main thesis of article and critical response

Healthy and Unhealthy Self-love
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Abstract
Narcissism is a disorder that is only predictable at an advanced stage. Self-love can either be healthy or unhealthy. Unhealthy narcissism causes one to be immune to the feelings of others instigating pain and creating havoc in the society to get what one wants. Healthy narcissism, on the other hand, is important acting as a motivation for one to attain personal growth. The rate of narcissist cases has been on the rise over the past years with a 30% increase since 1980 (Brooks, 2016). The young people are considered to be most affected owing to the presence of social media platforms such as Instagram which prompts the need for a person to be recognized and accepted by their peers. Full blown narcissism affects relationships, promotes evil, and disregard the moral values of humanity. There is thus a need to find lasting solutions to solving the problem before self-centeredness characterizes the society.

Healthy and Unhealthy Self-love
The article addresses self-love (narcissism) breaking it down into healthy and unhealthy self-centeredness. While self-love is important for the growth of an individual, excess of it has detrimental effects on affected persons and those around them. A step by step practice is provided to identify excessive narcissism.
An individual lacking self-love is likely to suffer from esteem issues. A given amount of self-interest is thus necessary to act as a drive towards achieving success.

I, therefore, agree with the author’s opinion that full blown narcissists create havoc and misery to those around them. A high degree of self-importance can only be earned at the expense of others. Narcissists always consider life to revolve around them. Driven by the need to be on top, there is no limit to the extents they would go to achieve it. Such people tend to suffer from honesty and aggression issues (Brooks, 2016). According to Brooks (2016), narcissism can only be identified when it has progressed. When self-centeredness moves from affecting the individual in question to other people, that’s when the negative effects are felt hence proving Brooks assumption. Brooks (2016) is of the opinion that an unhealthy narcissist lacks the capacity to show love to others. However harsh it may sound, I would agree with her as love is all about having affection towards others than self. Narcissist spends so much time trying to make themselves lovable that they hardly have any capacity left in them to extend the same to others. Brooks (2016) asserts that although social media is not the cause of unhealthy narcissism behavior, it acts as an accelerator. However, this point is disputable due to the mere fact that since the emergence of social media, there has been a rise in cases of narcissism. Contrary to Brooks, social media is the cause, not the catalyst. The prerequisite to be recognized and fit in in the social platforms has led to people developing needy behavior where the opinions of others matters and define who they are. That would probably explain why egocentricity disorder is an emerging issue common among the young people who form a great percentage of social media users. While Brooks’ practices may help to shed off some characteristics of unhealthy self-interest, there are a few adjustments that would make her proposed system work. For instance, it is quite impractical to expect someone to disregard flatters and critics based on a list they came up with or try not to impress others with what they do. It is human nature to compete, and that competition is based on the desire to be considered better than the rest. An enhanced solution would be to modify the list so that it shows the negative effects that the flatters and critics would have on an individual. The idea is to achieve a balanced, healthy self-love not to eliminate it entirely. Awareness should be created on the negativity of excessive narcissism as most people just like Brook son’s friend are ignorant of the same.

References
Brooks, A.C. (2016). Narcissism is increasing: So you’re not special. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/narcissism-is-increasing-so-youre-not-so-special.html