The problem

I think many people are unwitting narcissists -- that is, they don't intend to be (does anybody?) and they don't know they have adopted narcissistic patterns. Studying the literature I see that it is common for people whose parents abuse them with inconsistent treatment to develop narcissistic defence mechanisms. As I've said before, under capitalism, one is idealized and highly valued as a consumer, but devalued and made to understand one is expendable as a worker. This contradictory treatment is not conducive to thinking or to self-understanding. One has an inconsistent sense of self and therefore is set back in terms of seeing any part of reality as a whole. Theory, however, does attempt to understand reality as a whole, and that is why some people find it very threatening