The
Mind of a Narcissist |
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Abuse has many forms. Expropriating someone's childhood in favour of
adult pursuits is one of the subtlest varieties of soul murder. I never was a child. I was a "wunderkind," the answer to my mother's prayers and intellectual frustration. A human computing machine, a walking-talking encyclopedia, a curiosity, a circus freak. I was observed by developmental psychologists, interviewed by the media, endured the envy of my peers and their pushy mothers. I constantly clashed with figures of authority because I felt entitled to special treatment, immune to prosecution and superior. It was a narcissist's dream. Abundant narcissistic supply - rivers of awe, the aura of glamour, incessant attention, open adulation, country-wide fame. I refused to grow up. In my mind, my tender age was an integral part
of the precocious miracle that I became. One looks much less phenomenal
and one's exploits and achievements are much less awe-inspiring at the
age of 40, I thought. Better stay young forever and thus secure my narcissistic
supply. So, I wouldn't grow up. I never took out a driver's licence. I do not have children. I rarely have sex. I never settle down in one place. I reject intimacy. In short: I refrain from adulthood and adult chores. I have no adult skills. I assume no adult responsibilities. I expect indulgence from others. I am petulant and haughtily spoiled. I am capricious, infantile and emotionally labile and immature. In short: I am a 40-year-old brat. When I talk to my girlfriend, I do so in a baby's voice, making baby faces and baby gestures. It is a pathetic and repulsive sight, very much like a beached whale trying to imitate a seaborne trout. I want to be her child, you see, I want to regain my lost childhood. I want to be admired as I was when I was one year old and recited poems in three languages to stunned visiting high school teachers. I want to be four again, when I first read a daily paper to the silent astonishment of the neighbours. I am not preoccupied with my age, nor am I obsessed with my dwindling,
fat flapping body. I am no hypochondriac. But there is a streak of sadness
in me, like an undercurrent and a defiance of Time itself. Like Dorian
Gray, I want to remain as I was when I became the centre of attention,
the focus of adoration, the heart of a twister of media attention. I know
I can't. And I know that I have failed not only at arresting Chronos -
but on a more mundane, degrading level. I failed as an adult. |