Narcissism, Personality and Black Mirror

Personality disorders are a type of mental disorder that arises when one has a rigid and unhealthy way of thinking, functioning and behaving. People usually have troubles relating to people and/or situations which lead to problems in social relationships. A kind of the same is Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The hallmarks of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) are grandiosity, a lack of empathy for other people, and a need for admiration. People with this condition are frequently described as arrogant, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. They may also concentrate on opulent fantasies (e.g. their own success, beauty, brilliance) and may be convinced that they deserve special treatment. These characteristics typically begin in early adulthood and must be consistently evident in multiple contexts, such as at work and in relationships (Psychology Today, 2018).

People with this disorder, tend to feel that they are superior or special, and tend to enhance their own self esteem but are fragile underneath the surface. They continue to seek excessive admiration, approval and validation for their own selves, and hence have difficulty in accepting criticism or failure. I found a unique adaptation of this disorder, portrayed through the evils of modern society in an episode of the show Black Mirror, and through this post, I will use the episode to highlight the understanding of Narcissistic Personality Disorder as a consequence of one’s environment.

Black Mirror is a British science-fiction anthology television series, that focuses on the unanticipated consequences of technological advancements in modern technology. The episodes focus on the influence of technology, and gives us space to question whether technology is really a boon or just mere dependence, or worse so addiction.

Season 3, Episode 1 of the show, “Nosedive” creates a dystopia where it uses technology as a possible cause of personality disorders, which lead to obsession with the physical portrayal of oneself in the society. The episode follows the story of Lacie, who is living in a society where everyone I ranking each other on the basis of every social interaction they have through an app which is synced with reality. This creates a hierarchy of social standing based on the rankings one has out of five. The consequence of this technology is that people try to pretend, try to change their own behaviour and try to be more likable in order to bump up their own ratings. Therefore, those with lower ratings are ostracized and not considered as being worthy of any kind of interaction. What this episode highlights is that there is nothing about the self that is left to it’s original, everything is determined by what others think of them specially with our protagonist.

Though it does not say explicitly, but many analysis of the episode say that the protagonist, Lacie does show symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Lacie, is shown to be preoccupied with fantasies of her own success, power, beauty and intelligence by gaining a higher ranking from other. She fights with her brother, Ryan over the fact that she can’t be understood by him, and only the society understands her and has no empathy towards those who are at lower ranks. She is seen to require constant attention and admiration from others, to seek which she goes extreme lengths of faking social media updates about her life, pretending to know people and is envious of those who have a better social media face. She is portrayed as arrogant and wants to use her best friend’s wedding to get a higher rating for herself so that she can a be accepted in a higher rated residential area.

What is unique about the portrayal of this disorder is that it is shown as a system in the society rather than just something an individual is diagnosed with. It creates a dystopia where everyone, at a lower rank is going through the same thing as Lacie does, the obsession with self and disregard for others. The causes for disorders like this can be biological but environment and life experiences do play out in the case of such mental illnesses, and in Lacie’s case her entire environment functions on this system, reinforcing the idea to function in a conceited way. They show the great deal of grandiosity and at the same time the high number of vulnerabilities that each person in this society posses and hence becomes a live manifestation of the disorder in the form of a social structure.

In a clinical setting individual and group psychotherapy focusing on transference and schemas is usually encouraged to help individuals with Narcissistic Personality Disorder relate to others in a more compassionate way. This dystopian fiction uses acute social satire to show how our environment, especially social media, technology and increasing self occupancy can lead to since adverse effects on the self.

(Remedial Blog Post for Quiz 10)