From: damir@infopls.chi.il.us (Damir Matanic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Serbian National Character
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 13:34:18 CST
Organization: INFOPLUS support, Wheeling, IL

Croatia and Serbia-Why is their peaceful separation a European necessity!
by Dr. George Cesarich
Cultural Publishing Center
Chicago, IL
1954

Chap. 1, p.19

"There are certain idiosyncrasies of the Serbian national character of 
which the outside world is totally unaware....We have particulary in mind 
the Serbian propensity to narcissiam, megalomania, and mystification.  
Many Serbians, and specially their leading circles, gravitate 
execessively to these mental attitudes which are unknown to most 
Croatians...
        "As the American College Dictionary defines it, NARCISSISM is the 
admiration of one's own physical and metnal attributes; it is a normal 
condition at the infantile level of personality development.  MEGALOMANIA 
is a form of mental alienation marked by delusions of greatness.  
MYSTIFICATION is intentional misrepresentation of facts.  These three 
character deficiencies are closely related, and are, as such, important 
feature of Serbian national personality.  This fact has been frankly 
admitted by some objective Serbian students of history.  In a recently 
published political book, a Serbian writer, Mr. Desimir Tosic, speaking 
about Serbian individualism, maintains quite definitely:  'A good part of 
the Serbian intelligentsia suffers from the Narciss disease,- i.e., from 
deification of, and falling in love with their own personality, their own 
figure, thier own words, their own writing.  Of course, not only educated 
people suffer from this disease; it goes down to the 'lower' levels and 
includes en masse our half-intelligentsia....'  This kind of narissism, 
according to Mr. Tosic, 'expressed itself in the protuberation of their 
own (serbian) personalities'.  For this reason, it is quite 
understandable why one finds among the Serbians so many "heroes" who have 
supposedly performed such "great deeds" in the past.  However, this kind 
of narcissism is, unfortunetly, not limited to the individual Serbian 
personalities.  On a borader, national level, it has turned into a very 
pronounced national megalomania combined with a fabulous national 
mythology which has become at times very dangerou to all the Serbian 
neighbors.  To verfiy this statement, which at first glance may appear 
fanciful, let us quote again a SErbian source, Mr. Tosic, who writes: 
'Aside from the unstablness, what strikes us particularly in our inner 
developement is the megalomania of the majority of our so-called "leader" 
coupled with the mythology of those who are led.  By the 
misrepresentation of facts, by casting away of material truth, we not 
only squander our national forces but also destroy our national 
reputation in the outside world."  Mr. tosic recognizes quite well the 
inevitable link between megalomania and the misrepresentation of facts, 
and he knows how seriously the present Serbian political leaders are 
given to the mental aberrations of deception, exaggeration and 
mystification."


--
damir@infopls.chi.il.us (Damir Matanic)
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