Acquired situational narcissism deserves a closer look, particularly as fame, success, and notoriety are more accessible to more people. Acquired narcissism explains how seemingly “regular” people can develop egos that begin to resemble narcissism or, in some cases, psychopathy. History offers sobering examples of ordinary psychological structures reorienting around charismatic authority to enable atrocities. Although the Milgram obedience studies and the Stanford prison experiment are debated, they remain useful illustrations of how situations can amplify egoism and blunt empathy. There are contemporary examples that are similarly alarming in scope, and there are more benign versions that look unremarkable on the surface yet feel seismic to those near the person whose ego suddenly outpaces its original, presumably non-narcissistic baseline.
