Skip to main content

Blogging and Narcissism


Indispire edition 114 #IAmABlogger inspires the narcissist in me.  Why do I blog?  To feed endless hunger of the narcissist in me, I suppose.  Like Narcissus gazing neurotically at his own image in the water, I decided to gaze into the eyes of my enduring benefactor, Reverend Tormentoro, and extract his view on why I blog.

Narcissus by Caravaggio, gazing at his own reflection.
Source: Wikipedia
“You display all the signs of NPD as listed by the DSM,” he said.  NPD elaborates as Narcissistic Personality Disorder for those who are not initiated.  And DSM is the Bible of psychiatrists: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). 

Can anyone be a serious writer unless he/she considers him-/herself important to some degree?  I did not voice my question.  No one dares to question the Rev.  Not if you know him personally.

“You still look for appreciation from your readers,” explained the Rev.  “You want them to write appreciative comments.  Thank your stars that these days no one dares to write negative comments since the whole virtual world is founded on the basic premise of mutual back-scratching.  Otherwise you would have run away from blogging long ago.  Your very identity is determined by others’ appreciation.  Symptom number 1 of the neurotic narcissist.”

I pulled out my pen and looked for a scrap of paper to jot down notes.  Sin #1: Seeking Appreciation.

“No,” the Rev made a dismissive gesture that bordered on contempt.  Have you ever been to shrinks?  If yes, you would have noticed the tremendous effort they make to conceal their contempt for you, for the whole of humanity.

“Narcissists never forget anything related to their ego, positive or negative, especially the latter,” he condescended to explain. 

“That’s why good writers don’t need notebooks,” I blurted out.  I don’t keep a notebook, you see.

He stared at me as if who asked for my view.

“Having made their personal life a hell with the constant need for others’ approval, the narcissists go out to make others’ lives miserable with their insensitivity,” the Rev went on.  “Symptom number 2 according to the DSM.”

“My sins, my sins, my most grievous sins,” I went into the confessional mode which usually made the Rev very happy.

“Wait,” he frowned.  “I’ve just begun.  The Narcissist thinks that he is entitled to all honours.  You are a teacher and you think you deserve the Best Teacher’s Award.  You are a blogger and nothing would deter you from imagining yourself bagging the Best Blogger Award from Indiblogger.”

The Rev went on.  I began to understand the glorious sinfulness that provokes all writing.  The most grievous sin of vainglory.  Insensitive, pathological, neurotic, prejudiced, jealous, lustful, most sinful... attention-seeker.  That’s what I am.  According to the Rev.

Why do I blog?  I returned to the question at hand.  And the answer is what I have written above. 


PS.  “A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.”  Oscar Wilde.

Comments

  1. K.A. AcharyaApril 25, 2016 at 1:58 PM

    Lack of negative comments is undermining my confidence. When I read my posts again, and find glaring mistakes, I feel they appreciate out of sympathy.
    Anyways, I think everyone is a bit of narcissist. Writers, naturally, a little more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2016 at 2:04 PM

      Too much sympathy? I think it's a kind of new social etiquette evolving necessarily because of the system in which popularity is more important than content/substance.

      Delete
    2. wingsMay 8, 2016 at 11:18 PM

      I think I agree with the Rev. Most symptoms, I share too. I'm unable to agree with his reprimands for the Best Indiblogger too.
      You see, a writer is after all the one who sits and reflects in chair more often than comes to his feet for action, no?
      But is he true when he says, "... jealous, lustful, most sinful... attention-seeker." ?
      I think these are the silent demons not put to work because of the same reflection and deep thinking by a writer.

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalMay 9, 2016 at 6:32 AM

      The Rev is the sort of person who is more interested in maintaining a system at the cost of dissenting individuals than about people. We had one such person at SPS. One who sacrificed a few staff who he thought were potential threats to his position. I escaped because I had no administrative aspirations. Still one day he told me, "I cannot appreciate your achievements in public because people will be jealous of you." He chose to award and reward people who helped him achieve his personal goals. The Rev is of the same mould. But such people pretend to be doing you some great service. The society is with them too. Because it is a mutually helping game.

      Delete
  2. Pranju chakrapaniApril 25, 2016 at 3:58 PM

    Ironically I did write an article on narcissist and tried to give an alternate view point on his death. here is the link http://pranjuchakrapani.blogspot.in/2014/12/the-alchemist-narcissus-and-suicide.html . Hope you enjoy reading.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2016 at 4:10 PM

      Whatever writing of yours I've read so far was absolutely
      loveable. So here I come to your Narcissus.

      Delete
  3. A Homemaker's UtopiaApril 25, 2016 at 5:50 PM

    You've quite an honest answer..Anything that is normal or ordinary couldn't create any piece of art,not even writing..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2016 at 6:55 PM

      Yes, mediocrity can create religion and gods but not art!

      Delete
  4. Chaitali BhattacharjeeApril 25, 2016 at 8:17 PM

    Introspective, sincere straight from heart article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2016 at 8:24 PM

      Life. Stupid life. That's what makes every writer introspective. My personal experience is that religious people enable that introspection very generously. Alleluia!

      Delete
  5. SaketApril 25, 2016 at 8:17 PM

    Absolutely true.

    One can't continue to write without a degree of narcissism in him. He can write his first piece out of creativity but not a second one unless he falls in love with the first one (and as an extension of this, with himself).

    Your post relieved me of my guilt of being a narcissist.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 25, 2016 at 8:26 PM

      Your post prompted me to write this, Saket. Glad we found each other.

      Delete
  6. HemaApril 26, 2016 at 4:03 AM

    Thank you for owning up to your sins and ours too, haha! I agree with the mutual back-scratching, but sometimes we bloggers need honest critiques and we hardly ever get that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2016 at 6:37 AM

      Bloggers are very sensitive, it would appear from the way they shy away from voicing differences of opinion. Healthy debates would be welcome.

      Delete
  7. magiceyeApril 26, 2016 at 10:18 AM

    Bravo!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. sunaina sharmaApril 26, 2016 at 6:51 PM

    Great post and true to the core. We writers crave for appreciation. We all do. But lack of critique is a bane.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2016 at 7:55 PM

      Debate is not in fashion among bloggers, it looks like.

      Delete
  9. herbal tea manSeptember 22, 2025 at 8:15 AM

    -I invite you to visit this blog-
    https://herbalteaman.blogspot.com/2025/09/nota-84.html

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Shooting an Elephant

George Orwell [1903-1950] We had an anthology of classical essays as part of our undergrad English course. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell was one of the essays. The horror of political hegemony is the core theme of the essay. Orwell was a subdivisional police officer of the British Empire in Burma (today Myanmar) when he was forced to shoot an elephant. The elephant had gone musth (an Urdu term for the temporary insanity of male elephants when they are in need of a female) and Orwell was asked to control the commotion created by the giant creature. By the time Orwell reached with his gun, the elephant had become normal. Yet Orwell shot it. The first bullet stunned the animal, the second made him waver, and Orwell had to empty the entire magazine into the elephant’s body in order to put an end to its mammoth suffering. “He was dying,” writes Orwell, “very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further…. It seeme...
11 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
19 comments
Read more

Urban Naxal

Fiction “We have to guard against the urban Naxals who are the biggest threat to the nation’s unity today,” the Prime Minister was saying on the TV. He was addressing an audience that stood a hundred metres away for security reasons. It was the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel which the Prime Minister had sanctified as National Unity Day. “In order to usurp the Sardar from the Congress,” Mathew said. The clarification was meant for Alice, his niece who had landed from London a couple of days back.    Mathew had retired a few months back as a lecturer in sociology from the University of Kerala. He was known for his radical leftist views. He would be what the PM calls an urban Naxal. Alice knew that. Her mother, Mathew’s sister, had told her all about her learned uncle’s “leftist perversions.” “Your uncle thinks that he is a Messiah of the masses,” Alice’s mother had warned her before she left for India on a short holiday. “Don’t let him infiltrate your brai...
14 comments
Read more

Raging Waves and Fading Light

Illustration by Gemini AI Fiction Why does the sea rage endlessly? Varghese asked himself as he sat on the listless sands of the beach looking at the sinking sun beyond the raging waves. When rage becomes quotidian, no one notices it. What is unnoticed is futile. Like my life, Varghese muttered to himself with a smirk whose scorn was directed at himself. He had turned seventy that day. That’s why he was on the beach longer than usual. It wasn’t the rage of the waves or the melancholy of the setting sun that kept him on the beach. Self-assessment kept him there. Looking back at the seventy years of his life made him feel like an utter fool, a dismal failure. Integrity versus Despair, Erik Erikson would have told him. He studied Erikson’s theory on human psychological development as part of an orientation programme he had to attend as a teacher. Aged people reflect on their lives and face the conflict between feeling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction (integrity) or a feeli...
7 comments
Read more