Twenge’s response<\/a> to my criticisms and my criticisms are posted on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n San Diego State University psychologist Jean Twenge has emerged as a major-media \u201cexpert\u201d specializing in relentlessly denigrating modern young people as \u201cnarcissists\u201d\u2014that is, suffering inflated egos, overconfident assurance of their rightness, believing they\u2019re better and more entitled than other people, and refusing to recognize views other than their own, among other failings.<\/p>\n Aside from authoring two sloppy books filled with sweeping, undocumented claims<\/a>, Twenge herself displays the classic narcissistic traits<\/strong> she disparages in others. Indeed, her books (Generation Me<\/a><\/i>, and The Narcissism Epidemic<\/i><\/a> (see below), the latter with another \u201cnationally recognized expert on narcissism,\u201d W. Keith Campbell, provide a constant barrage of invective and condescending lectures to the effect that the authors are morally and intellectually superior to just about everyone else.<\/p>\n For examples, Twenge castigates as narcissistic those who insist that \u201cother people don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about, so everyone should listen to me\u201d (Generation Me<\/i>, p. 69). She then indulges exactly that egotism herself. InNarcissism Epidemic<\/i>, Twenge pronounces \u201cmost people\u2019s\u201d opinions and comments on all topics as \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201cclueless,\u201d representing a \u201cmountain of ignorance\u201d by the large majority who \u201chave no earthly idea what they are talking about\u201d (pp. 117-18). Except those people who sent her some anecdotes upholding her views, whom she eagerly quotes as sage commentary.<\/p>\n The news media, Twenge declares, dispense \u201cunmitigated crap\u201d (Generation Me<\/i>, pp. 199-200)\u2014except those stories and anecdotes she agrees with, which she quotes willy-nilly as if they were gospel. She berates all service workers: \u201cNarcissists are overly focused on themselves and lack empathy for others, which means they cannot see another person\u2019s perspective,\u201d Twenge writes. \u201c(Sound like the last clerk who served you?).\u201d She berates most Americans as lazy: \u201cIn general, Americans have lost the idea that there is value in an honest day\u2019s work for an honest day\u2019s pay,\u201d Twenge asserts (Narcissism Epidemic<\/i>, p. 242). She berates all young people: \u201cThe 1994 movie Clerks<\/i> is a pretty accurate illustration of how young people talk, with about two swear words in every line,\u201d she declares (p. 40).<\/p>\n In fact, Twenge berates all of modern society as a nightmare of \u201caggressive drivers, sullen clerks, and screaming children\u201d characterized by a \u201cbreakdown in consideration and loyalty\u2026 decline in manners and politeness\u2026 the fall in social rules,\u201d etc. (Generation Me<\/i>, pp. 22, 27, 103). Twenge\u2019s idea of manners, politeness, civility, and social rules is to call nearly everyone else stupid, clueless, aggressive, sullen, inconsiderate, disloyal, unmannerly, impolite, foul-mouthed, hostile, lazy, self-centered, and whatever other insults she decides to hurl<\/strong>. And, just like the “superspreaders” of narcissism she criticizes, Twenge spreads her own brand by inviting her readers and admirers to join in self-awarded moral superiority, and possibly public recognitiion, through easy condemnation of others and “culture” absent the hard work to demonstrate genuinely superior morality.<\/p>\n For all the pages Twenge spends condemning celebrities as narcissism “superspreaders,” there’s a curious omission: Oprah Winfrey, who, among other self-admirations, demands that the cover of every issue of her magazine feature a picture of her, threw a lavish birthday party for herself that shut down a big chunk of Chicago, and sports $10,000 eyelashes. Why on earth would Twenge shrink from attacking such a prominent narcissist? Could it be because Oprah’s endorsement guarantees huge book promotion and sales? Instead, Twenge joins the popular herd taking easy swings at the safe punching bags:\u00a0 Lindsay, Paris, Britney, teens’ MySpace pages.<\/p>\n Twenge berates MySpace and social networking sites for indulging \u201clook at me\u201d \u201cself-promotion,\u201d the \u201cquest for attention,\u201d and presentation of only their \u201cmost attractive and cool\u201d sides (Narcissism Epidemic<\/i>, Chapter 7, p. 113). So, Twenge maintains multiple webpages for something other than her own \u201cquest for attention\u201d? The intro page ofjeantwenge.com<\/a> consists almost entirely of an outsized picture of her, other pages on her separate book sites consist entirely of \u201cpraise\u201d for her and her work, and others advertise her \u201cevery move\u201d and indulge plenty of \u201cself expression\u201d (\u201cone of the precursors of the epidemic of narcissism,\u201d she warns when others do the same). After condemning young people in particular for social networking pages that emphasize \u201cme\u201d and \u201cmy\u201d links, it\u2019s no surprise to find Twenge\u2019s own webpage contains the following links: \u201cmy journal, my userinfo, my friends, my calendar, my website.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, narcissists are notorious for inflating their accomplishments, overlooking their own faults, and justifying their hypocrisies. For yet another example, Twenge and Campbell spend several pages decrying the trend toward parents giving children uncommon names as promoting unwarranted individualism. \u201cIt used to be a good thing to have a common, popular name,\u201d they lament nostalgically (Narcissism Epidemic<\/i>, p. 181). They then excuse Campbell\u2019s own daughter\u2019s ultra-unique name (McKinley). In fact, none of their three children\u2019s names come anywhere close to their favored index, which is giving one\u2019s child one of the 10 most common names.<\/p>\n Many more examples of Twenge\u2019s glaring narcissism could be cited. Perhaps her almost comical hypocrisy could be cited as evidence that she\u2019s uncovered a real \u201cnarcissism\u201d phenomenon. But as detailed in further reviews<\/a>, that\u2019s not the case; the best information suggests that \u201cnarcissism\u201d as Twenge measures it is meaningless and does not relate to real-world behavior trends, and the modern era is no more aggressive, mean, uncivil, self-centered, etc., than past eras these authors mischaracterize as wonderfully polite and communitarian.<\/p>\n Twenge offers numerous strategies to curb the \u201cepidemic\u201d of narcissism. Likewise, I offer several to curb the epidemic of narcissistic books through tougher discipline:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement<\/strong><\/i> By Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, Free Press, 2009<\/p>\n Jean Twenge\u2019s sequel is stuffed with clich\u00e9d, nostalgic myths and scores of sweeping claims for which she provides no references or documentation, so it\u2019s impossible to assess their accuracy. She pronounces most people\u2019s opinions \u201cclueless\u201d and \u201cstupid,\u201d so, let\u2019s look at a few of hers. Twenge buys the incredible notion that Sixties kids dropped acid to \u201chelp\u201d others:<\/p>\n Although taking a lot of acid and grooving to amazingly long Grateful Dead songs sounds like self-absorption, Wavy Gravy’s description was very different. Acid tests, he said, were about reaching outside yourself to help someone who is in even worse shape than you (p. 59).<\/p>\n Amazing. Twenge’s narcissism radar would have sounded loud alarms if some young person today declared his drug taking was really about enlightening lesser beings. In fact, Twenge brands kids today who actually volunteer to help others <\/strong>as selfish narcissists. And that’s just the beginning.<\/p>\n The gist of Twenge\u2019s books is that just about nothing bad happened in the United States prior to the 1980s \u201cself esteem\u201d movement, which she has now identified as the heretofore unrecognized culprit in the disastrous \u201ccultural shift\u201d toward unwarranted self-admiration, runaway materialism, rampant dishonesty, destructive sexuality, mass shootings, and a whole host of \u201cdangers that were once unknown\u201d and \u201cpotential social collapse\u201d (p. 331). This claim approaches complete nonsense in virtually every category she cites.<\/p>\n Twenge claims school shootings were \u201cvirtually unheard of before 1996\u201d (wrong; in fact, one of the worst occurred in her own city, San Diego, in 1979, and Twenge overlooks more numerous mass shootings by older Americans). She argues today\u2019s Americans are lazy and entitled, as evidenced by having immigrants do our hard work\u2014as if immigrants doing hard jobs never existed through dozens of past decades of American history, to say nothing of outright slavery. She blasts parents for holding lavish parties for their kids, a rare phenomenon (and does the term \u201cdebutantes\u201d tell her anything about the past?). She berates a few Woodstock 1999 concertgoers for vandalism and theft but ignores the tens of thousands of Woodstock 1969 folk who left behind mountainous tons of litter (isn\u2019t \u201csomeone will clean up after me\u201d the ultimate narcissism?). True, as she charges, today\u2019s SUV owners\u2019 personal choices create dangers for other drivers, but nothing like the drunken driving epidemics of the Fifties, Sixties, and 1970s. Again and again, Twenge depicts the past as a golden age of \u201ccivility\u201d and \u201csocial control,\u201d citing selected, brutal modern commentators, as if the past\u2019s Westbrook Pegler, Father Coughlin, Joe McCarthy, and violent racists never existed. Similarly selected news clippings, films, and books of the 1950s depicting juvenile killing sprees (Starkweather), junior high dope and sex orgies, Little Rock\u2019s racist riots, Klan lynchings, widespread barbiturate abuse, family violence, drunken driving, and troubled Hollywood stars could have been assembled to brand the Twenge-idolized Fifties as a debauched time.<\/p>\n Twenge\u2019s double standard indulgently and ignorantly excuses the past\u2019s failings while wildly exaggerating the present\u2019s. Her books represent a triumph of unreality, in which real-world trends are distorted to fit the authors’ paper-and-pencil surveys and pet psychological theories. Twenge and co-author spend great effort comparing a few random, non-representative, inconsistent psychological and attitude surveys they selected of young Americans today with those of the past. The authors ignore better surveys<\/a> that show the opposite. They then claim that questionnaires showing more narcissism and related attitudes must be producing terrible real-life consequences such as crime, aggression, exploitative sex, meanness, civic detachment, school dropout, and a host of other \u201cdestructive behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the interesting problem: Twenge nowhere shows the terrible things she predicts actually are happening<\/i>. Instead, she parades some selected news stories, quips, anecdotes, and internet raunch, as if evidence is the plural of anecdote. Of course, you can fill file folders with negative press clippings and quotes for any era and group you want to trash, from Thirties or Fifties or Sixties youth to Jews or immigrants or psychologists.<\/p>\n\n