“IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE -ANDY WARHOL

WHAT COULD possibly connect the split of Madonna and Guy Ritchie with the crisis in markets and banking? The answer is a personality trait called narcissism. Despite its association with mirror-loving metrosexuals, it's much more than being obsessed with how you look. Psychologists and psychoanalyists use the word narcissism to describe the egotistical human traits that explain many of civilisation's greatest glories and disasters. Narcissists, says the American Psychiatric Association, tend to be arrogant, driven, preoccupied with fantasies of romance and success, attention seeking and lacking in empathy.
The interesting thing is that studies have also shown that narcissism seems to lie behind many people's success in business, celebrity and the performing arts. The American business guru Michael Maccoby has identified some of the world's most creative forces - Pablo Picasso, Henry Ford, Richard Wagner, Coco Chanel, Winston Churchill - as “productive” narcissists.

The Times
Oct 18 2008