principle, distinguishes between the mindfulness practices incorporated within mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), according to whether they primarily employ concentration-, ethics-, or wisdom-based contemplative techniques. We explicate how this more nuanced categorization provides a greater understanding of how varied mindfulness practices could influence outcomes associated with an individual’s prosocial behaviour, social and emotional well-being, and mental health. Additionally, we highlight the potential of greater research into MBIs that are structured around the Mindfulness of Breathing or the Ānāpānasati Sutta progression of concentration-based to ethics-based and finally to wisdom-based practices, particularly in terms of their utility to facilitate self-transcendent experiences.

The article presents some theoretical justifications and some features of the origin of the comparison mechanism. Some areas of the practical application of the comparison mechanism were also presented, and the main manipulative intentions were analyzed. The theoretical part considers and analyzes the problems and features of the development of a comparison mechanism. In particular, the Adler theory is analyzed. The author substantiates the fact that the basis of the comparison mechanism originates in early childhood. In this process, a particular role and significance is the fact of comparison with siblings. The theory of object relations is also considered a theoretical basis, especially regarding the psychological structure of the narcissistic personality. In this context, the psychoanalytic approach is regarded as a profound basis for forming a psychological comparison mechanism and later becomes a stable behavioural pattern. The correlation between the emergence of the psychological comparison mechanism and the influence of the individual's environment is also theoretically justified. The formed behavioural pattern becomes the basis for subsequent manipulations in the field of social psychology. In particular, the concept of a reference group is when an individual compares himself with members of his group and groups of opponents. In this case, using this mechanism, you can build the foundations of national identity and, as an additional tactic using the mechanism of depreciation. In marketing, a manipulative comparison mechanism is used to influence the self-image. In this case, a particular consumer is identified with this image by comparing himself to the advertising image. In the political and marketing spheres, manipulative use of the comparison mechanism can be found very often. The phenomenon of manipulation in this context concerns the concept of intention. The main manipulative intention is the desire to devalue. In politics, devaluation is often used, and in marketing, dominance is used. In the context of the latter, appropriate language is used. The manipulative use of the comparison mechanism is considered in the example of the discursive practices of representatives of individual political elites. In the political sphere, in using the comparison mechanism, the intention of devaluation, narcissistic comparison is mainly used. This process can particularly be seen when comparing the speech of the President of Georgia with the statement of the President of Ukraine. Using the example of President Zelensky's statement, one can see the use of a symbolic image, which provides even greater power of manipulative influence on one's audience. In marketing and advertising, the comparison mechanism is combined with the demonstration of the advantages of your own product compared to others.

Abstract Introduction: Internet users often reveal online intimate details from their lives, such as pictures with naked parts of their bodies or posts about their emotional states. The first part of the article presents an attempt to create media exhibitionism construct based on psychopathological criteria from ICD-10. The second part of the article presents psychometric properties of the Media Exhibitionism Questionnaire. Material and methods: After extracting 49 items, based on the theoretical foundations of the media exhibitionism construct, the competent judges assessed the accuracy of individual items. This resulted in the selection of 20 statements. Then the revised questionnaire was sent to Facebook users asking them to fill it out and send it to other users of the portal. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out by the method of main components with Varimax rotation on N=65 persons, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on N=554 persons. Results: After EFA the questionnaire consisted of 14 items and 4 factors: physical exhibitionism, exhibitionism of narcissistic traits, emotional exhibitionism, exhibitionism of histrionic traits. The four-factor solution was adopted on the basis of theoretical assumptions. The chi2 value was significant (χ2=286.01; p<0.001), which indicated discrepancies between the observed covariance matrix and the one implied by the model. Other indicators have shown a satisfactory agreement between the data and the model. Conclusions: The questionnaire has satisfactory psychometric properties (α=0.846) and can be used to predict problem behaviours on social media, as well as in counselling regarding responsible development of self-image on the Internet.

Abstract This article analyzes the institutionalization of the discourse of sustainable development (SD) for more than three decades and its development as a symbolic structure that influences subjectivity and social practices in this century. Embracing an interdisciplinary approach, it focuses on a debate between psychoanalysis, attentive to the ways in wich discontent is manifested, and the ideas of risk society and reflexive modernization, from social risk theory. The analysis of the SD discourse allows to frame it as a narcissistic strategy to cope with the environmental crisis. Such a strategy structures itself in the very preservation of existence at the same time that it disputes a constant process of defining which way of life populations should live and how human conduct should be guided. As a discourse that denies finitude, supported by the need for efficiency and technological development in order to avoid the end of resources, this narcissistic strategy may ultimately lay the foundation of human and environmental exhaustion.

Purpose Recent years have seen a meteoric rise in the study of narcissism in entrepreneurship, although little consolidation has occurred in this area. The purpose of this paper is the development of an integrative framework to harmonise the academic discussion and serve as a structured foundation for future research. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted an artificial intelligence-aided, structured literature review focused on content analysis of concepts and contexts to map out current findings and research gaps in startup narcissism research. Findings According to the findings of this study, narcissistic tendencies have the potential to positively influence startup success early on in an entrepreneur's journey, but after a certain point in the process, the influence of narcissism on success becomes predominantly negative. Research limitations/implications The research field is currently not very harmonised regarding research measures, research subjects and key research terms. Further research must use a standardised approach to add value to the research body. Practical implications Narcissism is a two-sided sword for founders. In the early stages of a company, many of the founder’s tasks can benefit from narcissistic tendencies. In the later stages of a company, that might shift to overwhelmingly negative effects of narcissism. Originality/value Methodically, this study is the first one to establish an artificial intelligence component to add value to the results of a review paper to the best of the authors’ knowledge. The results of this study provide a clear framework of entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurial performance to give researchers the opportunity of a more differentiated way of organising work.

PurposeIn the current media landscape where misinformation circulation becomes a primary threat to public health and society's intellectual well-being, incidental news exposure's role in influencing misperceptions and misinformation engagement remains under-explored. Moreover, less is known regarding how and to what extent personal factors such as personality and media literacy may drive the sharing of misinformation.Design/methodology/approachUnder the theoretical guidance of the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, the authors surveyed 546 college students aged 18 and above to explore the relationship between incidental news exposure and misinformation sharing.FindingsFindings buttressed the hypothesized relationship built on the S-O-R model and revealed a path from incidental online news exposure to misinformation sharing, mediated by misperceptions. The mediated path was further moderated by narcissism and media literacy. Specifically, narcissists have higher misperceptions when they encounter online news more often; higher misperceptions in turn give rise to greater misinformation sharing behaviors. The ability to critically consume new media information only decreases misinformation sharing behavior for narcissists with lower misperceptions.Originality/valueGuided by the S-O-R framework, this study takes the first step in examining the link between incidental news exposure and misinformation sharing and accounts for the moderating influences of personality and media literacy factors. Findings provide a theoretical foundation and practical implications for future interventions to combat misinformation.

In traditional Chinese society, filial piety (FP) served as the philosophical foundation of social governance, without which chaos would prevail. It indicates that the function of FP is not limited to family. FP can predict attitudes and behaviors in other social contexts. This study examined the relationship between FP and moral disengagement, and the mediating roles of the dark triad personality, and cultural differences regarding these mechanisms. An online self-report survey was conducted in two different culture groups- university students from China (N = 400, 37% male, Mage = 20.41, SD age = 2.52) and Islamic countries who are studying in China (N = 378, 59.25% male, Mage = 24.29, SD age = 4.77). Correlation analysis showed that authoritarian FP was positively associated with moral disengagement among students from China and Islamic countries, while reciprocal FP only negatively correlated with moral disengagement among Chinese students. Moreover, reciprocal FP directly and negatively affected moral disengagement, and did so indirectly through the mediating role of Machiavellianism. However, authoritarian FP directly and positively influenced moral disengagement, and did so indirectly through the buffering role of narcissism. These two parallel mediating models are not affected by culture. Though FP varies from culture to culture, reciprocal FP and authoritarian FP play critical roles in influencing personality and moral development. Reciprocal FP reduces moral disengagement directly and indirectly by weakening Machiavellianism. The role of authoritarian FP is conflicting. It can strengthen moral disengagement, but may also weaken it by deterring the development of the narcissistic personality. The findings enlighten us to view authoritarian FP dialectically. These two parallel mediating models are not affected by culture, indicating the applicability of DFPM in other societies. Future studies are encouraged to involve participants from more divergent countries and cultural backgrounds.

This paper considers a new form of graphic novel that combines the potentials of print and Virtual Reality [VR] storytelling. The novel ‘Upgraded Gods’, now in its final year of development, uses an autobiographical narrative to consider the nature and impact of malignant and collective narcissism in contemporary Russian society. The thesis asks, ‘How might one employ physical and virtual modes of storytelling to enhance empathetic experience in a narrative that considers the nature and impact of malignant narcissism?’ Goldner-Vukov & Moore (2010) identify malignant narcissism as a severe personality disorder that has “devastating consequences for the family and society” (p. 392), while traumatic childhood experiences are considered foundational to the development of malignant narcissism. Covington (2018) suggests that leaders can only enact a narcissistic abuse of power when they receive the support from a traumatised society that searches for “a charismatic leader who will promise to restore power and status to the group” (p. 255). Employing an autoethnographic methodology activated by heuristic inquiry, the study develops an immersive narrative that follows a protagonist through her childhood in the USSR, through the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, into her exile and subsequent analysis of contemporary Russian politics and society. The significance of the research lies in its employment of creative practice to contribute embodied experience to wider theoretical discourses that consider the dynamics of power abuse through social and political aggression. Specifically, the study also examines the manner in which traumatic experiences may affect individuals' wellbeing, and shape social institutions and economics, contributing to the rise of far-right, nationalist, and fundamentalist movements. In the realm of graphic novel design, such analyses may be identified in a emerging trajectory of autobiographical literary works such as "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi, "Gast" by Carol Swain, and “Commute” by Erin Williams.

Purpose The purpose of the study was to explore differences in demographic, self-concept and fan behavior factors that predict sports fans who bet and those who do not in legal and illegal gambling jurisdictions in the United States (US). Design/methodology/approach Seven hundred and eighty-nine sports fans and bettors from 47 states were surveyed through a partnership with a major media provider in the US. A number of demographic items, theoretically defined factors and fan behaviors were measured, and several two-way MANOVAs with interaction effects were conducted to determine differences between those who gamble and those who do not in legal and illegal jurisdictions. Findings Statistically significant differences between those who bet and those who do not were found. Bettors look different and come from different backgrounds and locations. Psychographically, they were clearly more narcissistic. They also indicated a higher social identity and self-worth, yet perceived themselves as less worthy members of important social institutions. In general, sports bettors out consumed non-bettors as it relates sports spectatorship. In terms of differences between the groups across legal and illegal states, only a few factors were impacted. Self-worth and personal identity were factors that were found to be different between groups and jurisdictions as well as DFS participation. Originality/value The US sports gambling market is expected to grow US$6.5 billion in the next five years, yet very little is known, psychographically, about the US sports bettor. Sports gambling research, especially from a marketing perspective, has primarily been limited to Australia and the United Kingdom. This paper contributes to what we know about sports gambling and the emerging US market. In particular, the results uncovered fundamental trait, demographic and behavioral differences between US sports fans and sports bettors. The findings also provide similar foundational differences and similarities between those who bet in states with legal and illegal gambling.

IntroductionFrom reality television and self-help literature to exhortations to be “true to yourself,” authenticity pervades contemporary culture. Despite their prevalence, cultures of self-improvement and authenticity are routinely linked to arguments about increasing narcissism and declining care for others. Self-improvement involves self-based practices geared to help realise the “improved” and “better you” while authenticity is focused on developing the unique, inner and “real” you. Critiques of both self-improvement and authenticity culture are particularly evident in a sociological tradition of “cultural pessimism” (Hookway, Moral). This group of thinkers argue that the dominance of a “therapeutic” culture where the “self improved is the ultimate concern of modern culture” has catastrophic social and moral consequences (Reiff; Bell; Lasch; Bellah; Bauman and Donskis). Drawing upon Charles Taylor, I take critical aim at such assessments, arguing that ideals and practices of authenticity can be morally productive. I then turn to an empirical investigation of how everyday Australians understand and practice morality based on a qualitative analysis of 44 Australian blogs combined with 25 follow-up online in-depth interviews. I suggest that while the data shows the prevalence and significance of “being true to yourself” as an orientating principle, the bloggers produce a version of authenticity that misses the relational and socially-shaped character of self and morality (Taylor; Vannini and Williams).Authenticity and NarcissismA key tenet of modern cultural diagnosis (Rieff, Bell; Lasch; Bellah; Bauman and Donskis) is that Westerners have become increasingly “narcissistic” as cultural authority weakens and the self becomes something to “be discovered” and “worked out” (Bauman). Rieff, a key proponent of this tradition, locates the problem specifically with the rise of therapeutic culture in the 1960s, which denied the proper prohibitive function of culture and transformed moral problems into analytic issues for the self-actualising and “authentic” self. Bell identifies growing consumerism and weakening religion as issuing a shift from a culture of restraint to a culture of release, resulting in an unparalleled permissiveness, hedonism and potential nihilism. More recently, Bauman and Donskis (13) argue that our consumerist pursuit of “authentic” or “peak” experiences tears apart the once solid social bonds of the past. For these theorists, a modern culture postulating the uniqueness and authenticity of the individual can only result in a diminishing care for others and a self-defeating culture of self-fulfilment.Lasch launches perhaps the most scathing critique of “authenticity” culture. Lasch asserts that the modern West has seen the emergence of a “culture of narcissism:” a culture pathologically preoccupied with the care and well-being of the self. He contends that meaning and morality comes to be increasingly defined through the lens of “psychic self-improvement” and “an intense preoccupation with the self” (Lasch 25). Lasch writes:Having no hope of improving their lives in any of the ways that matter, 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’ (Lasch 4).This search for self-fulfilment within the private realm of the self offers little hope of escape in Lasch’s analysis. It is a symptom of the disease rather than a treatment. Having sacrificed obedience to a higher authority for an intensive focus on the authentic and self-actualising self, the modern West is left with amoral, uncaring and “narcissistic” selves (Lasch). In the end, morality has little hope in a culture in which the individual is allowed to create their “own set of rules,” where “no” has disappeared from our moral vocabulary, and where foundational moral laws enforced by religious tradition and higher moral authorities have disappeared.Self-Improvement and Authenticity as Moral Ideals A central problem with cultural decline accounts is that they miss how the search for personal authenticity or self-discovery could be morally productive (Taylor). Practices of therapy and self-improvement do not always need to be one-dimensionally read as exemplars of narcissism (Wright). For example, it is important to recognise how contemporary therapeutic and confessional cultures, underpinned by a focus on self-authenticity, self-discovery and personal growth, can emphasise the “moral makeover” or becoming a “better” person (Elliott and Lemert 124). Talk-shows, self-help literature, reality TV and blogging are all cultural examples that underpin how the therapeutic search for authenticity does not have to read as a one-way road to shrinking moral concern.Lasch’s indices of moral decline—“the wisdom of the east” or “eating health food”—can also be read in a more positive moral light. Take yoga, meditation and vegetarianism as examples. These practices are growing rapidly in popularity in Australia (Penman; Hookway, Moral) and have a strong cultural focus on values of authenticity. While these self-practices emphasise personal growth, self-awareness and self-care, at the same time they promote ethical relations of responsibility between self, others, body, nature, animals and environment. As actor Gillian Anderson said: “the whole thing about meditation and yoga is about connecting to the higher part of yourself, and then seeing that every living thing is connected in some way” (Marati). Could these practices, therefore, not be re-interpreted as self-originating acts of ethics—as acts of personal authenticity that morally recognise the Other? (Taylor)?Taylor (1992) provides a useful approach to salvage values of authenticity from the despair of much cultural diagnosis. He (81) suggests that the ethical ideal of authenticity—wrapped in notions of self-discovery, self-fulfilment and personal improvement—now plays a central role in modern Western culture. Taylor (11) emphasises the moral possibilities of authenticity as an ethical ideal built on the principle of “being true to yourself” (Taylor 26). This is a moral mode that rests in the moral ideal of “being true to my own originality,” which is “something only I can articulate” (Taylor 29).Taylor (74) contends that “at its best” authenticity as a contemporary ideal “allows a richer model of existence.” Rather than destroying it point-blank for its weaknesses, Taylor sets as his task to raise the bar of the ideal. He suggests that authenticity in this higher form calls upon people to adopt a self-responsible form of life that engenders people to be “true to themselves” within relations of responsibility to others. The key to achieving this is a tempered version of authenticity that acknowledges its “constitutive tensions” (Taylor 71). This is a reconstructed ideal that balances the creative, original and non-conformist dimensions of authenticity—the artistic aspects—with external signifiers or points of reference outside the self.What Taylor is doing here is putting some checks and balances around authenticity as a notion of unfettered self-determining freedom. He does this by underlining the significance of the self in relation to what he calls “horizons of significance.” For Taylor, it is only through “horizons of significance”—for example, history, nature, charity, citizenship and God—that we come to know and recognise ourselves in meaningful ways (45–48; 68). Taylor highlights here the importance of a social self where the individual choosing/feeling self is absurd taken in isolation from others (36).Like the poet, the musician or the artist, moral creation is personal and intensely subjective but it is still connected to a social self. For example, vegetarianism or yoga may involve the development of an authentic relationship with the self through the cultivation of qualities of personal awareness, growth and self-care but they are also fundamentally about dialogical relations with others—with animals, with nature, with a sense of social and cosmic connectedness. As Taylor asserts, personal sensibility finds significance in the construction of a world independent of self-choice and feeling (89). The value of Taylor is that he recovers authenticity and practices of self-improvement from the straight out negativity of decline theory but does not trivialise morality to a sort of unfettered self-determining and disencumbered freedom. This theoretical discussion provides a conceptual framework in which to investigate how everyday moralities are constructed and practiced in contemporary Australia.Present Study How do Australians understand and experience morality in their everyday lives? What role does authenticity play? What are the implications of this and what it does it mean for authenticity as a contemporary ethical ideal? To help answer these questions I now report the findings of a qualitative study I conducted into everyday Australian moralities. A small qualitative sample of bloggers is in no way representative of the population but provides some illustrative examples of the shape and influence of authenticity culture on moral life. The aim of the everyday moralities project was to “thickly describe” (Geertz) how individuals “write” and “talk” their everyday moral worlds into existence from their own perspectives. The first part of the study involved a qualitative analysis of 44 Australian blogs. Blogs offered an original empirical lens through which to investigate the contemporary production of morality and selfhood in late-modernity. The blogs were selected as a form of personal life record (Thomas and Znaniecki 1833) that allowed access to spontaneous accounts of everyday life that reflected what was important to the blogger without the intervention of a researcher (Hookway, Entering). The blogs were sampled from the blog hosting Website LiveJournal (LJ). Blogs were selected that contained at least two incidents, moments, descriptions or experiences that shed light on the blogger’s everyday moral constructions and practices. The second part of the study inviting sampled bloggers to participate in an online interview to further develop themes expressed in their blog posts. This resulted in 25 online interviews, which were conducted via various instant-messaging programs.“Being True to Yourself”: Authenticity as Moral Value? Meet Queen_Extremist, a 26 year-old female university student from Melbourne and president of the university student association. While writing that her life is “all in a spin”, Queen_Extremist says she “likes who I am, I like the way I do things, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. I stayed true to myself”. Although Queen_Extremist may position herself as someone who is “not sure what [her] beliefs are based on, or whether they are worthwhile”, she “knows who she is”. And while potentially conflicted about whether “the concept of staying true to one’s self is arrogant and selfish”, “being true to yourself” according to what “feels right” is positioned as a sort of royal road to the construction of everyday rightness. She writes:I know what I feel. I know when something feels wrong to me. I know when something feels right. And I know that it feels terrible when I do something that feels wrong. It’s not logical. It’s not rational. I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do or if it’s selfish or arrogant. But I don't like being something I’m not. I don't like being false or changing my personality for others. I’m really happy with who I am. If something contrary to that is required, I suggest that someone other than me is requested to do it.Queen_Extremist offers a clear articulation of the everyday guiding power of authenticity. This type of morality is rooted in an obligation to realise an authentic selfhood found in a feeling-based sense of right and wrong. One “looks within” to the subjective and authentic world of the feeling and true self to determine “right” and “wrong.” The source of “who I am” is found within the inner world of “true feelings”. So while Queen_Extremist may feel that she does not “know much about anything” she is confident in her knowledge of who she truly is and what she truly feels. This is an ethical knowledge that she can explicitly trust. The trick for Queen_Extremist’s practice of an “ethics of authenticity” is discovering who you are and sticking to it.Universal_cloak, Squash_pippa and Snifflethebouncer all advance a similar moral strategy that highlights the power of “being true to yourself”. 32-year-old Universal_cloak, an artistic designer from Melbourne, writes on her blog of the importance of “being true to yourself” and its helping role in “making moral choices about who I am and what I stand for”:Being true to yourself is one of the most important things you can nurture in life … I think it’s important to live your life in a way that reflects who you are. If you lead a false life you will sooner or later run into problems because you’re ignoring huge parts of yourself that require attention (interview).Universal_cloak believes that “it’s morally wrong to avoid, ignore or otherwise mistreat yourself”. Inverting “do unto others”, she writes, “if you wouldn’t do it to other people, don’t do it to yourself”. She reasons that to not be “who you are” is inherently self-destructive: “I have known people who have ignored who they are, and as a result have sort of ‘soured themselves’”. For Universal_cloak, a corollary of “souring” the self is “souring” relations to others: “in turn, they build up this sourness and it reflects in their life, making them sour toward other people”. For Universal_cloak, authenticity not only governs the relation of self upon self but also involves relations of care with others; the personal search for authenticity is connected to how one treats and relates to other people.Similarly, Snifflethebouncer, a 22-year old PhD student from Sydney, writes “one of the things that matters most to me, with morality, is that you feel genuine about what you’re doing”. Feeling emerges here as a strategy to validate a “genuine” or “authentic” morality:You feel in your heart that it’s the right thing. If you feel one thing and do something else, then you’re not being true to yourself. If I feel one thing is the right thing to do, but I do something else (to benefit myself, most probably), then I’ll feel bad about it, and I’ll feel I haven't followed my morals.Squash_pippa, a 32-year-old female community worker from Sydney, elaborates the significance of “being true to yourself” as a code of action by describing a story about someone who “invented themselves to be someone that they’re not” and how this had caused her to feel inferior, to even “hate” herself “for not being as good as what they were”. She explains, claiming to now see the “situation objectively”, that this person had actually lied about “who they were” by “making themselves out to be so good”. They had violated the ideal of being the “real” and “authentic” you. For Squash_pippa this meant they were actually a “lesser person” as they were not prepared to accept the reality of “who they really are”. This notion of being authentic to the self (Taylor) is something Squash_pippa says she has always committed to. She is “who I am” and “never compromises what ‘feels’ right”:I am who I am and people can either like me or hate me, either way I’m not too fussy just as long as I never have to go against the morals and values I have and never compromise what ‘feels’ right … We all have our faults and they're not always easy to accept but it takes a stronger person to accept who they really are than the one who lies and makes themselves to be someone who they’re not.Queen_Extremist, Universal_cloak, Squash_pippa and Snifflethebouncer evoke a type of “ethics of authenticity”, where the notion of “being true to yourself” is sourced from the “romantic solace” of moral feeling. In these accounts, there is only one true or authentic self—the rest are imposters that lead to falseness and the problems of inauthenticity, fakery and phoniness—the contemporary sins of an “age of authenticity”.Being true to self is developed in these accounts as a life-principle that suggests we all have a unique and original way of being moral within us that needs to be realised and fulfilled. For these bloggers, the primary moral task is to search and reveal the “authentic” self, the real and truthful self that lurks within. While “being true to yourself” operates as a powerful framework of belief in these blog accounts, it does not meet Taylor’s criteria of authenticity in its “higher form.” Authenticity is mobilised in its more “narcissistic” form, where moral talk is never linked to something external to the self. For example, Queen_Extremist knows who she is and does not want to be something she is not. Likewise, Universal_Cloak believes in living life “in a way that reflects who you are”. These are highly subjectivist accounts of morality which not only ignore the social basis of morality but also present morality as unilateral and deaf rather than something that is responsive to people’s suffering or flourishing (Sayer). Authenticity—using Taylor’s language—is presented in an impoverished form where ideals of action never reside outside the self and thus fail to invoke a better or higher form of life worth searching and striving for (Taylor 61). In many ways, we end up with evidence that support declinist accounts of authenticity discourses as self-centred, introverted and amoral.ConclusionIn this paper I have examined the importance of authenticity as a contemporary cultural and moral value. In the first part, I showed how authenticity and cultures of self-fulfilment have been negatively theorised by the “cultural pessimists.” Using the work of Taylor, I went on to argue that authenticity, particularly the ethical principle of “being true to yourself” can be retrieved from the pessimism of thinkers like Rieff, Lasch, Bell, Bauman and Donskis. I argue that Taylor is particularly important in how he recognises the value of authenticity in terms of it’s creative and artistic dimensions but also the external “horizons of significance” that give it substance, life and meaning. The second part of the paper moved to an empirical analysis of how authenticity was mobilized by a selection of Australian bloggers. For these individuals, to be authentic means not “being something I’m not” (Queen_Extremist); “not leading a false life” (Universal_cloak); and not “inventing” yourself “as someone else”. Like reality television contestants, their task is to sort the real from the fake, from those “playing the game” and those being themselves—to work out who’s being “real” and who’s not. Why authenticity is clearly a powerful guide for this group of bloggers, their accounts do seem to partly support the pessimists’ charge of narcissism. Ideas of authenticity are presented as coming purely from inside the self without reference to external “horizons of significance.” This leaves us with an anemic form of authenticity that ignores the social basis of self, authenticity and morality (Taylor).“Being true to yourself” is a moral strategy that invokes a modernist assumption of a stable and unitary model of self. It is a version of self that appears distinctly “non-liquid” (Bauman). There are, for example, no “multiple” or “fragmented” selves in the blog accounts of Queen_Extremist, Universal_cloak and Snifflethebouncer but only “true” and “false” “personalities”; “real”, “false” or “invented selves”. As Universal_cloak says, being “true to yourself” means “to live your life in a way that reflects who you are” (Universal_cloak). In this way the bloggers appear to not only miss the socially-shaped character of the moral self but also the aboutness of morality—how morality is about people’s well-being, suffering and flourishing rather than simply the authority of the subject (Sayer).Two key research agendas emerge from these findings. First, further research is needed to empirically investigate wider practices of authenticity and morality beyond internet populations and to examine the extent and shape of narcissism. Second, there are fruitful lines of inquiry in investigating the dynamics of “being true to yourself” in a “liquid” age supposedly defined by identity reinvention and instant transformation (Elliott and Lemert). Does the pursuit of an authentic ethical self represent a form of resistance to identity fluidity and reinvention or could it actually feed the short-termism of a “no strings attached” world, where the search for “true” or “authentic” selves promote a culture of “moving on” and weak social bonds (Bauman and Donskis 14)?ReferencesBauman, Zygmunt, and Donskis, Leonidas. Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity, 2013. Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity, 2000.Bell, Daniel. The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, 1976.Bellah, Robert, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steve Tipton. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996.Elliott, Anthony and Charles Lemert. The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization. New York: Routledge, 2006.Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973.Hookway, Nicholas. “Entering the Blogosphere: Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research.” Qualitative Research 8.1 (2008): 91–113.Hookway, Nicholas. “Moral Decline Sociology: Critiquing the Legacy of Durkheim.” Journal of Sociology 20 Jan. 2014. DOI: 10.1177/1440783313514644.Lasch, Christopher. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. New York: W.W. Norton, 1979. Marati, Jessica. 50 Quotes about Meditation and Yoga. 2012. 15 Jan. 2015 ‹http://ecosalon.com/50-quotes-on-meditation-amp-yoga/›.Penman, Stephen. Yoga in Australia: Sign of the Times. 2010. 15 Jan. 2015 ‹http://www.yogasurvey.com/SignoftheTimes.pdf›.Rieff, Phillip. The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud. New York: Harper and Row, [1966] 1987.Sayer, Andrew. Why Things Matter to People. New York: Cambridge UP, 2011.Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992.Thomas, William I. and Florian Znaniecki. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. New York: Dover,[1918] 1958.Vannini, Phillip and J. Patrick Williams. Authenticity in Culture, Self and Society. Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Wright, Katie. “Theorizing Therapeutic Culture: Past Influences, Future Directions.” Journal of Sociology 44.1 (2008): 321–336.

At a time when almost every human transgression, illness, profession and other personal aspect of life has been chronicled in autobiographical writing (Rak)—in 1998 Zinsser called ours “the age of memoir” (3)—writing about fat is one of the most recent subjects to be addressed in this way. This article surveys a range of contemporary autobiographical texts that are titled with, or revolve around, that powerful and most evocative word, “fat”. Following a number of cultural studies of fat in society (Critser; Gilman, Fat Boys; Fat: A Cultural History; Stearns), this discussion views fat in socio-cultural terms, following Lupton in understanding fat as both “a cultural artefact: a bodily substance or body shape that is given meaning by complex and shifting systems of ideas, practices, emotions, material objects and interpersonal relationships” (i). Using a case study approach (Gerring; Verschuren), this examination focuses on a range of texts from autobiographical cookbooks and memoirs to novel-length graphic works in order to develop a preliminary taxonomy of these works. In this way, a small sample of work, each of which (described below) explores an aspect (or aspects) of the form is, following Merriam, useful as it allows a richer picture of an under-examined phenomenon to be constructed, and offers “a means of investigating complex social units consisting of multiple variables of potential importance in understanding the phenomenon” (Merriam 50). Although the sample size does not offer generalisable results, the case study method is especially suitable in this context, where the aim is to open up discussion of this form of writing for future research for, as Merriam states, “much can be learned from […] an encounter with the case through the researcher’s narrative description” and “what we learn in a particular case can be transferred to similar situations” (51). Pro-Fat Autobiographical WritingAlongside the many hundreds of reduced, low- and no-fat cookbooks and weight loss guides currently in print that offer recipes, meal plans, ingredient replacements and strategies to reduce fat in the diet, there are a handful that promote the consumption of fats, and these all have an autobiographical component. The publication of Jennifer McLagan’s Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes in 2008 by Ten Speed Press—publisher of Mollie Katzen’s groundbreaking and influential vegetarian Moosewood Cookbook in 1974 and an imprint now known for its quality cookbooks (Thelin)—unequivocably addressed that line in the sand often drawn between fat and all things healthy. The four chapter titles of this cookbook— “Butter,” subtitled “Worth It,” “Pork Fat: The King,” “Poultry Fat: Versatile and Good For You,” and, “Beef and Lamb Fats: Overlooked But Tasty”—neatly summarise McLagan’s organising argument: that animal fats not only add an unreplaceable and delicious flavour to foods but are fundamental to our health. Fat polarised readers and critics; it was positively reviewed in prominent publications (Morris; Bhide) and won influential food writing awards, including 2009 James Beard Awards for Single Subject Cookbook and Cookbook of the Year but, due to its rejection of low-fat diets and the research underpinning them, was soon also vehemently criticised, to the point where the book was often described in the media as “controversial” (see Smith). McLagan’s text, while including historical, scientific and gastronomic data and detail, is also an outspokenly personal treatise, chronicling her sensual and emotional responses to this ingredient. “I love fat,” she begins, continuing, “Whether it’s a slice of foie gras terrine, its layer of yellow fat melting at the edges […] hot bacon fat […] wilting a plate of pungent greens into submission […] or a piece of crunchy pork crackling […] I love the way it feels in my mouth, and I love its many tastes” (1). Her text is, indeed, memoir as gastronomy / gastronomy as memoir, and this cookbook, therefore, an example of the “memoir with recipes” subgenre (Brien et al.). It appears to be this aspect – her highly personal and, therein, persuasive (Weitin) plea for the value of fats – that galvanised critics and readers.Molly Chester and Sandy Schrecengost’s Back to Butter: A Traditional Foods Cookbook – Nourishing Recipes Inspired by Our Ancestors begins with its authors’ memoirs (illness, undertaking culinary school training, buying and running a farm) to lend weight to their argument to utilise fats widely in cookery. Its first chapter, “Fats and Oils,” features the familiar butter, which it describes as “the friendly fat” (22), then moves to the more reviled pork lard “Grandma’s superfood” (22) and, nowadays quite rarely described as an ingredient, beef tallow. Grit Magazine’s Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient utilises the rhetoric that fat, and in this case, lard, is a traditional and therefore foundational ingredient in good cookery. This text draws on its publisher’s, Grit Magazine (published since 1882 in various formats), long history of including auto/biographical “inspirational stories” (Teller) to lend persuasive power to its argument. One of the most polarising of fats in health and current media discourse is butter, as was seen recently in debate over what was seen as its excessive use in the MasterChef Australia television series (see, Heart Foundation; Phillipov). It is perhaps not surprising, then, that butter is the single fat inspiring the most autobiographical writing in this mode. Rosie Daykin’s Butter Baked Goods: Nostalgic Recipes from a Little Neighborhood Bakery is, for example, typical of a small number of cookbooks that extend the link between baking and nostalgia to argue that butter is the superlative ingredient for baking. There are also entire cookbooks dedicated to making flavoured butters (Vaserfirer) and a number that offer guides to making butter and other (fat-based) dairy products at home (Farrell-Kingsley; Hill; Linford).Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef is typical among chef’s memoirs in using butter prominently although rare in mentioning fat in its title. In this text and other such memoirs, butter is often used as shorthand for describing a food that is rich but also wholesomely delicious. Hamilton relates childhood memories of “all butter shortcakes” (10), and her mother and sister “cutting butter into flour and sugar” for scones (15), radishes eaten with butter (21), sautéing sage in butter to dress homemade ravoli (253), and eggs fried in browned butter (245). Some of Hamilton’s most telling references to butter present it as an staple, natural food as, for instance, when she describes “sliced bread with butter and granulated sugar” (37) as one of her family’s favourite desserts, and lists butter among the everyday foodstuffs that taste superior when stored at room temperature instead of refrigerated—thereby moving butter from taboo (Gwynne describes a similar process of the normalisation of sexual “perversion” in erotic memoir).Like this text, memoirs that could be described as arguing “for” fat as a substance are largely by chefs or other food writers who extol, like McLagan and Hamilton, the value of fat as both food and flavouring, and propose that it has a key role in both ordinary/family and gourmet cookery. In this context, despite plant-based fats such as coconut oil being much lauded in nutritional and other health-related discourse, the fat written about in these texts is usually animal-based. An exception to this is olive oil, although this is never described in the book’s title as a “fat” (see, for instance, Drinkwater’s series of memoirs about life on an olive farm in France) and is, therefore, out of the scope of this discussion.Memoirs of Being FatThe majority of the other memoirs with the word “fat” in their titles are about being fat. Narratives on this topic, and their authors’ feelings about this, began to be published as a sub-set of autobiographical memoir in the 2000s. The first decade of the new millennium saw a number of such memoirs by female writers including Judith Moore’s Fat Girl (published in 2005), Jen Lancaster’s Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer, and Stephanie Klein’s Moose: A Memoir (both published in 2008) and Jennifer Joyne’s Designated Fat Girl in 2010. These were followed into the new decade by texts such as Celia Rivenbark’s bestselling 2011 You Don’t Sweat Much for a Fat Girl, and all attracted significant mainstream readerships. Journalist Vicki Allan pulled no punches when she labelled these works the “fat memoir” and, although Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson’s influential categorisation of 60 genres of life writing does not include this description, they do recognise eating disorder and weight-loss narratives. Some scholarly interest followed (Linder; Halloran), with Mitchell linking this production to feminism’s promotion of the power of the micro-narrative and the recognition that the autobiographical narrative was “a way of situating the self politically” (65).aken together, these memoirs all identify “excess” weight, although the response to this differs. They can be grouped as: narratives of losing weight (see Kuffel; Alley; and many others), struggling to lose weight (most of these books), and/or deciding not to try to lose weight (the smallest number of works overall). Some of these texts display a deeply troubled relationship with food—Moore’s Fat Girl, for instance, could also be characterised as an eating disorder memoir (Brien), detailing her addiction to eating and her extremely poor body image as well as her mother’s unrelenting pressure to lose weight. Elena Levy-Navarro describes the tone of these narratives as “compelled confession” (340), mobilising both the conventional understanding of confession of the narrator “speaking directly and colloquially” to the reader of their sins, failures or foibles (Gill 7), and what she reads as an element of societal coercion in their production. Some of these texts do focus on confessing what can be read as disgusting and wretched behavior (gorging and vomiting, for instance)—Halloran’s “gustatory abject” (27)—which is a feature of the contemporary conceptualisation of confession after Rousseau (Brooks). This is certainly a prominent aspect of current memoir writing that is, simultaneously, condemned by critics (see, for example, Jordan) and popular with readers (O’Neill). Read in this way, the majority of memoirs about being fat are about being miserable until a slimming regime of some kind has been undertaken and successful. Some of these texts are, indeed, triumphal in tone. Lisa Delaney’s Secrets of a Former Fat Girl is, for instance, clear in the message of its subtitle, How to Lose Two, Four (or More!) Dress Sizes—And Find Yourself Along the Way, that she was “lost” until she became slim. Linden has argued that “female memoir writers frequently describe their fat bodies as diseased and contaminated” (219) and “powerless” (226). Many of these confessional memoirs are moving narratives of shame and self loathing where the memoirist’s sense of self, character, and identity remain somewhat confused and unresolved, whether they lose weight or not, and despite attestations to the contrary.A sub-set of these memoirs of weight loss are by male authors. While having aspects in common with those by female writers, these can be identified as a sub-set of these memoirs for two reasons. One is the tone of their narratives, which is largely humourous and often ribaldly comic. There is also a sense of the heroic in these works, with male memoirsts frequently mobilising images of battles and adversity. Texts that can be categorised in this way include Toshio Okada’s Sayonara Mr. Fatty: A Geek’s Diet Memoir, Gregg McBride and Joy Bauer’s bestselling Weightless: My Life as a Fat Man and How I Escaped, Fred Anderson’s From Chunk to Hunk: Diary of a Fat Man. As can be seen in their titles, these texts also promise to relate the stratgies, regimes, plans, and secrets that others can follow to, similarly, lose weight. Allen Zadoff’s title makes this explicit: Lessons Learned on the Journey from Fat to Thin. Many of these male memoirists are prompted by a health-related crisis, diagnosis, or realisation. Male body image—a relatively recent topic of enquiry in the eating disorder, psychology, and fashion literature (see, for instance, Bradley et al.)—is also often a surprising motif in these texts, and a theme in common with weight loss memoirs by female authors. Edward Ugel, for instance, opens his memoir, I’m with Fatty: Losing Fifty Pounds in Fifty Miserable Weeks, with “I’m haunted by mirrors … the last thing I want to do is see myself in a mirror or a photograph” (1).Ugel, as that prominent “miserable” in his subtitle suggests, provides a subtle but revealing variation on this theme of successful weight loss. Ugel (as are all these male memoirists) succeeds in the quest be sets out on but, apparently, despondent almost every moment. While the overall tone of his writing is light and humorous, he laments every missed meal, snack, and mouthful of food he foregoes, explaining that he loves eating, “Food makes me happy … I live to eat. I love to eat at restaurants. I love to cook. I love the social component of eating … I can’t be happy without being a social eater” (3). Like many of these books by male authors, Ugel’s descriptions of the food he loves are mouthwatering—and most especially when describing what he identifies as the fattening foods he loves: Reuben sandwiches dripping with juicy grease, crispy deep friend Chinese snacks, buttery Danish pastries and creamy, rich ice cream. This believable sense of regret is not, however, restricted to male authors. It is also apparent in how Jen Lancaster begins her memoir: “I’m standing in the kitchen folding a softened stick of butter, a cup of warmed sour cream, and a mound of fresh-shaved Parmesan into my world-famous mashed potatoes […] There’s a maple-glazed pot roast browning nicely in the oven and white-chocolate-chip macadamia cookies cooling on a rack farther down the counter. I’ve already sautéed the almonds and am waiting for the green beans to blanch so I can toss the whole lot with yet more butter before serving the meal” (5). In the above memoirs, both male and female writers recount similar (and expected) strategies: diets, fasts and other weight loss regimes and interventions (calorie counting, colonics, and gastric-banding and -bypass surgery for instance, recur); consulting dieting/health magazines for information and strategies; keeping a food journal; employing expert help in the form of nutritionists, dieticians, and personal trainers; and, joining health clubs/gyms, and taking up various sports.Alongside these works sit a small number of texts that can be characterised as “non-weight loss memoirs.” These can be read as part of the emerging, and burgeoning, academic field of Fat Studies, which gathers together an extensive literature critical of, and oppositional to, dominant discourses about obesity (Cooper; Rothblum and Solovay; Tomrley and Naylor), and which include works that focus on information backed up with memoir such as self-described “fat activist” (Wann, website) Marilyn Wann’s Fat! So?: Because You Don’t Have to Apologise, which—when published in 1998—followed a print ’zine and a website of the same title. Although certainly in the minority in terms of numbers, these narratives have been very popular with readers and are growing as a sub-genre, with well-known actress Camryn Manheim’s New York Times-bestselling memoir, Wake Up, I'm Fat! (published in 1999) a good example. This memoir chronicles Manheim’s journey from the overweight and teased teenager who finds it a struggle to find friends (a common trope in many weight loss memoirs) to an extremely successful actress.Like most other types of memoir, there are also niche sub-genres of the “fat memoir.” Cheryl Peck’s Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs recounts a series of stories about her life in the American Midwest as a lesbian “woman of size” (xiv) and could thus be described as a memoir on the subjects of – and is, indeed, catalogued in the Library of Congress as: “Overweight women,” “Lesbians,” and “Three Rivers (Mich[igan]) – Social life and customs”.Carol Lay’s graphic memoir, The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude, has a simple diet message – she lost weight by counting calories and exercising every day – and makes a dual claim for value of being based on both her own story and a range of data and tools including: “the latest research on obesity […] psychological tips, nutrition basics, and many useful tools like simplified calorie charts, sample recipes, and menu plans” (qtd. in Lorah). The Big Skinny could, therefore, be characterised with the weight loss memoirs above as a self-help book, but Lay herself describes choosing the graphic form in order to increase its narrative power: to “wrap much of the information in stories […] combining illustrations and story for a double dose of retention in the brain” (qtd. in Lorah). Like many of these books that can fit into multiple categories, she notes that “booksellers don’t know where to file the book – in graphic novels, memoirs, or in the diet section” (qtd. in O’Shea).Jude Milner’s Fat Free: The Amazing All-True Adventures of Supersize Woman! is another example of how a single memoir (graphic, in this case) can be a hybrid of the categories herein discussed, indicating how difficult it is to neatly categorise human experience. Recounting the author’s numerous struggles with her weight and journey to self-acceptance, Milner at first feels guilty and undertakes a series of diets and regimes, before becoming a “Fat Is Beautiful” activist and, finally, undergoing gastric bypass surgery. Here the narrative trajectory is of empowerment rather than physical transformation, as a thinner (although, importantly, not thin) Milner “exudes confidence and radiates strength” (Story). ConclusionWhile the above has identified a number of ways of attempting to classify autobiographical writing about fat/s, its ultimate aim is, after G. Thomas Couser’s work in relation to other sub-genres of memoir, an attempt to open up life writing for further discussion, rather than set in placed fixed and inflexible categories. Constructing such a preliminary taxonomy aspires to encourage more nuanced discussion of how writers, publishers, critics and readers understand “fat” conceptually as well as more practically and personally. It also aims to support future work in identifying prominent and recurrent (or not) themes, motifs, tropes, and metaphors in memoir and autobiographical texts, and to contribute to the development of a more detailed set of descriptors for discussing and assessing popular autobiographical writing more generally.References Allan, Vicki. “Graphic Tale of Obesity Makes for Heavy Reading.” Sunday Herald 26 Jun. 2005. Alley, Kirstie. How to Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life: Reluctant Confessions of a Big-Butted Star. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2005.Anderson, Fred. From Chunk to Hunk: Diary of a Fat Man. USA: Three Toes Publishing, 2009.Bhide, Monica. “Why You Should Eat Fat.” Salon 25 Sep. 2008.Bradley, Linda Arthur, Nancy Rudd, Andy Reilly, and Tim Freson. “A Review of Men’s Body Image Literature: What We Know, and Need to Know.” International Journal of Costume and Fashion 14.1 (2014): 29–45.Brien, Donna Lee. “Starving, Bingeing and Writing: Memoirs of Eating Disorder as Food Writing.” TEXT: Journal of Writers and Writing Courses Special Issue 18 (2013).Brien, Donna Lee, Leonie Rutherford, and Rosemary Williamson. “Hearth and Hotmail: The Domestic Sphere as Commodity and Community in Cyberspace.” M/C Journal 10.4 (2007).Brooks, Peter. Troubling Confessions: Speaking Guilt in Law and Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.Chester, Molly, and Sandy Schrecengost. Back to Butter: A Traditional Foods Cookbook – Nourishing Recipes Inspired by Our Ancestors. 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Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef. New York: Random House, 2013.Heart Foundation [Australia]. “To Avoid Trans Fat, Avoid Butter Says Heart Foundation: Media Release.” 27 Sep. 2010.Hill, Louella. Kitchen Creamery: Making Yogurt, Butter & Cheese at Home. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2015.Jordan, Pat. “Dysfunction for Dollars.” New York Times 28 July 2002.Joyne, Jennifer. Designated Fat Girl: A Memoir. Guilford, CT: Skirt!, 2010.Katzen, Mollie. The Moosewood Cookbook. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1974.Klein, Stephanie. Moose: A Memoir. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.Kuffel, Frances. Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding My Self. New York: Broadway, 2004. Lancaster, Jen. Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover If Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie Is Not the Answer. New York: New American Library/Penguin, 2008.Lay, Carol. The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude. 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Previous studies contend that Philippines is still a ‘collectivist’ society (Cf. Hofstede Center; Cukur et al. 2004:613-634). In this collectivist or community-oriented society, individualism is not something that is highly valued. Being ‘individualistic’ is often associated to being narcissistic, loner, asocial, selfish, etc. However, one may ask whether the youth in the Philippines are not spared from this insidious culture of individualism, notwithstanding the seemingly dominant collective and communitarian character of the society. Although the overwhelming poverty is still the main problem in the Philippines, where according to Wostyn (2010:26) “only the wonderland of movies gives some respite to their consciousness of suffering and oppression”, the Filipino youth of today are also exposed to the consumeristic values of the ‘city’ and are not spared from the contradictions and insecurities posed by the pluralistic society. They are citizens of an increasing social and cultural pluralism characteristic of many liberal societies. Is it possible that individualism may also exist within this culture, especially among the younger generation? Is individualism slowly creeping in as caused by their exposure and easy access to modern technology, to higher education, mobility, interactions with other cultures, etc. Would this individualistic tendency have any influence on their religious beliefs, especially their belief on salvation? What would be the implications and challenges of these findings to the families in the Philippines? These are the questions we wish to answer in this study. 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Closer examination of contemporary art forms including music videos in addition to the Gothic’s literature legacy is essential, “as it is virtually impossible to ignore the relationship the Gothic holds to popular culture” (Piatti-Farnell ii). This article critically examines how Gothic themes and modes are used in the music videos of Lana Del Rey; particularly the “ways in which Gothic is dispersed through contemporary non-literary media” (Spooner and McEvoy 2). This work follows the argument laid down by Edwards and Monnet who describe Gothic’s assimilation into popular culture —Pop Gothic— as a powerful pop cultural force, not merely a subcultural or cult expression. By interpreting Del Rey’s work as a both a component of, and a contributor to, the Pop Gothic advance, themes of social climate, consumer culture, gender identity, sexuality and the male gaze can be interrogated. Indeed the potential for a collective crisis of these issues in early 21st Century western culture is exposed, “the façade of carnivalised surfaces is revealed to hide the chaos and entropy of existential emptiness.” (Yeo 17). Gothic modes have been approximated by Pop Gothic into the mainstream (Edwards and Monnet) as a driving force behind these contradictions and destabilisations. The Gothic has become ubiquitous within popular culture and continues to exert influence. This is easily reflected in the $392 million the first Twilight movie grossed at the box office (Edwards and Monnet). Examples are abundant in pop culture across music, film and television. Edwards and Monnet cite the movies Zombieland and Blade in the Pop Gothic march, along with TV shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Being Human, True Blood as well as Lady Gaga’s Fame Monster music album. Edwards and Monnet observe that the Gothic aesthetics of the 1980s and 1990s, “melancholy and imagery associated with death, dying and the undead” (3), shifted from the corners of subculture to the mainstream of millennial popular culture. With this shift comes the rebelliousness and melancholy that characterises Gothic texts. This is evident when a pop star of Lana Del Rey’s popularity —her Summertime Sadness video alone has over 160 million views on youtube.com (YouTube)— narratively represents themes of death and suicide repeatedly in her videos. In two of Lana Del Rey’s music videos —Blue Jeans and Born to Die— either she or a representation of her persona dies. In a third video, Summertime Sadness, her companion takes her own life and Lana ultimately follows suit. Themes of death and loss are just the most obvious of Gothic elements present in Del Rey’s work. Del Rey’s songs and videos speak of the American dream, of aestheticised beauty, of being immaculately presented, well dressed and having hair “beauty queen style”, as in Summertime Sadness. She depicts an excess of hedonistic consumption and love that knows no bounds, not even death. Much of the delivery has resonance with the Gothic; performatively, visually and musically, and shows a subversion and fatalism that juxtaposes, contests and contradicts pop cultural tropes (Macfarlane). This contrary nature of the Gothic, as characterised by Botting, can provoke a sense of otherness; the uncanny, including “displays of uncontrolled passion, violent emotion or flights of fancy to portrayals of perversion or obsession” (Gothic 2). It is argued that these characteristics have been commodified into merchandisable and mainstream stylistic representations (Edwards and Monnet). Del Rey’s visual work uses this otherness and representation of repressed darkness as subversion or contestation to the bubble gum consumerist, fairy tale sexualisation of the Katy Perry brand of neo-liberal pop music that floods the mainstream (Macfarlane). Del Rey also harnesses the Gothic mode in her music, underscoring social anxieties through moments of sound which act as “a sonic imp, this music enters perception through the back door, and there it does its destabilising work” (van Elferen 137). As potential psychosocial sources of this otherness in the Gothic (Botting, Gothic), Jung argued that as a collective consciousness by repressing our darkest side, we can be dislocated from it. Further he argued that many modern ills —conflict, war, disenfranchisement, poverty— stem from culturally rationalised divisions of ‘good vs evil’ (Tacey). Providing a space for these dark sides to surface, Swirski comments that cultural product can act "as a social barometer and a cultural diagnostic tool. It identifies social trends and cultural patterns and weaves elaborate counterfactuals- literary fictions- that hang human faces on large-scale human abstractions such as society and culture" (1). Jung proposes the large-scale social abstraction; that to truly live with ourselves we need embrace the otherness inside us— to learn to live with it (Tacey). The Gothic may enable this living with, rather than living without. Jung asserts that we now rely so much on what we can touch, taste and own, that western culture has become a “creed without substance” (Tacey 32). In more concrete terms, Hoffie argues that popular media today tells stories: in terms of disaster and crisis: weather patterns: disastrous. Climate Change: disastrous. Global Financial Crisis: disastrous. Political situations: disastrous. Unemployment: disastrous. And so on. The high-pitched wail of this lament corrodes the peaks and troughs of potential emotional responsiveness; the vapours of benumbing apathy steam upwards like a bewitching spell. All stands still. Action, like in a bad dream, seems impossible. (14) This apathy in the face of crisis or disaster is well expressed in Del Rey’s work through the Gothic influenced lyrics and videos; she describes her partner as so good looking as to be “sick as cancer” in Blue Jeans and that her lover left her because he was “chasing paper”. Represented here is the social current that the need to acquire goods in late capitalism’s climate “of unrestrained consumerism” (Heine and Thakur 2) is her lover’s priority over companionship. Revealing more of the Gothic aesthetic is that her videos and songs represent this loss, they depict “disturbances of sanity and security” (Botting, Gothic 2) and thematically reflect the social climate of “disaster and crisis” (Hoffie 14). This sense of otherness through Gothic influences of the uncanny, death and melancholy have a significant impact on creative expression creating music videos that play like a kind of half remembered nightmare (Botting, Love Your Zombie; Macfarlane). In the black and white video for Blue Jeans the opening shot shows an image of Del Rey rippling and blurred, framed by circular waves of water as black as oil. The powerful Gothic aesthetic of the abyss is rendered here, “to convey the figurative meaning of a catastrophic situation seen as likely to occur whereby the individual will sink to immeasurable intellectual, ethical or moral depths” (Edwards and Monnet 9). This abyss is represented as Del Rey sings to her ghostly tattooed lover that she will love him until “the end of time” and climaxes in the suggestion that he drowns her. As in Edwards and Monnet‘s description of zombie films, Del Rey’s videos narratively “suggest that the postmodern condition is itself a form of madness that disseminates cultural trauma and erases historical memory” (8). This view is evident in contrasting Del Rey’s interview comment that she finds conversations about feminism boring (Cooper). Yet in her song delivery and lyrics she retains an ironic tone regards feminine power. This combination helps “produce a darkly funny and carnivalesque representation of sex and waste under late capitalism” (Edwards and Monnet 8). Further evidence of these ironies and distorted juxtapositions of loss and possession are evident in the song Radio. The video —a bricolage of retrospective fashion imagery— and lyrics hint at the persistent desire for goods in US western culture (Heine and Thakur). Simultaneously in her song Radio, she is corruptibly engorged by consumption and being consumed (Mulvey) as she sings that life is “sweet like cinnamon, a fucking dream on Ritalin”. The video itself represents distorted dreams hyper-real on Ritalin. Del Rey’s work speaks of an excess; the overflow of sensations, sexual excess, of buying, of having, of owning, and at the same time the absence; of loss or not knowing what to have (Botting, Love Your Zombie). Exemplified by the lyrics in What Makes Us Girls, “do I know what I want?” and again in Radio “American dreams came true somehow, I swore I’d chase until I was dead”. Increasingly it is evident that Del Rey sings “as a woman who does not know what she wants” (Vigier 5). She illustrates the “endemic narcissism” (Hoffie 15) of contemporary western culture. Del Rey therefore clearly delineates much of “the loneliness, emptiness, and alienation that results from rampant consumerism and materialism under advanced capitalism” (Edwards and Monnet 8). As a theme of this representation, Del Rey implies a sense of commodified female sexual energy through the male gaze (Mulvey), along with a sense of wasted youth and opportunity in the carnivalesque National Anthem. The video, shot as if on Super 8 film, tells the story of Del Rey’s ‘character’ married to a hedonistic style of president. It is reminiscent of the JFK story including authentic and detailed presentation of costume —especially Del Rey’s Jackie Onassis fashions— the couple posing in presidential gardens with handsome mixed-race children. Lavish lifestyles are depicted whilst the characters enjoy drinking, gambling and consumerist excess, Del Rey sings "It's a love story for the new age, For the six page, We're on a quick sick rampage, Wining and dining, Drinking and driving, Excessive buying, Overdose and dyin'". In National Anthem sexual excess is one of the strongest themes communicated. Repeatedly depicted are distinct close up shots of his hand on her thigh, and vice versa. Without being sexually explicit in itself, it is an overtly sexual reference, communicating something of sexual excess because of the sheer number of times it is highlighted in close-up shots. This links to the idea of the Gothic use of jouissance, a state of: excessive energies that burst in and beyond circuits of pleasure: intensities are read in relation to a form of subjectivity that finds itself briefly and paradoxically in moments of extreme loss. (Botting, Love Your Zombie 22) Del Rey represents these moments of loss —of herself, of her man, of her power, of her identity being subsumed by his— as intense pleasure, indicated in the video through sexual referencing. Botting argues that these excesses create anxieties; that in the pursuit of postmodern excess, of ownership, of consumption: the subject internalises the inconsistencies and contradictions of capitalism, manifesting pathologies not of privation but overabundance: stress, eating disorders, self-harming, and a range of anxieties. (Love Your Zombie 22) These anxieties are further expressed in National Anthem. Del Rey sings to her lover that he cannot keep his “pants on” and she must “hold you like a python”. The python in this tale simultaneously symbolises the exotic, erotic and dangerous entrapment by her male suitor. Edwards and Monnet argue for the Gothic monster, whose sign is further referenced as Del Rey swims with crocodiles in Blue Jeans. Here the male power, patriarchy and dominance is represented as monstrous. In the video she shares the pool with her beau yet we only see Del Rey swim and writhe with the crocodiles. Analogous of her murderous lover, this adds a powerful otherness to the scene and reinforces the symbols of threatening masculinity and impeding disaster. This expression of monstrousness creates a cathartic tension as it “puts the ‘pop’ in Pop Goth: its popularity is based on the frisson of selling simultaneous aversion from and attraction to self-destruction and cultural taboo” (Edwards and Monnet 9). In a further representation of anxieties Del Rey conforms to the sexual object persona in large part through her retro pin-up iconography —meticulous attention to costume, continuous posing and pouting— and song lyrics (Buszek). As in National Anthem her lyrics talk of devotion and male strength to protect and to “keep me safe in his bell tower”. Her videos, whilst they may show some of her strength, ultimately reside in patriarchal resolution (Mulvey). She is generally confounded by the male figures in her videos appearing to be very much alone and away from them: most notably in Blue Jeans, Born to Die and Video Games. In two cases it is suggested she is murdered by the male figures of her love. Her costume and appearance —iconic 1960’s swimsuits, pantsuits and big hairstyles in National Anthem— portray something of the retro pin-up. Buszek argues that at one time “young feminists may poke fun at the pin-up, but they do so in ways that betray affinities with, even affection for, the genre itself” (3). Del Rey simultaneously adheres to and confronts these normative gender roles, as is characteristic of the Gothic mode (Botting, Gothic). These very Gothic contradictions are also evident in Del Rey’s often ironic or mocking song delivery, undermining apparent heteronormative sexual and gender positioning. In National Anthem she sings, as if parodying women who might sincerely ask, “do you think he’ll buy me lots of diamonds?”. Her conformity is however, subverted. In Del Rey’s videos, clear evidence exists in her facial expressions where she consistently portrays Gothic elements of uncertainty, sorrow, grief and a pervading sense that she does not belong in this world (Botting, Gothic). Whilst depicted as a brooding and mourning widow —simultaneously playing the mistress luxuriating on a lion skin rug— in National Anthem Del Rey sings, “money is the anthem of success” without a smile or sense of any attachment to the lyrics. In the same song she sings “God you’re so handsome” without a trace of glee, pleasure or optimism. In the video for Blue Jeans she sings, “I will love you til the end of time” staring sorrowfully into the distance or directly at the camera. This confident yet ‘dead stare’ emphasises the overall juxtaposition of the largely positive lyrical expression, with the sorrowful facial expression and low sung notes. Del Rey signifies repeatedly that something is amiss; that the American dream is over and that even with apparent success within this sphere, there exists only emptiness and isolation (Botting, Love Your Zombie). Further contradictions exist as Lana Del Rey walks this blurred line —as is the Gothic mode— between heteronormative and ambiguous gender roles (Botting, Gothic; Edwards and Monnet). Lana Del Rey oscillates between positions of strength and independence —shown in her deadpan to-camera delivery— to that of weakness and subjugation. As she plays narrator, Del Rey symbolically reclaims some power as she retells the tragic story of Born to Die from her throne. Represented here Del Rey’s persona exerts a troubled malevolence, with two tigers calmly sat by her side: her benevolent pets, or symbols of contrived excess. She simultaneously presents the angelic —resplendent in sheer white dress and garland ‘crown’ headdress of the spurned bride in the story— and the stoic as she stares down the camera. Del Rey is powerful and in many senses threatening. At one point she draws a manicured thumbnail across her neck in a cut-throat gesture; a movement echoed later by her lover. Her character ultimately walks symbolically —and latently— to her death. She neither remedies her position as subservient, subordinate female nor revisits any kind of redemption for the excessive male dominance in her videos. The “excess is countered by greater excess” (Botting Love Your Zombie 27) and leads to otherness. In this reading of Del Rey’s work, there are representations that remain explicitly Pop Gothic, eliciting sensations of paranoia and fear, overloading her videos with these signs (Yeo). These signs elicit the otherness of the Gothic mode; expressed in visual symbols of violence, passion or obsession (Botting, Gothic). In our digital visual age, subjecting an eager viewer to this excess of signs creates the conditions for over-reading of a growing gender or consumerist paranoia, enabled by the Gothic, “paranoia stems from an excessive over-reading of signs and is a product of interpretation, misinterpretation and re-interpretation based on one’s knowledge or lack of it” (Yeo 22). Del Rey stimulates these sensations of paranoia partly through interlaying intertextual references. She does this thematically —Gothic melancholy— and pop culturally channelling Marilyn Monroe and other fashion iconography, as well as through explicit textual references, as in her most recent single Ultraviolence. In Ultraviolence, Del Rey sings “He hit me and it felt like a kiss”. Effortlessly and simultaneously she celebrates and lays bare her pain; however the intertextual reference to the violent controversy of the film A Clockwork Orange serves to aestheticise the domestic violence she describes. With Del Rey it may be that as meaning is sought amongst the texts as Macfarlane wrote about Lady Gaga, Del Rey’s “truth is ultimately irrelevant in the face of its interlayed performance” (130). Del Rey’s Gothic mode of ambiguity, of transgressed boundaries and unclear lines, shows “this ambience of perpetually deferred climax is no stranger to contemporary culture” (Hoffie 15) and may go some way to expressing something of the “lived experience of her audience” (Vigier 1). Hermes argues that in post-feminist pop culture, strong independent post-feminist women can be characterised by their ability to break traditional taboos, question or hold up for interrogation norms and traditions, but that ultimately narrative arches tend to restore the patriarchal norm. Edwards and Monnet assert that the Gothic in Pop Gothic cultural representation can become “post-race, post-sexuality, post-gender” (6). In places Del Ray exhibits this postmodernism but through the use of Gothic mode goes outside political debates and blurs clear lines of feminist discourse (Botting, Love Your Zombie). Whilst a duality in the texts exists; comments on consumerism, the emptiness of capitalist society and a suicidal expression of hopelessness, are undermined as she demonstrates conformity to subservient gender roles and her ambiguously ironic need to be “young and beautiful”. To be consumed by her man thus defines her value as an object within a consumerist neo-liberal trope (Jameson). This analysis goes some way to confirming Hermes’ assertion that in this post-feminist climate there has been a “loss of a political agenda, or the foundation for a new one, where it signposts the overcoming of unproductive old distinctions between feminist and feminine” (79). Hermes further argues, with reference to television shows Ally McBeal and Sex and the City, that presentation of female characters or personas has moved forward; the man is no longer the lone guarantor of a woman’s happiness. Yet many of the tropes in Del Rey’s work are familiar; overwhelming love for her companion equal only to the emphasis on physical appearance. Del Rey breaks taboos —she is powerful, sexual and a romantic predator, without being a demon seductress— and satirises consumerist excess and gender inequality; yet she remains sexually and politically subservient to the whim and sometimes violently expressed or implied male gaze (Mulvey). Del Rey may well represent something of Vigier’s assertion that whilst society has clear direction for the ‘success’ of women, “that real liberation and genuine satisfaction elude them” (1). In closing, there is no clear answer as to whether Del Rey is a Beauty Queen or Gothic Princess; she is neither and she is both. In Vigier’s words, “self-exploitation or self-destruction cannot be the only choices open to young women today” (13). Del Rey’s work is provocative on multiple levels. It hints at the pull of rampant consumerism and the immediacy of narcissistic desires, interlinked with contradictions which indicate the potential for social crises. This is shown in Del Rey’s use of the Gothic — otherness, the monstrous, darkness and death— and its juxtaposition with heteronormative gender representations which highlights the persistent commodification of the female body, its subjugation to male power and the potential for deep anxieties in 21st-century identity. References Blue Jeans. Dir. Yoann Lemoine. Perf. Lana Del Rey. Interscope Records, 2012. Botting, Fred. Gothic. New York: Routledge, 2014. Botting, Fred. "Love Your Zombie." The Gothic in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture. Ed. Edwards, Justin and Agnieszka Monnet. New York: Routledge, 2012. 19-36. Buszek, Maria. Pin-Up Grrrls Feminism, Sexuality and Popular Culture. London: Duke University Press, 2006. Cooper, Duncan. "Lana Del Rey Cover Interview." Fader, June 2014. Edwards, Justin, and Agnieszka Monnet. "Introduction." The Gothic in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture. Eds. Justin Edwards and A. Monnet. New York: Routledge, 2012. 1-18. Heine, Jorge, and Ramesh Thakur. The Dark Side of Globalisation. New York: UN UP, 2011. Hermes, Joke. "The Tragic Success of Feminism." Feminism in Popular Culture. Eds. Joanne Hollows and Rachel Moseley. New York: Berg, 2006. 79-95. Hoffie, Pat. "Deadly Ennui." Artlink Magazine 32.4 (2012): 15-16. Jameson, Fredric. "Globalisation and Political Strategy." New Left Review 2.4 (2000): 49-68. Lana Del Rey. "Radio." Born To Die. Interscope Records, 2012. "Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness" YouTube, n.d. 12 June 2014 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVjsGKrE6E8›. Lana Del Rey. "This Is What Makes Us Girls." Born To Die. Interscope Records, 2012. Macfarlane, K. "The Monstrous House of Gaga." The Gothic in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture. Ed. Justin Edwards and A. Monnet. New York: Routledge, 2012. 114-134. Mestrovic, Stjepan. Postemotional Society. London: Sage, 1997. Mulvey, Laura. Visual and other Pleasures. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. National Anthem. Dir. Anthony Mandler. Perf. Lana Del Rey. Interscope Records, 2012. Paglia, Camille. Lady Gaga and the Death of Sex. 12 Sep. 2010. 2 June 2014 ‹http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/magazine/article389697.ece›. Piatti-Farnell, Lorna. "Introduction: a Place for Contemporary Gothic." Aeternum: the Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies 1.1 (2014): i-iv. Spooner, Catherine, and Emma McEvoy. The Routledge Companion to Gothic. New York: Routledge, 2007. Summertime Sadness. Dir. Chris Sweeney. Perf. Lana Del Rey. Interscope Records, 2013. Swirski, Peter. American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History. New York: Routledge, 2011. Tacey, David. The Jung Reader. New York: Routledge, 2012. Van Elferen, Isabella. "Spectural Liturgy, Transgression, Ritual and Music in Gothic." The Gothic in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture. Eds. Justin Edwards and A. Monnet. New York: Routledge, 2012. 135-147. Vigier, Catherine. "The Meaning of Lana Del Rey." Zeteo: The Journal of Interdisciplinary Writing Fall (2012): 1-16. Yeo, David. "Gothic Paranoia in David Fincher's Seven, The Game and Fight Club." Aeternum: The Journal Of Contemporary Gothic Studies 1.1 (2014): 16-25. Young and Beautiful. Dir. Chris Sweeney. Perf. Lana Del Rey. Interscope Records, 2013.