Based on my reading, I'd say that narcissism exists along a continuum. We all fall somewhere on that continuum. All humans live with some level of narcissism....we need it to survive. If we literally never took care of ourselves and tried to subsist only for others, we would become very ill and die. There's likely an evolutionary component to narcissism. Some folks will have more or less empathy so their degrees of narcissism will differ. The extreme on the continuum would be narcissistic personality disorder.

Are there higher rates of NPD now among millennials compared with prior generations? I honestly don't know any numbers on that but I'd say it's unlikely. Take a look at politics and politicians from various generations....they are quite a good example of the recurring problematic traits we see in the human species....down the generations in politics we have seen plenty of adultery and lying and scandals regardless of the generation right? Those folks probably fell higher on the narcissism scale....I imagine many of them were living with NPD. NPD is not a new phenomenon, people are just becoming more aware of it and in some cases people are misunderstanding it. One selfish act (or even a few) does not equal NPD.

The selfie trend...I don't really understand it because I didn't grow up in that generation. And PC is the only form of social media I use. I don't think taking a lot of selfies or frequently posting on Facebook warrants a NPD label. One thing of note in the millennial research is that they tend to have quite low self-esteem as a group (based on undergrad uni studies)....the "everybody gets a trophy" movement was actually damaging because humans don't develop true self-esteem by being told we are great at everything when we aren't. "Helicopter parenting" also stunts growth and creates a lot of problems but remember that the helicopter parents are not millennials....that's fascinating to me. I wonder what led those parents to interact with their children in that way? I have friends in their 40s and 50s who treat their 20-something children as though they are 8-12 yr olds. I was not raised that way, it's very different. Worth exploring how it came to be. And helpful to think about when we feel like judging the immature behaviors of millennials.

Many millennials exhibit a strong social conscience about the environment and other issues that I can't mention because it's against guidelines to discuss politics. A notable social conscience does not correlate with a high level of narcissism so we should give them some credit.

Each generation will make comparisons and assume that their "time" was better or healthier or safer etc. It's a bias. I recently heard someone lamenting the "new" trend of bigotry and violence?? What about what happened to the African peoples, Native Americans, Aborigines, the Irish, the Jews...I could go on. For as long as there were humans, there has been narcissism and tribalism and war and there has also been compassion and love and understanding. We perpetually oscillate between darkness and light. I think the most important part is to include ourselves in that group and not assume that we are "good" and others are "bad" or "less than." Words like "toxic" and "malignant" and "monster" are being thrown around a lot in society now. I don't think those are helpful ways to describe humans beings. If we encounter someone with a problematic level of narcissism, we can draw a line and wish them peace. There are always reasons why people behave as they do.