/lit/ - Literature

>>10448818
>>10450244
>I feel like everything I do and say can be traced back to some form of narcissism
>Nah you're just finding excuses to self flagellate
The desire to self-flagellate, punish yourself, commiserate, etc is itself narcissistic. You demand for yourself to be impeccable. Since that is unattainable, you must at least preserve your high standards, so you'll never be content with yourself, thus ensuring that, at the very least, you're still not like the common rabble that is content with being average, forgettable, and unimportant.

This stems from an old misunderstanding. Maybe an expectation someone placed on you in your childhood, maybe you were praised too much for your qualities and evolved to rely on this for self-validation, maybe something else. Regardless, you have to first separate narcissism from pejorative connotations, and just see it as a trait which can be limiting. Try thinking about yourself without making value judgements, because, be them positive or negative, these are always narcissistic. When you begin to understand this trait of yours, you won't get rid of it, but turn it into 'positive', i.e that will improve you and your enjoyment of life.

''He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a self-despiser.''
- Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil