NEW!        NEW NARC CITY- narcissism is HOT!
                               New York Press interview with Sam Vaknin on narcissism 
 

                            William Saroyan: The 'Monstrous' Narcissist
 

                                     Behind Narcissism - Fear and Loathing
                        San Francisco Chronicle and LA Times, October 20, 2002
 
 

The following are articles I have found in the media that discuss narcissists or narcissism. Inclusion does not mean I agree or disagree with what is said.

  (The word is used twice in this headline. It is important to recognize how the perception of a narcissist is formed by the media's use of the word. The example here is unusual.)

                            Olympic skiing champion Jonny Moseley found mortar
                            boards no more daunting than moguls Friday when he
                            delivered a heartily applauded commencement address
                            at UC Berkeley.

                            With his good-natured grin and spiky bird's-nest haircut,
                            the popular gold- medal winner from Tiburon won over
                            the audience with self-effacing humor and a touching
                            confession of a life of narcissism that ended only this
                            past February at the Winter Olympics in Utah.

                            Some Cal students earlier grumbled that the 26-year-old
                            Moseley, who dropped out of UCLA, didn't fit behind the
                            commencement rostrum for the nation's top-ranked
                            public university, but that view was not evident among
                            the nearly 350 appreciative seniors in black gowns and
                            about 2,500 other people gathered under a sunny spring
                            sky at the Greek Theatre Friday afternoon.

                            No diplomas are handed out at the ceremony, and not
                            all seniors attend. About 6,500 undergraduates will have
                            graduated at some time during the current school year,
                            receiving their degrees at separate departmental
                            graduations.

                            Before Moseley's speech, Chancellor Robert Berdahl told
                            the skier, "You may think you have little in common with
                            last year's commencement speaker, Janet Reno . . . but
                            you do share one achievement. You've hosted 'Saturday
                            Night Live.' "

                            Moseley, whose nonskiing appearances have tended
                            more toward TV talk shows and cereal boxes, won
                            many laughs at the opening of his short speech.

                            He acknowledged being surprised when asked by a
                            committee of graduating seniors to appear. "What?" he
                            asked himself. "Me speak at the Berkeley
                            commencement? Is Maya Angelou speaking at the X
                            Games? What's going on here?"

                            But, he added, "In fact, today I'm fulfilling a lifelong
                            dream to participate in Cal's commencement . . . I can
                            remember the last time UC Berkeley contacted me. It
                            was through the admissions department."

                            He soon took a more serious tone when he described his
                            response to the public adulation showered on him after
                            his inspiring gold medal victory at the 1998 Nagano
                            Olympics. It was America's first gold of the Games and
                            gave a big boost to national spirits.

                            The flood of endorsements and praise made him feel
                            "constantly happy," he said, "because people were
                            constantly reassuring me of my righteous self. But as
                            time went on, the intensity of the recognition started to
                            fade, and as a result, so did my happiness.

                            "So there I was a few years after the Olympics, my
                            celebrity's dwindling, satisfaction waning -- I need a fix."
                            His craving was what drove him to return to the
                            Olympics this year, he said.

                            Moseley cited the book, "Culture of Narcissism" by
                            Christopher Lasch, saying he fit the definition of a
                         narcissist as "someone who depends on others to
                            validate their self-esteem and cannot live without an
                            admiring audience."

                            But he didn't realize his narcissism until the moment he
                            conquered it, which came when he persisted in
                            performing his famous "dinner roll" spin in Utah, despite
                            knowing it would probably cost him a medal.

                            He then stepped out from behind the podium to the
                            front of the stage to demonstrate the move in slow
                            motion, much to the audience's delight.

                            He placed fourth at the Games with no medal, but he
                            had performed "the best dinner roll I'd ever done," and it
                            felt "like the greatest day in my life," he said. He said he
                            learned to let success be defined in his own terms.

                            "If you do not depend on awards, money or other
                            validations to dictate your well-being and your measure
                            of success," he said, "you will own your own happiness."
 
 

                        Healdsburg pedophile priest untreatable, expert says
                            Pamela J. Podger, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, May 16, 2002

                            A psychological profile says an inactive Roman Catholic
                            priest convicted of sexual misconduct is an untreatable
                            pedophile who doesn't recognize his own deviant
                            behavior.

                            Donald Wren Kimball, 58, was convicted April 16 of two
                            counts of felony lewd conduct with a 13-year-old
                            parishioner in 1981 at St. John's Church in Healdsburg.
                            The trial was unusual, as most such cases are resolved
                            before they get to a jury.

                            After a battery of tests and two interviews in early May
                            with Kimball at the Sonoma County jail, psychologist
                            Thomas Cushing noted in his 14-page report that Kimball
                            demonstrated pedophiliac and narcissistic disorders.

                            Cushing noted that Kimball's reasoning and judgment
                            demonstrated "significant impairment" concerning his
                            actions with the molestation victim and six
                            corroborating witnesses from 1971 to 1981. Instead, he
                            had "pronounced use of the immature psychological
                            defenses of denial and repression."

                            Cushing wrote that Kimball failed to show any remorse
                            for his actions, empathy for his victims or insight on how
                            his deviant behavior harmed the families, church and
                            community.

                            In addition, Cushing wrote, Kimball's unwillingness to
                            accept responsibility for his actions would be an
                            impediment to successful rehabilitation.

                            "Mr. Kimball evidenced no compassion or empathy for
                            the youth he molested," Cushing wrote. "Rather, his
                            comments were self-serving in nature and focused solely
                            on his denial of any inappropriate conduct with any
                            minors. It is this examiner's opinion Mr. Kimball is not a
                            suitable candidate for sex offender treatment at this
                            time."

                            In Cushing's opinion, Kimball also should not receive
                            probation, since he abused "his position of trust as a
                            priest of the Catholic Church by exploiting and molesting
                            underage youth for his selfish sexual urges and desires."

                            Kimball's sentencing, scheduled for Wednesday, was
                            delayed until June 7 while Sonoma County Superior Court
                            Judge Gayle Guynup considers a motion for new trial.