Let's talk about some narcissistic traits and characteristics that interfere with learning and change. Most people have these traits to one degree or another. But, being in long-term contact with people with pronounced narcissistic traits, one can notice that over time their ideas about themselves and the world do not change, remaining “frozen”, as if making changes to the picture of the world is in principle impossible. This applies to both personal changes and the assimilation of information in general, that is, learning. So: The need for control. Any change or learning something new contains a component of the unknown and uncontrollability. There is always a chance that you will learn something unexpected and be forced to reconsider your existing knowledge and beliefs. And such a revision is a threat to mental stability. Therefore, in order not to expose yourself to such a risk, it is better not to find out. Perception of relationships with people as competitions and struggles. The main task is not to be a loser, not to find yourself in a subordinate position. It doesn't matter what can be learned, what matters is who is in charge. Learning or development thanks to someone does not fit into this framework at all, since the person you are learning from will, of course, know or be able to do something better than you (otherwise how would he teach you?), however, he has no goal "defeat" you. On the contrary, as a result, you should end up in the same field with approximately equal status. Perception and assessment of yourself in terms of “perfection” and “flawedness,” “ideality” and “defect.” In this coordinate system, the need to learn something is a lack and a defect. If you don’t know something, you are not ideal. Specific perception of the outside world and people. Otto Kernberg suggested that in narcissistic disorder there is a very uneven distribution of what are called self and object representations (ideas about oneself and about others). All positive representations are “appropriated” to oneself, one’s self, and all negative ones are “assigned” to others. From a learning perspective, this has two implications. Firstly, the feeling that “I already know everything, I have nothing to learn, I am absolutely mature, smart, etc.” Secondly, since everything bad turns out to be outside, it is logical that the world and people have nothing to give me (they have nothing good and useful). Locally, this can manifest itself as a lack of respect for people who could teach something (they are not smart enough, wise, successful, etc.). Denial of differences and inattention to detail. Often, learning something new, like personal development, occurs not according to the principle of revolutions, but during the gradual accumulation of knowledge (we notice nuances, put them into a mosaic, and if enough nuances accumulate, a more global change will occur). It is the attention to detail that often makes the differences apparent. And finding differences brings us back to the first point - control. If someone is different from me, he is unpredictable and I will not be able to control him. Therefore, it’s better for me not to know about it. Lack of motivation. Narcissism presupposes the presence of an unformed Super-Ego, which is responsible not only for prohibiting us from something, but (which in this case is more significant) also for maintaining stable interest, efficiency and the ability to internally reward oneself for meeting one’s goals and values. Therefore, in the absence of a formed Super-Ego, interest quickly fades and performance declines, especially in the absence of a quick and significant result. Of course, we are not talking about the fact that people with narcissistic traits are not able to learn at all. Or that all these signs are always present together. Since narcissism is a large category, a continuum in which its characteristics are expressed to varying degrees, then the characteristics that influence the ability to learn and change will be expressed to varying degrees. And of course, people with narcissistic traits learn and absorb new information. However, this process often also has features that