The Economist Book of isms by John Andrews

The Economist Book of isms by John Andrews

Author:John Andrews
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2018-01-20T05:00:00+00:00


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Narcissism An excessive interest in oneself and one’s appearance - in common parlance, extreme vanity. The word was first used in the late 19th century; Havelock Ellis (1859-1939), a British sexologist of the era, for example, described excessive masturbation as “Narcissuslike”. It is derived from the classical Greek fable of Narcissus, a handsome youth who rejected the advances of the nymph Echo and as a punishment was made to fall in love with his own reflection. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus faded away, turning into the flower that bears his name. In the 1960s psychologists and psychiatrists began to diagnose “narcissistic personality disorder”, although Sigmund Freud (18561939) had in 1914 argued that a degree of narcissism was part of a healthy personality. Baby-boomers will doubtless connect narcissism with the lyrics of a 1972 pop song by Carly Simon: “You’re so vain, I’ll bet you think this song is about you.”

Nationalism A political ideology, in some ways close to patriotism or even jingoism and chauvinism, that emphasises the nation. The term was used as early as the late 18th century by the German philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803), but nationalism’s rise to prominence was prompted mostly by the French Revolution. In the 20th century nationalism was invariably the force successfully impelling subject peoples to seek their independence from Europe’s colonial powers - for example, the struggles of Vietnam and Algeria against French rule, or Kenya’s insurrection against the British. Modern examples of nationalism include the Palestinians’ goal of an independent state and the desire of the ETA movement to establish a Basque state separate from Spain. In recent years in Europe, nationalism has often been identified in a pejorative sense with the extreme right (for example, the British National Party or France’s Front National), whose concept of the nation usually excludes immigrants and ethnic minorities.

NationalSocialism The political doctrine of the Nazi Party in Germany (see Nazism).

Naturalism A style of representation that emphasises accuracy and realism. The term was applied to a 19th-century artistic and literary movement that included the French painter Theodore Rousseau (1812-67) and his compatriot, the novelist Emile Zola (1840-1902). In philosophy, naturalism is a school of thought that rejects the supernatural.

Naturism A movement defined by its adherents as a lifestyle in harmony with nature and expressed by nudity. The concept was first defined in 1778 by Jean Baptiste Luc Planchon (1734-81), a Belgian doctor who advocated naturism as a way of improving health. Naturism, presumably for fear of embarrassment, has never been a mass movement, but it gained a degree of popularity in Germany in the early 20th century. Today, naturist holiday camps and beaches are found in many countries. For most people, naturism and nudism are interchangeable words, but some will argue that whereas naturism is a lifestyle without clothes, nudism is simply the act of being naked.

Nazism The ideology, known in German properly as National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus), of Adolf Hitler’s fascist National Socialist German Workers’ Party (the Nazi Party), which was formed at the



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