Narcissism, Personal Accountability, & Social Justice

This is not an article siding with any political party. I am especially not writing this with an alt-right agenda. Social justice and equality are extremely important to me. I am writing this article to get us all to begin to look at the damage we do when we are letting Narcissism take hold in our life. Read more to consider my perspective…

I identify as an intersectional feminist, who applies social justice theory to my own life, as well as in how I critically analyze others, events, and the world.

AND, I am also a person who lives strongly by a moral code of accountability. Not just accountability for myself as I exist in a system of power differentials and oppression, but also accountability around the way I understand my identity, psychology, and personal responsibility and power, towards my self and others/groups, in relationship.

My current view is that having only one these two orientations within the world, either social justice or personal accountability, while mostly or completely excluding the other, leads one to cause harm. If we don’t have a balanced orientation within both positions, where we hold them as equally important, it limits our ability to truly, authentically engage, in either position. Over-focus on one position, sets the stage for Narcissism to take hold, at its most extreme.

With extreme focus on personal accountability, Narcissism takes hold, and a person becomes a rugged individualist who doesn’t at all acknowledge other’s contexts as being valid, and nor so they acknowledge systems and their participation in them. In fact, these extreme, Narcissistic personal accountability people, develop active disdain for those who want them to engage in relational accountability through acknowledgment of said systems.

Or, on the other end, and extreme focus on social justice, when Narcissism takes hold, causes the individual to become melded into a label within a group/system, believing themselves to have moral superiority, who in standing behind “the cause” can express disdain or judgment, for anyone who has some resistance arise in response to losing their individuality, being judged and categorized, and told to assimilate to this orientation.

Holding both these macro (social justice) and micro (personal accountability/responsibility) positions equally, allows us to find balance in life as an individual AND as a systemic, relational being, preventing…