Narcissism: Variations on a Theme (To the Results of the Discussion)

The article is an attempt to generalize the results of the discussion that was held on the pages of this journal after the publication of the article [9] on its pages. In total, 11 authors participated in the discussion, published in the journal “Ideas and Ideals”. Summing up the discussion, we note that narcissism is interesting as a topic of interdisciplinary research and discussions. The available materials allow us to conclude that either the phenomenon of narcissism itself or its reflection by specialists are at the initial stage of formation. The published articles allow us to conclude that different groups of authors interpret both culture itself and the modern phenomenon of narcissism in different ways. The understanding of culture as a set of practices used by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov, is shared by N.I. Martishina, V.A. Skorev, Yu.Yu. Pershin, G.A. Illarionov, V.I. Kudashov. The approach to culture as a metasystem is typical for the works of A.G. Teslinova and L.Yu. Logunova. A variant of culture as a feature of cognition was proposed by O.V. Khlebnikova (“conceptual” and “clip” thinking), a variant of distinguishing socialist and capitalist (“necrophilic”) culture is used by S.M. Zhuravleva. Thus, narcissism is considered in very different contexts, which makes it difficult to understand it and makes, in fact, impossible to develop a conventional attitude towards practices implemented in politics, science, and education. It is appropriate to refer to the following discussions of the theory and practice of narcissism with the topic of the relationship of narcissism with religiosity. From a prognostic perspective, it is interesting to look at the prospects for links between narcissism and the future of postmodernism and the mass consumer society. According to P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov, if we consider the discussion that took place as an experiment in the indication of scientific rhetoric, then its results convincingly testify both to the fruitfulness of the concept of narcissism and to the legitimacy of concern for the preservation of the universe of previous practices and conventions. The lack of clarity in the understanding of narcissism indicates that this phenomenon is just beginning to attract the attention of specialists.