If you wan to know whether narcissism is now more widespread, why not use clinical definitions of narcissism.
Do people on average score higher or lower on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory than they did in the past?
That’s a specific measurable question. There no point in having a broader notion.
What class of behaviors are this an instance of?
Playing reference class tennis is not useful as an end in itself.
If your goal is to judge people as being bad because they are narcissistic but wouldn’t be labeled that way by well researched academic scales by more clear about your goal.
I think that the point is just to be able to talk about the thing that people mean when they talk about somebody being narcissistic, which generally is not the clinical diagnosis.
It usually means that the person doesn’t like the person they call narcissistic. If Alice calls Bob narcissistic that might tell you more about Alice then it tell you about Bob.
If you wan to know whether narcissism is now more widespread, why not use clinical definitions of narcissism. Do people on average score higher or lower on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory than they did in the past?
That’s a specific measurable question. There no point in having a broader notion.
Playing reference class tennis is not useful as an end in itself.
If your goal is to judge people as being bad because they are narcissistic but wouldn’t be labeled that way by well researched academic scales by more clear about your goal.
I think that the point is just to be able to talk about the thing that people mean when they talk about somebody being narcissistic, which generally is not the clinical diagnosis.
It usually means that the person doesn’t like the person they call narcissistic. If Alice calls Bob narcissistic that might tell you more about Alice then it tell you about Bob.