Narcissism and Nihilism as Manifestations of the Axiological Crisis of Culture

This work is aimed at identifying socio-anthropological and socio-cultural forms in which the health-saving crisis is manifesting itself today. The article analyzes abnormal forms of attitude to one’s health, which are quite common today. These are narcissistic hyper-concern about bodily health and appearance, and the opposite nihilistic attitude to one’s life and health, manifested in an incredible dominance of bad habits, including among young people. If narcissism is individualism elevated to the absolute degree of indifference to others, then nihilism is the triumph of Thanatos over Eros, that is, destructive life-denying forces over vital life-affirming ones. There are no criteria for “good enough” health in the narcissistic paradigm: it is an endless process of influencing oneself, which is ultimately not only transferred to the digital format, but also begins to have a negative impact on the individual’s real body. Nihilism is based on an indifferent, but more often negative attitude towards the norms and ideals of a healthy lifestyle and on the denial of their practical implementation in daily behavior. This is its difference from narcissism, in which the main thing is unconcern towards others. The article shows that the source of these anomalies lies not in the psychological plane of motivation loss, but in the ethical-existential, that is, in the axiological plane. In this context, there is proposed to consider these phenomena as social, testifying to the value crisis of culture. The article concludes that both in the case of narcissism and in the case of nihilism, there is a loss of the spiritual value and meaning of life as a metaphysical gift. In relation to health, this signals something more than just a loss of psychological motivation to lead a healthy lifestyle. We are talking about the crisis of the individual’s value attitudes, going deep into the unenlightened existence of the individual.

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