Only by bringing into conscious awareness the escalating fears of failure, boredom, laziness, discovery, self-discovery, and paranoia will workaholics begin to recognize that something is seriously wrong.
Dependent on others to affirm their self worth, workaholics suffer a crisis of confidence as the six escalating fears discussed in the previous blog, especially the fear of failure and increasing paranoia, cause anxiety levels to climb and eventually destabilize functioning.
Normal levels of narcissism are fundamental to the development of our self-respect, self-love, and pride. Unfortunately, perfectionism and obsession can lead to high levels of ego-inflated self-absorption that encourages the development of neurotic narcissistic traits.
In order to further understand one of the inner dynamics of workaholism—that perfectionism leads to obsession, and in turn, obsession leads to increasing levels of narcissism—our focus now turns to the role that obsession plays.
Our topic is the particular role that perfectionism plays in our understanding of one of the interacting dynamics of workaholism—that perfectionism leads to obsession, and in turn, obsession leads to increasing levels of narcissism.