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Me All the Time: The Epidemic of Narcissism | Big Think

Big Think | April 3, 2026



Me All the Time: The Epidemic of Narcissism
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Andrew Cohen says narcissism is a culturally conditioned epidemic. How is it harmful and how can we break out of it?
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Andrew Cohen:

Andrew Cohen is an American spiritual teacher, bestselling author, and founder of the global nonprofit EnlightenNext and its award-winning publication, EnlightenNext magazine. His original teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment redefines spiritual awakening within the context of cosmic evolution and highlights a new understanding of God or Spirit as the creative impulse toward change in both self and culture.

His bestselling book, Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening is the product of his 26 years of work and has garnered praise from some of today’s leading spiritual and cultural figures as one of the most important spiritual works of our time. Andrew lives and works at the EnlightenNext headquarters in Western Massachusetts and spends much of his time travelling around the world giving retreats, seminars, and public talks about Evolutionary Enlightenment.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew Cohen: Narcissism is compulsive self-infatuation, so a narcissist is someone who is, metaphorically, always looking at their own image in the mirror of their own mind. And narcissism is a psychological disease which has become a cultural epidemic, especially with the emergence of postmodernism. So I’m a baby boomer. I’m 56. I grew up in the age of the individual. When I grew up, my life was all about me, and my generation and our children’s generations are very different than other generations because we have grown up in the age where life is really about me. We were almost conditioned to become and be very narcissistic.

When I was a young boy, my parents said, “Sweetheart, you should do whatever’s going to make you happy.” And my teachers at school, when we spoke about what are you going to do, it was always, “Well, what do you want?” I was never told that you’re part of a bigger context, a bigger process, that might need something from you, or, I was never told that, you know, kiddo, you’re probably one of the luckiest people that’s ever been born, relatively speaking–upper middle class, you know, good education, et cetera, you know, unparalleled personal and political freedoms, historically. I was never told that maybe you have an obligation to help those who are less fortunate than you.

So narcissism is a culturally conditioned epidemic of literally pathological self-concern. And so the experience of the narcissist, which is very common for many people or most people from my generation and our children, is we think about me all the time. We are always thinking about what we like, what we don’t like, what we want, what we don’t want. And so our own egos and the fears and desires of our own egos become the narrative of our relationship to life. It makes us unknowingly inherently selfish because we’re always thinking about me and we’re always thinking about what’s going to be good for me and what am I going to get out of any particular situation. It cultivates a very materialistic relationship to life, even relationship to people. How’s this going to be good for me? And, when you awaken beyond this extremely narcissistic merry-go-round, when you awaken beyond it, when you see beyond, experience yourself beyond it, it literally is like coming out of a prison.

It’s important to understand this is not a personal problem of any particular individual. It’s a cultural epidemic. And the only way out of it, in my experience, and I’ve been working on this with a lot of people for a long time, is that the individual, you know, you or me as individuals, have to become very interested, very inspired, to transcend this condition; otherwise we’re probably just not going to do it because it becomes an emotional and psychological habit. This self-referencing all the time just becomes habitual. So unless we’re very committed to transcending a compulsively narcissistic and self-centered relationship to experience itself, we probably won’t do it.

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Comments

This post currently has 31 comments.

  1. @kaputfretudy

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Perhaps it’s about balance, balancing your own self interests with the interests of the wider community. We can’t ever get completely away from the self, nor should we aim to. I do agree that the society has a role to play in the degree and extent of narcissism and narcissistic behaviour.

  3. @desmondrathbone435

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Unfortunately, as with many people lost in pathological narcissism, Mr Cohen is unable to speak about narcissism in a way that has any authenticity because he's suffering from the condition himself to such a significant degree. I think only after the point when someone has been able to significantly heal from narcissism will they have something valuable to contribute on the subject. Of course anyone that is affected by narcissism – which apparently is a significant proportion of the population in western countries – will be able to provide valuable insight and understanding on the subject if they have not got to the point of being lost in it. So considering all the many choices Big Think could have made as to someone speaking on this subject, I think they choose one of the least helpful examples.

  11. @tbd5082

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Oh, great! Another confusing message. If you don’t care for yourself you’re a codependent if you do you’re a narcissist.

  14. @urielm774

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    I agree with him in so many levels.
    When I read he was a smooth talking cult leader which successfully brainwashed intelligent people, so naturally I was alarmed before watching this video.
    I won't use ad-hoc against him cuz he's right on point on this video.
    Like everybody else, he's product of the system. The human system is fucking corrupt.
    This new hyper-individualistic culture of the post-industrial world is based on narcissism. It's a virtue to be narcissist, or else you'd be judge by the society and will finish last, then they'll call you a loser.
    The comment section are judging this man, yes he was a narcisstic cult leader, I'm not defending him, just telling ya that we're all hypocrite if we ignore what he just said.
    Cults are growing so fast, he got exposed cuz he didn't fight back enough, some societies are big cults. Some work places are cults. We've been exposed to enough spiritual cults, but TBH cults are growing in other venues nowadays. They're becoming more unpredictable and tbh scary.

  19. @EyeLean5280

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Big Think is recruiting cult leaders for their videos now? I knew their standards were pretty shaky but this does surprise me. But now that I know, it won't again in the future – BT is BS.

  21. @johnhenry959

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Didn't I just see a video on this guy as the leader of a CULT???? Surely cult leaders are the biggest narcissists, literally organizing the world around a cultivated grandiose image of yourself

  29. @janjoostaukema5096

    April 3, 2026 at 7:33 pm

    Whith a narcissist you must fit as a piece of a puzzle into his fake social empty balloon. Like if your connected to jet set realms or if youre a million dollar tennis player. If you don't fit into his bubble you litteraly don't exist. And he becomes evil and agressive. He's like the Wizard of Oz. Behind the magnificent bubble Mask there is a little neglected child in the dark. This psychological disease has been plaquing my father. I didnt have a father, i had a little neglected child in the dark. That has been very helpful for me to work on transcending the egoloop and funding a more absolute self

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