Fear, Narcissism, and Another Way
by Fr. Gary Richmeier, c.pp.s., Kansas City, Missouri
The mental health of the person who occupies the
White House has been under much scrutiny lately. Not
a few mental health professionals have suggested that
his behavior resembles someone with narcissistic per-
sonality disorder. A narcissist is someone who cannot
or will not view reality from another’s viewpoint. Such
a person tends to evaluate everything only in regard to
how it affects him/her. A narcissist often needs the focus
(good or bad) to be on them, because that is how they
gauge their importance.
Whether or not the person in the White House is ac-
tually a narcissist, his focus on himself and his achieve-
ments seems to have given many others permission to
openly engage in the same dynamic. Of course, he is not
the first to exhibit this quality. His election may have
been only the logical culmination of the steady growth
of that egocentric, narcissistic dynamic in our country
over the last number of years.
There are a number of factors that push us human
beings toward being self-centered. They tend to be in-
tertwined, and most have fear as the root motivator.
Greed can be described as the epitome of self-
centeredness, and it is often about wealth and power.
A person caught in this trap is fearful of losing control,
so they have to get more and more to feel secure. But
in this age of nuclear threats and terrorism, it is almost
impossible to feel totally in control, so the wealthy and
powerful focus on amassing more and more wealth
and power for themselves, trying to allay their fears.
This often results in costly and useless battles among
those with power, whether on the battle field, in con-
gress, or elsewhere.
When some amass power, control, and wealth, it
necessarily means that others will not have the same
power and control and will certainly have less wealth.
For these people, the fear is that they don’t matter or
aren’t important. However, the greatest fear is that
something of what they hold important won’t survive,
be it their values, their freedom, their culture, their
religious practices, or even they themselves. In response,
we see the rise of the gun culture as people trust only
themselves for protection. We see sometimes violent
protests as people who don’t have power and control
8 • The New Wine Press • March 2018
take to the streets to be heard. We see religious terrorists
who brutally kill people because they are afraid that the
cultures or governments in power will endanger their
religion and its practices. We see inner city youth join-
ing gangs to feel important because there are few other
opportunities in their environment to find that. We see
people who voted for the kind of president we have now
because they feared no one in government was listening
to them, so they wanted to “shake things up.”
It is unrealistic to think that we humans can be
totally other-centered. We have an instinct for survival
and self-preservation, without which we would prob-
ably not be around long. But we also have the ability
to understand that seeing to the needs of others is also
crucial to our own survival, security, and happiness.
That understanding is possible only when we don’t let
fear run our lives.
Jesus often told his followers “Do not be afraid.”
Why? Because he knew that fear is what prevents people
from taking the risk to love. Managing our fear is thus
the first step in letting God’s love flow through us more
smoothly.
As a Precious Blood community with our particu-
lar charisms, we are in a good position to help people
manage fear, and thus minimize the movement toward
narcissism and self-centeredness. Our work of recon-
ciliation brings together those who experience only
opposition and division, in hopes that familiarity might
breed trust and unity. Using Circle conversations is
a specific and powerful way to help people hear and
understand that we are much more similar than we are
different as human beings. It is very difficult not to feel
compassion when hearing another’s heartfelt life story.
Our preferential option for the poor and our min-
istry to the marginalized help people know they are
important, that they count. This can help them resist
finding their importance in less constructive ways. It
can also be an example to others who “forget” that the
powerless and ignored are still part of the human family.
Our ministry of the Word can be a powerful tool to
invite people away from narcissism and toward living
more as the one Body of Christ. To imitate Jesus by