Everyday Canvas

Competitions and Narcissism

Prompt: Does a human being’s urge to compete have anything to do with his narcissism, and why do people enjoy competitions so much? What are your thoughts on the subject?

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A healthy competitiveness is a natural motivation to express our worth and competence and have it validated by others. It also serves to validate our own competence to ourselves. There may be a hint of narcissism in it, true, but it is not to the degree of being a sickness.

What becomes a sickness is the kind of a dangerous competitiveness that may turn into something cruel and vindictive. This makes a person sick inside his or her body and can damage relationships, especially when the person fails time after time. It is also a sickness when a person doesn’t mind stepping on other people and doing everything in his power to get ahead. Such a person doesn’t enjoy the competition but regards it only in terms of gaining recognition and fame. When he or she fails at it, he or she feels completely deflated and sees even good friends as enemies. If this sick kind of competition happens in personal relationships, unions, partnerships, and marriages can fail. Such overly competitive people don’t like others when they win and shine because of the fear of being outshined, as they have now become highly manipulative, narcissistic, and psychopathic.

There is a fulfillment that comes from winning, sure, but it should be looked at as a life-enhancer and nothing else, because when the winning comes at the expense of others, it won’t provide any emotional reward. Instead, it will put more weight on the winner to continue winning.