The narcissist’s vanity grows more anxious and paranoid with age

Evidence

In spite of her superficial arrogance, the narcissistic woman knows she is threatened; it is why she is uneasy, susceptible, irritable, and constantly suspicious; her vanity is never satisfied; the older she grows, the more anxiously she seeks praise and success, the more she suspects plots around her; lost and obsessed, she sinks into the darkness of bad faith and often ends up by building a paranoid delirium around herself. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1834

Categorization

• CANDY: A compact, slightly dark portrait of aging narcissism sliding into paranoia.
• XREF: connects to: The paranoiac reduces all reality to his own fixed self-image; Unrequited narcissism inverts from grandiosity into persecution delusion — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1829; Inflated fragile self-esteem masks existential dread but needs constant reassurance — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 262 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Inflated fragile self-esteem masks existential dread but needs constant reassurance #expands (0.78) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 262
• Woman’s aging shame stems from being an object for man’s mediation #responds-to (0.70) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1709