What does money have to do with anything? Why can’t narcissists be rich? Plenty of narcissists make money. Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey. Narcissism is not an impediment to wealth. The pursuit of wealth is, in itself, a trait common to narcissists.
Ok, someone is going to have to explain to me the problem with Oprah’s book selections. I’ve never watched her book club shows, or any of her shows for that matter, but I have read:
A Tale of Two Cities, The Good Earth, Anna Karenina, One Hundred Years of Solitude, East of Eden, The Corrections, The Poisonwood Bible, and Song of Solomon. Excepting One Hundred Years of Solitude, they all range from ok to great, with most falling towards great. Looking over her list of book club books, I don’t see any reason to be suicidal.
Here is a list of the books that Oprah has picked:
So, Diogenes the Cynic, you’re saying that making a lot of money on what someone is doing just makes them more of a narcissist. You’re saying that because Oprah has millions of fans who will gladly buy anything she recommends, that makes her even more of a narcissist. On the other hand, you can’t be a narcissist because, despite having more posts to the SDMB than anyone else in its history, you don’t seem to have very many fans who would buy anything you recommend.
Nope. I haven’t said anything close to either one of those things.
Then what is the definition of a narcissist?
Extreme self-regard. Pathological egotism and vanity. Self-worship.
Sorry, I’m getting into this late, but I’m curious as to what exactly (other than having psychics as guests?) constitutes Oprah’s ‘woo-woo’ philosophy? I’ve seen this mentioned several times in the thread, but I still don’t know what ‘philosophy’ Oprah has expressed that is being questioned and/or criticized and/or derided?
Is it just because she was willing to give ‘psychics’ a voice on her show? Has she expressed agreement with said psychics? Is it the whole ‘Secret’ thing? Did she express agreement with that? Is she ‘too’ open minded? 
I’m not getting the hate. She’s an incredibly successful businesswoman. Putting her name and face on a magazine seems more in line with making a good business decision than ‘narcissism’, no matter how its defined. Okay, well maybe if you define it as capitalizing on your face/name/brand - if you want to define that as narcissism. In which case, so what? That’s a bad thing?
‘Pathology’ implies disease. Are you saying that Oprah has a mental illness which compels her to be an incredibly successful businesswoman? In which case - hey! - not her fault! It’s a disease! We should all be sympathetic… :rolleyes:
If I tell you, you’ll tell all your friends. Then they will tell all their friends.
Then soon *everyone *will be as powerful as Oprah.
Oprah is a woman who has always triumphed over the odds. She grew up in poverty. She was molested as a child. She ran away from home at 13. She had a baby (who soon died) at 14. Most women fitting that description go nowhere. It was always clear to everyone though that she was smart and talented. She learned to read at 3. In high school she came in second in a national contest for dramatic interpretation. She began working at a radio station in high school and became a TV news anchor at a young age. She had a full scholarship to college. She won the Miss Black Tennessee contest. She had great ratings at her first talk show and over the years has developed her current show into the highest rated talk show of all time.
She didn’t do any of those things because she told everyone else how great she was. In each case, somebody else thought she was great. It doesn’t matter whether you don’t think she’s great. It doesn’t matter whether I think she’s great or not. In each case, a lot of people thought she excelled. In each case, I don’t see any evidence that she was deluded about how good people thought she was. In each case, a whole lot of other people told her how good she was.
Oh - better not tell then! I know that I, for one, could not HANDLE that kind of power! I would have backed the whole ‘rapture’ thing just to watch everybody dance! Can you just imagine the reaction if OPRAH was behind the prediction??? :eek:
BWAHAAHAAHAAAHAHAH!
Oh, sorry…yeah - better not to tell…
Which is the thing, right? You don’t get to be as powerful as Oprah unless OTHER PEOPLE believe in you. Whether any one of us does or doesn’t, enough people have - including herself - that she has been successful. Whatever critical mass of likeability needs to be reached to be successful on television, she’s reached it. Whatever critical mass of likeability needs to be reached for her to be successful outside of television, she reached that as well.
Says who?
Are you sympathetic to anything whatsoever, Diogenes the Cynic?
I never took notice of Dio’s ironic post count. Wow.
Some examples include The Secret, A Course in Miracles, Deepak Chopra, faith healing, homeopathy, anti-vax paranoia and ghosts.
If here’s any kind of new age woo or pseudo-science bullshit she doesn’t believe, I don’t know what it is.
Of course. I’m a highly empathic individual. Why would I feel sorry for Oprah Winfey, though. She’s made a lot of money marketing her own personality cult. Why does she need my sympathy?
What’s ironic about it?
Who do you feel sympathetic toward?
You just listed a bunch of things you think are woo. Can you demonstrate that Oprah believes in all of them? Or would this be one of the many, many, many things you say about many, many, many things that you can provide absolutely no evidence for, you simply “know” and expect that you announcing what you “know” to be considered evidence for factual reality?
I realize that there’s no real point in asking a question that everyone knows the answer to, but sometimes I can’t help myself, I hold out hope…