- Truth or lie?
People who post loads of
selfies are narcissists?
(mysterious music)
Narcissism is a term that's
getting bandied about
more and more these days,
especially with people
that take a lot of selfies.
So let's just look at this idea of...
Is it narcissistic?
So, narcissism is an
actual diagnosable term,
medical or psychological term.
- Yeah, it's in the DSM,
which is the American
Psychological Association's
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
It's like a real medical thing
that a real psychiatrist
can really look at a person
and really go, "Okay, I
think you're a narcissist,"
and a specific type of
narcissist, as well.
- Right, so, so...
I think already we're going too far to say
people that take loads of
selfies are narcissists,
so I think we should move
on from that conversation.
- Well, also because, look...
Back in the day, if you
wanted a portrait of yourself,
you had to get an artist to
come in and do an oil painting.
Stuff that was super expensive.
Now you can just...
You know, you can just
do them all the time.
It's really a factor of technology
and a factor of the times
that means we're taking
more pictures of ourselves.
- We're taking more pictures of ourselves.
We're letting people know where we are,
what we're up to.
It's on social media.
It's very normal,
it's not out of the
ordinary now to do that.
- And some people are,
it's their profession.
- Right, celebrities, yeah.
- ... To be photographed,
and what better way than
for them to do it themselves
a lot of the time using
the tools of the day?
- To keep in touch with
their fan base, absolutely.
So we can follow them and
know what they're up to
and people wanna know.
So I think you make a really good point
about people having their portrait painted
in historical times.
They weren't considered
super narcissist, well...
Maybe they were considered
narcissistic at the time.
- A Napoleon kind, maybe-
- Exactly, but, or Queen Elizabeth I,
but it was part of the job
for them to have a state
portrait of themselves.
- Propaganda.
- Absolutely, propaganda.
- I mean, was Lenin a
narcissist or was he a dictator
who had to make sure that his
portraiture was everywhere
across the whole of Russia
in order to be able to rule Russia?
In order to be able to control behaviors.
- Right.
- Celebrities are the same.
In order to be able to
control our behavior,
in order to be able to
get us to buy stuff,
their portrait, their
image has to be everywhere.
What better way to do it
than with this tool here?
Are they narcissists,
or are they marketeers?
- Right, exactly, exactly.
So I think the point here is...
Celebrities, it's part of the job.
They're not necessarily narcissists
because they're posting
selfies of themselves.
They're just doing their job.
And friends that you might know,
acquaintances that are putting
up selfies of themselves
are just keeping in with social norms
and letting us know where they are
and what they're up to...
Probably as most of us are doing as well.
I don't think we're a
world full of narcissists.
- So social norms is important,
because the Psychiatric
Association of America,
their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,
it often changes depending
on the social norms.
What is strange and odd
and potentially madness
years and years and years ago
is not strange and odd and
a psychiatric condition
or madness anymore.
- For more tips on body language,
check out our website,
truthplane.com,
and pick up our book,
Truth and Lies, What
People Are Really Thinking.
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