I just finished reading yet another article about women and our ever-expanding egos. According to a new study by leading psychologists, we women are more egocentric and narcissistic than ever before. The symptoms of this dastardly “ego-itis”? Huge expectations of ourselves and others, a belief that we are the center of the universe, a deluded sense of our own fabulousness, trouble accepting criticism, and difficulty extending empathy. In fact we are 67 percent more narcissistic in the last two decades. Hmmm … I wonder if that has anything to do with big bad women’s lib?

Naturally, the article doesn’t spend much time talking about how these traits may serve us in our careers or personal lives. Rather, it looks at how this shift in the dating sphere is making things difficult … especially for men!

I was raised in a household that revolved around my mother. She was a narcissist, someone who, according to Wendy Behary, director of the Cognitive Therapy Center of New Jersey and author of Disarming the Narcissist: Surviving and Thriving with the Self-Absorbed is “often self-absorbed and preoccupied with a need to achieve the perfect image (recognition, status, or being envied) and have little or no capacity for listening, caring, or understanding the needs of others.” My mom hasn’t been formally diagnosed—few narcissists seek treatment or even recognize that they have a problem—but growing up, the signs were all around me. Read more ...

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A recent study shows that women are more unhappy than ever before. Over the past 50 years, mental disorders have risen significantly in women, while reported rates of “subjective well-being” have dropped dramatically. This would suggest that our mothers or grandmothers – those “oppressed housewives” that hadn’t yet reaped the benefits of the feminist movement—were, um, happier than we are? But how?!

Between her double-digit ethics complaints, her unpredictable behavior, and actually, her behavior in general, we’re not the biggest Sarah Palin fans around. But this week’s New York magazine really made us think about how gleeful we’d felt when we read in Vanity Fair that some people believe her to be a clinical narcissist. Several members of the McCain campaign, independent of each other, told a reporter they had researched the clinical definition for “narcissistic personality disorder” after clocking in some hours with Mrs. P. Ah-ha!, we thought. That explains everything.

It’s no secret that people are getting married later these days than in previous generations, and in this culture of hook-ups and “modern female dating anxiety,” we’re at no loss for theories that explain why. Some people say today’s twentysomethings are delaying marriage to focus on careers and build close friendships instead, but another explanation paints a less flattering picture of young people: apparently, they’re all just a bunch of narcissists. In an article on The Daily Beast this week, writer Hannah Seligson, explores this theory, writing: “narcissism, even in small doses, has shifted courtship into a high-stakes relationship culture. Now that people think more highly of themselves, expectations of what a relationship should be like have skyrocketed into the realm of superlatives. Twentysomethings not only expect to waltz into high-level career positions right out of college, they also expect partners who have the moral fortitude of Nelson Mandela, the comedic timing of Stephen Colbert, the abs of Hugh Jackman, and the hair of Patrick Dempsey.”

A recent study shows there’s a narcissism “epidemic” spreading among college-age women. Apparently, ladies of generation “me” are three times more likely to think they’re “special” than those of previous generations. In honor of all that ego going around, here are four cool mirrors for our self-centered sisters (and you know who you are) within which they can check their supreme awesomeness all day long.

1. Show that self-love, baby! [$39.99, Target]
2. You and your gorgeous reflection can play peek-a-boo for hours with this whitewashed shutter mirror. [$119, Wisteria]
3. You don’t even have to ask: “Who’s the fairest of them all?” [$148, Anthropologie]
4. This ‘70s “brilliant” mirror says it all, no? [$59.99, Bed Bath and Beyond]

Photo Credit from top left: Target, Wisteria, Anthropologie, Bed Bath and Beyond

Ever since John Edwards explained away his affair with Rielle Hunter, saying, “I started to believe that I was special and became increasing egocentric”, we’ve been thinking about how it is just SUCH a dealbreaker to date a guy who’s a narcissist. After all, who wants to end up in a bitter divorce battle like Christie Brinkley, whose ex-husband, Peter Cook, (who admitted to lying and cheating) was diagnosed as narcissistic by a court psychiatrist during their publicized divorce trial proceedings. But how do you tell if a person is a narcissist before you get caught up in their web of egocentricity? We took a look at the actual key factors in the diagnosis for narcissism and found out that a lot of women we know have the real life experience to back up the facts. All the info you need to know, after the jump…