Brittany Forrester - Narcissism And Leadership

Narcissism And

Leadership

By

Brittany Forrester

Brittany Forrester Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.

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Chapter 1 General Introduction

T homas Carlyle, one of the most acclaimed thinkers of the Victorian era and chief instigator of the Great Man Theory, believed that the destiny of humankind as a species fell on the shoulders of great men, who were intelligent, charismatic, influential and powerful. In doing so, Carlyle could have possibly prophesied at that time the subsequent rampant culture of narcissism that we observe in modern society a society in which everyone wants to be great. Today, more people than ever are paying more attention to writing their autobiographies of greatness, even when the content is not all that great. Often within these potentially rather narcissistic autobiographies, there exists a common chapter on leadership and how it is a viable path towards greatness. However, whether narcissists actually achieve greatness through leadership is less straightforward - due to the dynamic interaction between narcissism, leadership and the social world, and the changes this interaction undergoes as a function of time. Thus, the aim of the current book is to unravel the changes in narcissistic leadership that develop over time and to examine the potential mechanisms that are responsible for any such changes. This introduction will address the temporality of narcissistic leadership by first presenting a broad overview of the relevant narcissism and leadership literature, followed by an appraisal of the temporal relationship between narcissism and leadership. Next, the introduction will cover the mechanisms that might explain the temporality of narcissistic leadership, namely, transformational leadership and evolutionary strategies of gaining social status.

Narcissism

T he term Narcissism is derived from Ovids tale of Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection to the detriment of his true/real self, which caused him to perish. Although Ovids tale of Narcissus being obsessed by his image is void of any psychological examination, it is significant not merely for where the term narcissism is derived from, but more importantly for the constructive themes (e.g., unrequited self-love) that resonated with later interpretations of narcissism as a personality trait. The early moulding of narcissism as a personality trait was perhaps most notable in the field of psychoanalysis, where narcissism was initially theorized as a universal process within normal psycho-sexual human development (Freud, 1905/1957), but was subsequently developed as a self-regulatory personality process, more specifically as a module of self-preservation (Freud, 1914/1957; Rank, 1914/1971). According to Freud (1914/1957) this module of self-preservation operates dynamically by consistently obscuring information and feelings that would diminish the sense of self. Both Freud and Rank believed that this self-preservation is achieved through exhibiting grandiosity as a defense against vulnerability of the self. A narcissistic individual engaged in self-preservation would demonstrate high independence, extraversion, low likelihood of being intimidated, aggression and aversions to love or close relationships (Freud, 1931/1959; Levy, Ellison, & Reynoso, 2011). Freud found that these characteristics combined to create personalities that impress, can be relied upon and can readily assume leadership positions, especially when radical shifts from the status quo are sought after by would-be followers. Further, the extent to which narcissists are willing to construct their grandiose selves for the purposes of self-preservation seems to be boundless. For instance, Kohut (1985) likened Freuds construction of the narcissistic self to an admired omnipotent model: