For Eric, it sounds to me like someone setting out
to write the Great
American Novel might have NPD (narcissistic
personality disorder).
I was thinking of someone who is under a lot of
family pressure to "get a real job" or "to pursue
a worthwhile career." Family pressure can make it
very difficult to be an aspiring artist, unless
the parents are academics. Young aspiring artists
are often reminded that their dreams are
worthless, that they are unrealistic. etc.
The way they emerge from this pressure is
sometimes an internalized sense of pressure: they
have to produce a GREAT work of art; an ordinary
work of art isn't enough of a vindication for
their career choice. The internalized pressure to
be great blocks them from being themselves.
Don't know if many narcissists become good fiction
writers...the personality orientation would seem
to work against the art. If one is stuck inside
self and ego all the time, one couldn't let go
enough to imagine others.
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