Narcissist Personality Approach in the Kindergarten Classroom under the Observation of Piaget and Freud Theory

Freud Egocentric Theory

The ego starts to develop in the infancy period during the oral stage of the psychosexual development. During this time, the child is highly egocentric and believes that he or she is the center of the world probably because; of the fact that almost all of their needs and desires are being fulfilled by their mother. As the child grows up, things change. He starts to realize that things cannot always go the way they want and that not everything is for them or about them. Therefore, their act in a self-centeredness starts to decline [1].

Freud assumes that both normal self-esteem and self- aggrandizement are narcissistic phenomena, the difference being merely one of quantity. The difference between self- esteem and self-inflation is not quantitative but qualitative.

Conceptual Paper

True self-esteem rests on qualities, which a person actually possesses, while self-inflation implies presenting to the self and to others qualities or achievements for which there is no adequate foundation. If the other conditions are present narcissistic trends may arise if self-esteem and other qualities pertaining to the individual’s spontaneous self are smothered, self-esteem and self-inflation are mutually exclusive [2].

Piaget Egocentric Theory

Piaget phenomenon of children’s egocentrism, which the child sees the world from his point of view. The child up to age seven does not realize the peculiarities of his thinking cannot stand on the point of view of another. Egocentrism is during the preoperational stage, in Piaget developmental stage the age of the children is two to seven years old.

The roots of the concept of egocentrism can be traced back to Freud’s influence on Piaget. In Piaget theory realism, animism and artificialism gradually disappear as the child becomes aware of her own subjectivity. Piaget introduced the concept of egocentrism in his early writings in the 1920s to describe general characteristics of the preschool child [3]. The egocentric child believes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as they do. This theory of Jean Piaget, calls preoperational stage this is the phenomins that Children’s’ thoughts and communications are typically egocentric. For example if he sees his mother crying, a young child gives her his favorite stuffed animal to comfort her, his mother [4].

Piaget preoperational stage, believes that the child is absorbed in its own private world and does not communicate with others. According to Piaget, four interrelated factors allow movement from stage to stage. These factors include maturation, experience, social interaction and equilibration [5].

• Parenting style
• Environment
• Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)

Conclusion

A child narcissist is also having their own challenges and finds difficulty dealing with people close to them; family and school peers who the child has to work with. Understanding the narcissist will help the narcissist first and relief themselves from some of the stresses that they encounter, and make them less threaten from their close family or co-peers in the classroom. Second, it helps people around them understand them and helps prevents them being victims of their own gas lighting, and his wearied reaction to them because they have very little if not any empathy or understanding the others point of view. Thirdly knowing how to deal with them makes both the narcissist and their counterpart feel relief and content. It is worth noting that of vast importance that the nonracist traits are revealed and spotted at an early age especially childhood. Moreover to help relieve the child firstly and his family and peers alike from the narcissist attitude and behavior one must understand there is a grey area because not all children who have these traits are narcissists and are merely a product of their social encounters with their families. If shown these signs at an early age the parents and the teachers play a massive role in curbing the child away from narcissism.

To help narcissist, parents have to be aware when raising their children, to put them in the real live. Not in a fantasy world that their child is the best of all the children around. The child should communicate with other children, whether it is in a day care, nursery and school and interact with other children. Home schooling and being alone with their parents most of the time and posting the child as the one and only. This often creates a selfish nonracist child. Teachers need to involve children in cooperative play in learning centers where the narcissist child can see their self with other children and see that all children have advantages and disadvantages in their characters regardless their statues. Encourage the narcissist to play sports such as soccer, basketball, swimming, and playground games such as sand or slide all these games, this helps open their eyes to the different characters and characteristics of others. Moreover this will help them learn how to communicate and understand others. Normal people and narcissists alike should realize that with every step they take, or every mile they pedal or every lap they swim around the pool, they are enhancing their cognitive fitness. Recent studies suggest that the activities do improve their body also benefit their brain.

Physical activity shows direct significant benefits the health most significantly the heart, the body and the mind. It also enhances judgment, thinking, and learning skills [15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23]. Teachers have to incorporate workshops about the reasons of the creation of a nonracist child and how it is hurting the child before they hurt the closest people to them and causing general discontent from the people surrounding them. Brain development is a complicated process, and environmental stimuli during this developmental stage may modify the brain’s functional growth and determine the integrity of the brain throughout life. Although the relation between physical education and cognitive development is not very clear, some studies have shown that exercise and aerobics can improve the function of the brain, increase the size of critical brain structures and improve cognition in children and older adults [16].