Excerpts from the Archives of the Narcissism List Part 39

1. Interview with Inscriptions Magazine
2. My part of a Correspondence with Tim Race of the New York Times
3. Interview with Writing Tips

1. Interview with Inscriptions Magazine

The edited interview appeared here - http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.com/2002-issue24.html

Q: How long have you been writing, both professionally and personally?

A: I started writing at the age of 4, when my parents bought me the latest in word processing technology - a blackboard and chalks. Later, they replaced it with a self-erasing, plastic board and I was hooked. My first professional (i.e., paid) ruminations were printed, when I was 16, in a regional rag and, later, I published short fiction in the army's bulletin.

Q: How old were you when you wrote your first piece? What was it? (Story, article, poem...etc.)

A: Hard to tell. But it would probably have been a poem. I was very much into Gothic, dark, and unrequited horror, thrillers, and sci-fi. This was followed by well-received mysteries.

Q: What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses as a writer?

A: My strengths are my weaknesses. I like to sculpt with language but this often renders my prose incomprehensible and irritating. I write profusely but rarely bother to proofread and re-write where necessary. This gives my writing an air of a convoluted first draft. In short: I am more into impressing my readers than into communicating with them.

Q: Hands-down, which author has inspired you the most and why?

A: I was - and am - awe-inspired by Douglas Hofstadter. He is an ingenious popularizer of the most intractable scientific concepts.

Q: You're looking into a crystal ball. Where do you see yourself in ten years and what will you have accomplished in your writing life?

A: The hundreds of published articles, columns, and opinions about international affairs and economics I so painstakingly will soon be forgotten. My Hebrew short fiction is good but a flash in the pan. I may be remembered for my poetry and - more likely - for the body of work about pathological narcissism. That is, if I am remembered at all. And, yes, I do believe that an author who is forgotten has accomplished nothing, never mind how prolific and profound his writing.

2. My part of a Correspondence with Tim Race of the New York Times, partly quoted in the July 29, 2002 issue

The Perpetrators of the recent financial frauds acted with disregard of both their employees and shareholders - not to mention other stakeholders - is a matter of fact, not of conjecture. Some - though by no means all - perpetrators of fraud and con-artistry indeed respond to the need to uphold and maintain a False Self - a concocted, grandiose, and demanding psychological construct. What fuels the False Self is known as "Narcissistic Supply" and consists of adulation, admiration, and, more generally, attention - even of the wrong kind. Thus, even notoriety and infamy are preferable to obscurity.

The False Self is suffused with fantasies of perfection, grandeur, brilliance, infallibility, immunity, significance, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. Reality is, naturally, quite different and this gives rise to a "grandiosity gap". The False Self is never commensurate with the narcissist's accomplishments, standing, wealth, clout, sexual prowess, or knowledge. To bridge the grandiosity gap, the malignant (pathological) narcissist resorts to shortcuts. These very often lead to fraud, financial or otherwise.