A brief definition of the word…
Experiencing echoism in my own life…
I became intrigued at the idea, as I like learning about new ideas. This one struck me in particular– my munchkins being raised by a narcissist, I wanted as much knowledge as possible to help them in the future, should they need a listening ear or a guiding hand. At any rate, it couldn’t help to be more informed.
I didn’t notice echoism so much in the older two. But the youngest? A little. She constantly diminished herself as lesser than others saw her, rather than greater than how others saw her (echoism vs. narcissism). Especially when given direct praise, “You’re so good at X!” “No, I’m not.” Now, I wouldn’t say she praised others at the expense of herself. However, the definition, as expressed in the article, said that children of narcissistic parents are often not allowed to have needs of their own. Since I knew several children of narcissistic parents, I thought it worth pursuing understanding this concept in a more thorough manner.
Of course, the article also stated that psychologists believed it might be an inherited trait, rather than a learned condition. So, maybe this wasn’t the right track for me to go down at all. Still. Might as well dig a little deeper to find out what I really thought about it?
If you’d like to learn more…
I discovered two writings on the subject, a book called “Echoism: The silenced response to narcissism” and an essay entitled “Echoism. a New Diagnosis for Sufferers from Child Abuse.”
Hope you learned something, and thanks to @-PageTurner- for exposing me to a new word!