Urban Dictionary"Pathological (secondary) narcissism that is induced in adulthood by dysfunctional coping with celebrity, wealth, and fame.
The "victims" - billionaire tycoons, movie stars, renowned authors, politicians, and other authority figures - develop grandiose fantasies, lose their erstwhile ability to empathize, react with rage to slights, both real and imagined and, in general, act like textbook narcissists.
t is likely that ASN is merely an amplification of earlier narcissistic conduct, traits, style, and tendencies. Celebrities with ASN already had a narcissistic personality and have acquired it long before it "erupted". Being famous, powerful, or rich only "legitimized" and conferred immunity from social sanction on the unbridled manifestation of a pre-existing disorder. Indeed, narcissists tend to gravitate to professions and settings which guarantee fame, celebrity, power, and wealth.
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Did you see that singer's body language and mannerisms? I remember her when she embarked on her career only a year ago! She was so modest then!"
NewYorkTimes:
Acquired Situational Narcissism by Stephen Sherrill"We all know that movie stars, professional athletes, rich people and politicians often act like complete jackasses, but Robert B. Millman, professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical School and the medical adviser to Major League Baseball, thinks he knows why. The cause, he says, is acquired situational narcissism, a psychological dysfunction that Millman was the first to identify and that he treats in his celebrity patients."
NPR audio (three minutes)"Michael Jackson is hardly the first star to find his way into a world of trouble. Not only are there many other celebrities in the hot spot, but there is actually a place where they often go for help--psychiatric help, that is; namely, the offices of Dr. Robert Millman. For many years he was the official medical and psychiatric adviser for the commissioner's office of major-league baseball. Basically, he was baseball's chief shrink. In addition to counseling the nation's most troubled pitchers and heavy-hitters, he also counsels actors, politicians and foreign princes. And one of his jobs, as he explains it, is to help them cope with the trauma of being famous."
New Economy; Like Narcissus, executives are smitten, and undone, by their own images By Tim Race, 2002"And while psychiatrists say that the narcissistic disorder tends to develop before or around age 4, when the afflicted may have trouble maturing beyond the me-centricism of early childhood, Mr. Gerson is among the business management researchers who argue that, in a conducive corporate culture, adults ''can learn to be narcissists.''
''Rather that thinking that these business people were evil to start with,'' Mr. Gerson says of the recent parade of rogues, ''we should recognize that they were in a system that encouraged that behavior.''
He, like Professor Conger, argues that because narcissism is a latent human condition that periodically flourishes, the only business antidote is oversight and accountability -- perhaps the sort of measures provided for in the corporate-conduct legislation Congress passed last week.
Of course, rules are one thing, effective enforcement quite another. It all depends on whether the narcissists are running the asylum."
Hubris syndrome: An acquired personality disorder? A study of US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers over the last 100 years by David Owen1 and Jonathan Davidson
"Hubris syndrome was formulated as a pattern of behaviour in a person who: (i) sees the world as a place for self-glorification through the use of power; (ii) has a tendency to take action primarily to enhance personal image; (iii) shows disproportionate concern for image and presentation; (iv) exhibits messianic zeal and exaltation in speech; (v) conflates self with nation or organization; (vi) uses the royal ‘we’ in conversation; (vii) shows excessive self-confidence; (viii) manifestly has contempt for others; (ix) shows accountability only to a higher court (history or God); (x) displays unshakeable belief that they will be vindicated in that court; (xi) loses contact with reality; (xii) resorts to restlessness, recklessness and impulsive actions; (xiii) allows moral rectitude to obviate consideration of practicality, cost or outcome; and (xiv) displays incompetence with disregard for nuts and bolts of policy making.
In defining the clinical features of any disorder, more is required than simply listing the symptoms. In the case of hubris syndrome, a context of substantial power is necessary, as well as a certain period of time in power—although the length has not been specified, varying in the cases described from 1 to 9 years.
The condition may have predisposing personality characteristics but it is acquired, that is its appearance post-dates the acquisition of power."
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