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Timothy Albornoz

Professor Thomas Jordan

ENG 201

February 1 2016

Narcissism in Art: An Analysis on Christian Viveros-Faun

The concept of narcissism has caused a lot of controversy in contemporary society.

For instance, it has been claimed that narcissism is affecting other areas of collective

expression, such as art. In the article Why the Art Worlds Raging Narcissism Epidemic Is

Killing Art published by Artnetnews website writer, Christian Viveros-Faun, the issue is

imprecisely associated to the ways in which narcissism has actually struck the current art

sphere. Viveros-Fauns argument is mainly based on the generalization of the issue, factual

resources, and quotations which that are deemed to his ownloosely interpretedation and

vaguely well employedrelevant for the purpose of the article. (NiceI like that you are

offering a critique of this piece. I am confused, though: is this a source for your researched

argument?)

To start with, Viveros-Faun begins his argument by stating that: narcissism is

everywhere,, adding: News anchors say it prevents politicians from keeping their pants

on. Teachers and coaches reinforce it by avoiding grades and giving out trophies that read

Participant. Adults and kids push it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.. In this point,

he relies on the generalization of narcissism as a broadly expanded behavior among society,

adding examples which that (which tends to be used with a comma) barely apply to reality.

In effect, the use of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy is resorted by the author to claim
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that: [] it was only a matter of time until this blustery but debilitating epidemic struck an

already self-absorbed art world.. Not actual proof is provided so as to assume that the first

statement caused the second one (awk. phrasing here, but great point!).

As a second instance, the author radicalizes the situation by providing narcissistic

personality disorder (NDP) cases, such as the following: Consider, in this light, the late

Chris Burden's self-mutilations, which included shooting himself in the arm and crucifying

himself onto the hood of a car.. Using this resource, he tries to cause an impact in the

reader. However, Burdens performance does not represent necessarily an act of narcissism,

thus it is only an assumption from authors perspective (so he doesnt prove that this was

narcissismgood point). In addition, Viveros-Faun adds a conclusion to this part of the

argument: These and other fresh demonstrations of over-the-top egotism constitute a

pandemic of art world narcissism that could, if left unchecked, turn into a serious mental

health emergency.. The author, in order to strengthen his argument, uses the slippery slope

fallacy in order to support the previous examples and how they might be affecting art.

Nonetheless, there is not proof in the article which demonstratinges that self-expression

acts in art are going to trigger a massive wave of mental illnesses. Nice point

Another weakness of the paper is the conclusion. After providing a set of quotations

and generalizing about the topic, the author concludes: Need I say more? It is clear that

the article is written in an informal setting. However, the lack of a conclusion may rest

weight to the whole argument (not quite sure what you mean by this phrase).

Additionally, since the article covers spans from art, to media, and even society, the

argument gets lost throughout the reading. This might have been one reason for the author
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not to provide a conclusion, mainly because the article is not narrowed to its objective,

which is art.

To conclude, narcissism has been surrounded by several polemics and blamed on

collective crisis in current society. In the critique, Viveros-Faun attempts to address the

issue from the art world perspective, but fails. The topic is supported by the use of facts and

important resources. Nonetheless, the manner in which resources are used is not effective

for the reader, since most of the examples are actually engrossed (word choice) on society,

assuming that all members of society are artists. The use of overgeneralization is present as

well by comprising all artists to the same context. In this point, the author may have

presumed that self-expression is a synonym of narcissism nice!. As a consequence, these

reasons provide an actual support to state that the article is not effective in the

aforementioned senses.

Works Cited

Viveros-Faun, Christian. Why the Art Worlds Raging Narcissism Epidemic Is Killing

Art. 1 Dec. 2105. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

Tim,

I have made a few small comments throughout your paper, but this is a terrific effort. I am

particularly impressed by your ability to break down the logic of this argument and point
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out its weaknesses. You are able to diagnose specific logical fallacies within the argument,

explaining the fallacy while also pointing to a clear example of it.

My only question is whether or not this article is related to your larger research topic. Im

hoping that youll find texts related to your topic so that these short papers will be useful to

your larger researched argument.

Again, great work here.

Prof. Jordan

Grade: 97/A+