Narcissism in Animals

To understand human narcissism, we first need to recognize the narcissism in animals, because it is inherent to every contest and contention in nature.

Narcissism in Animals

A major theme of my research and writing is narcissism.  I have argued that narcissism— in fact, malignant narcissism, which adds psychopathy, sadism, and Machiavellianism to the mix— is so woven into our lives that we don’t see it.  That’s because it’s the foundation of civilization.

But that’s not entirely correct, it falls short of the full mark.  Narcissism is really the foundation of much of the natural world; everywhere we can identify narcissism in animals.  And we are animals, which means that we have eons of genetic narcissism underlying the cultural narcissism we have inherited from human history.

If we accept the current scientific perspective, all life on Earth started as single cell organisms.  They lived, they divided and multiplied, they died.  With time, some of the survivors dined on the corpses of the failed.

Origins of Evil

For awhile.  Because eventually one of them created evil: somehow, one bacterium penetrated the membrane of another, and simply ate its living guts.  One bacterium sucked the life out of another.^[1]Although there are many papers looking at the modern dynamics of predator prey interactions, there isn’t a lot of speculation, and no available evidence, of how it all started.  But predation … Continue reading  Which would mean that murder and theft began at the same time.

If this was the case, it created millions of years of narcissism in animals, of hunters and hunted… and we assume, that situation quickly became hunters hunting other hunters.

Origins of Morality

Then at some distant period after that, morality appeared.  Some cell, or more likely a group of cells, appeared that were able to defend themselves, and then began defending their offspring.^[2]‘Offspring’ is a tricky concept for bacteria, because they split in two.  Who is the parent, who is the child?  Work with me here.  Some cells began defending their relatives.

It sounds very much like the story of Eden.  Life begins as neither good nor evil.  Then evil enters.  And only after much pain and struggle, does good later appear.

Narcissism is Win-Lose

There are other struggles in life in addition to predator-prey; any time animals are in any sort of ‘direct’ competition, i.e., head-to-head, then we can see narcissism in animals. The loser of the struggle often loses everything, so only the animals who are most devoted to themselves, win and reproduce.  Narcissism is selected for.  Which means that just as in civilization, narcissism has been intrinsically woven into the much-longer history of life.

Diagnostics of Narcissism

To understand narcissism in animals, consider our modern definitions.  In their latest diagnostic recommendations, the American Psychiatric Association currently lists 9 criteria for the diagnosis of narcissism.  The presence of any 5 makes the diagnosis.  Some reflections shows that the following are not exclusive to humanity, we can frequently also find these criteria in other animals.

Please note that the following descriptions in bold would often include animals, whereas the descriptions in normal font may imply human concepts of which animals may not be capable.

Predators & Narcissism

For our opening consideration, when predators are killing their prey, we can see three of the criteria:

• Exploitative of others to achieve personal gain
• Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others
• Unwilling to empathize with others’ feelings, wishes, or needs

It is interesting that these can often apply to herbivorous animals as well as carnivores, particularly when the herbivores engage in infanticide.  The gentle, shy rabbit will viciously kill the offspring of others, as will horses, prairie dogs, various birds, and many others animals.  However, these narcissistic traits can also be seen in ‘moral’ settings, i.e., when a parent is protecting its offspring, particularly a mother.  A mother defending her young can be even more dangerous than a hungry predator, because when faced with danger, the predator can always abandon the attack and move on to other prey.  The mother cannot so easily replace her young.  This is why she will often fight to the death in defense of her offspring.  When a mother fights an intruder, she can also display these first three criteria.

Narcissism & Status

Next, when an animal is maintaining its status or trying to move up within a pack hierarchy; or, when it is defending, or attempting to infringe upon, territory or other resources; then in the contest the previous three can be seen, plus the four following:

• Intensely envious of others [above them in the hierarchy], and the belief that others [below them in the hierarchy] are equally envious of them
• Grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment from others
• Self-perception of being superior,  unique, and associated with high-status people and institutions
• Needing constant admiration from others

Narcissism of the Alpha

Some of these may not be obvious to the non-biologist, but I will simply offer a flock of chickens as example.  In chickens, there is a very real ‘pecking order,’ and the alpha rooster is so ‘cocky’ that comparisons are often made between roosters and boasting narcissists.

Finally, when an animal arrives at a superior position in the hierarchy, particularly at the alpha position, we can add the final two criteria:

• Pompous and arrogant demeanor.
• Fixation on fantasies of power, success, attractiveness, etc.

We have no way of knowing, of course, whether animals are capable of experiencing fantasy.  They do appear to dream; and we could take the position that the predator experiences a certain measure of excited dominance.  Certainly in human attacks on others, some ‘fantasy’ of dominance is at play; many rapists do not even achieve erection.   However, if that point fails for lower animals, they would still meet eight of the nine criteria, fulfilling the diagnosis of narcissism.

Facultative Narcissism

So we can see that narcissism in animals has been an integral part of biology over geological time-scales.  In hunting, in trying to take what is another’s position or property, or in defending our own position or property, animals appear to lapse into blind narcissism.

At other times, however, they can act with great generosity, and fulfill the moral point opening the discussion here.  Note the wolves attacking the caribou in the illustration for this post.  Wolves were specifically chosen for this post because toward the caribou, there is the evil of malignant narcissism.  Toward one another in the pack, however, there will often exist the ‘morality’ of cooperation, sharing, and mutual protection.  So narcissism can be facultative:  at some times it is necessary, at other times it is toxic.

Situational Narcissism

All of the descriptions for wolves also apply to humans.  When we, or ours, are threatened, but also when we are tired, frustrated, or otherwise feel cornered, we can lash out with great anger and indifference to others, even toward the people we hold most dear. As I noted, we are animals, so the narcissism in animals is also the narcissism in people.

And like wolves and other social animals, at our best we share with, and protect, others.

For most of biology, and for most of life, there is only competition, there is only the evil of cold combat and attempted dominance.  But once a family bond is established, and by later extension, a pack structure, cooperation and ‘good’ appear.  Both are necessary for nature to exist as it is. Together, competition and cooperation, evil and good, drove life and humanity to our advanced state of security and comfort.

The problem we will explore in subsequent posts, is there are too many people who think that only one, or the other, is true; and who do not understand, and who do not want to understand, when and why each is appropriate and even critical.

Image of wolves attacking a caribou courtesy of Chat GPT.