Post-Covid Psychopathology

I've been trying for some time now to try to get to the crux of post-Covid psychopathology (see postings labeled "Post-Covid narcissism", and browse in reverse-chronological order to follow the developing insight). I think I've finally boiled it down to its essence:

If someone is explaining astronomy to you and gets stuck remembering a term, and you fill in “gravitational lensing”, there is 0% probability they will stop their spiel, look freshly at you, and declare “Oh! You know astronomy!”

Pre-Covid, it was more like 60%.

They will continue their explanation - their performance - without hesitation. You have nothing to do with it. It’s like you’re not even there. This is the framing: My thoughtstream is paramount. My assumptions are sacrosanct. Actual evidence is inconsequential; flimsy and unreal.

A friend replied "Do you think things were trending in that direction before Covid, and then super-ultra-accelerated?"

After thanking him for his insight on acceleration (the fact that I hear no one else talking about this stuff makes me hesitant to characterize it as some huge broad thing) I replied:

Yes. One word: narcissism.

Lock narcissists up in isolation for a couple years and this is what you get. Not only can't they custom-tailor their speech to your unique reality, they'd never imagine any imperative to do so. "I'm talking now. My thoughtstream is paramount."

"I'm talking now. My thoughtstream is paramount." Even parodized here for mockery, it strikes us as nearly reasonable, no? That's new! And in a few years, we may be unable to imagine any alternative. It won't seem the least bit loony for people to be entirely performative and utterly nonresponsive. And even that might be optimistic. As I type this paragraph, I hear the readership in my head ask "But what do you mean?"

We’re way too narcissistic to recognize how extremely narcissistic everyone is.