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Short Cuts. (2014). Narcissism ensnares an awful lot of people in its sticky web.

“Narcissism may be a self-referential condition, but it ensnares an awful lot of people in its sticky web.

David Runciman
London Review of Books, 6 November 2014
Vol. 36 No. 21, page 22 | 1576 words

“Some professions attract people suffering from extreme forms of narcissism ….. Politics is one; sport is another.”

As examples, author and writer David Runciman uses Kevin Rudd, former Australian prime minister, and England batsman Kevin Pietersen. He then contrasts them with former Manchester United footballer Roy Keane – “not someone you’d  want to be stuck in a lift with but a player you would always prefer to have on your team.

“Once in power, (the Australian Labor Party) discovered it couldn’t bear to be in the same room as Rudd. His disdain for his colleagues, his paranoia, his monomania and his disloyalty proved too much…

“Kevin Pietersen is the Kevin Rudd of English cricket. … the report from the dressing room was that no one who spent extended periods of time in his company could stand him….

“The symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are described as ‘an overwhelming need for admiration’ coupled with ‘a complete lack of empathy towards others’. Pietersen’s new autobiography, in which he settles old scores and acquires plenty of new enemies, displays both these traits in spades…

“Pietersen’s book is frequently coupled with the new one by Roy Keane, another inveterate troublemaker and relationship-breaker. Moving from Pietersen’s perspective to Keane’s is like going from a fetid and airless room into the bracing open air. Keane is not a narcissist. He is a troubled man who has trouble dealing with his own anger…

“Pietersen’s slow-motion exit from the England set-up has been a disaster for all concerned. The poisonous mess he has left behind will take years to clear up. The same could be said of Rudd’s legacy to the Australian Labor Party. Narcissism may be a self-referential condition, but it ensnares an awful lot of people in its sticky web.”

Read the full article here: Short cuts 

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