Do you know where that word comes from? It started as Narcissus, a teenage boy who was cursed to fall in love with his reflection because he didn't want to get married. Then psychiatrists used his name for a mental disorder. Then this pop scientist, Christopher Lasch, said the mental disorder is on the rise due to American culture. And a bunch of self help books made money telling you that you're surrounded by evil... that word. And that's how it broke into pop culture.
Now, people who have heard the word in pop culture have looked it up, and they've landed in all different parts of that history through their research. So some people only know the myth, some people know the mental illness, some people know the pop science. And I've talked about different parts of this history, and met people from all three groups saying I'm wrong, and the truth is actually one of those three parts. Some people say it has nothing to do with mental disorders and it's just a myth. Other people say the people with the mental disorder are evil monsters. It's all jumbled up. But now you know the whole history, and I encourage you to sit and have a think about all of that, and decide what you think about using the word.
