Handily, they also help explain the egomaniacal narcissism that is having children as well as the absurd love and delight the enterprise engenders.
So the most depressing thing about this trend wasn't the narcissism it revealed in celebrities, but the fact that the public cares more about celebrities than pretty much anything else.
Still, I suspect this is what Meerkat is likely to become – a vehicle for unearned narcissism.
Psychologists warn that narcissism is on the increase.
But it is in the post-communist east that Greece's problems are viewed most unforgivingly, regarded as an exercise in national narcissism.
Plenty of intrigue but no clear answers from the Sydney siege inquest As the co-author of a recent study, Brad Bushman, explains, narcissism is the claim that you are superior to other people.
Breivik's narcissism is in abundant evidence in Asne Seierstadt's new, gripping account of his life and crimes, One of Us.
In narcissism, an inflated grandiosity is repeatedly punctured by an unbending reality.
Here's our great ex-leader laughing while Iraq fries, the twin evils of our society, narcissism and war, together at last in one image.
That said, the subject matter – models, narcissism, self-help et al – already seems tired by the end of this 30-minute pilot, and Rogers's acerbic one-liners aren't quite razor-sharp enough to live up to her monsterish billing.
Psychiatrists don't know what causes personality disorders but suggest (as they always do) it has something to do with internal vulnerability (nature) and early parenting (nurture): in the case of narcissism they stress inconsistent parenting involving excessive praise or criticism that is not balanced by realistic feedback.
