Narcissism and its discontents.

Comments on the original article by Paris (see record 2012-18549-001) on the topic of narcissism and modernity. It is a wide-ranging, ambitious, and, at times, provocative discussion of issues related to putative cultural influences on the etiology, development, and exacerbation of narcissism. Among the most important issues raised by Paris is the need for well-conducted longitudinal research on the development of narcissism so that the etiological mechanisms underlying this oftentimes-deleterious condition might be uncovered. However, there are a number of ongoing debates in the literature that make much of his proposal premature. This commentary addresses a few of these debate issues. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.