[1][2] The group may be defined by ideology, race, political beliefs/stance, religion, sexual orientation, social class, language, nationality, employment status, education level, cultural values, or any other ingroup.
[2] In addition, ethnocentrism primarily focuses on self-centeredness at an ethnic or cultural level, while collective narcissism is extended to any type of ingroup.
[5] Wilhelm Reich and Isaiah Berlin explored what the latter called the rise of modern national narcissism: the self-adoration of peoples.
[6] "Group narcissism" is described in a 1973 book entitled The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by psychologist Erich Fromm.
[7] In the 1990s, Pierre Bourdieu wrote of a sort of collective narcissism affecting intellectual groups, inclining them to turn a complacent gaze on themselves.
[11][14] This is in line with the theorising of Theodore Adorno who proposed that collective narcissism motivated support for the Nazi politics in Germany and was a response to undermined sense of self-worth.
[15] Collective narcissism is characterized by the members of a group holding an inflated view of their ingroup which requires constant external validation.
[17] Collective narcissism predicts retaliatory hostility to past, present, actual and imagined offences to the ingroup and negative attitudes towards groups perceived as threatening.
For example, in Turkey, collective narcissists felt humiliated by the Turkish wait to be admitted to the European Union.
One might feel a great sense of love and respect for one's nation, flag, people, city, or governmental systems as a result of a collectively narcissistic perspective.
[21] Another sub-concept encompassed by collective narcissism is that of the "charismatic leader-follower relationship" theorized by political psychologist Jerrold Post.
[24] Fundamentally both the leader and the followers exhibit strong collectively narcissistic sentiments—both parties are seeking greater justification and reason to love their group as much as possible.
[24] Adolf Hitler's charisma and polarizing speeches satisfied the German people's hunger for a strong leader.
[25] Some have even described Hitler's speeches as "hypnotic"—even to non-German speakers[24]—and his rallies as "watching hypnosis on large scale".
[30] A study conducted among 6 to 9 year-olds by Judith Griffiths indicated that ingroups and outgroups among these children functioned relatively identically to other known collectively narcissistic groups in terms of intergroup aggression.
[31] Collective narcissism and ethnocentrism are closely related; they can be positively correlated and often shown to be coexistent, but they are independent in that either can exist without the presence of the other.
In general, collective narcissism is most strongly manifested in groups that are "self-relevant", like religions, nationality, sexual or gender identity, or ethnicity.