self-gratifying

Some psychiatrists argue that Dominique Pelicot is a relatively typical psychopath – a high-functioning narcissist with no capacity for empathy who weaved between his sordid hidden life and the self-gratifying role of playing of a family man.

Aside from being undemocratic, Mr. Northam’s unilateral actions of Monday-morning quarterbacking centuries-long political and social complexities accomplished two things: the personification of self-gratifying arrogance with a whiff of superior morality and the greenlighting of iconoclasm in accordance with the populist fashion of the moment.

These are comforting and self-gratifying stories, fueled by a desperate desire for a return to supposed political normalcy and business as usual.

The problem was an addiction to “the self-gratifying view,’’ Mr. Allen suggested — despite having made a movie whose hero relentlessly does what he pleases.

It’s also turned us into a nation of self-gratifying pleasure seekers eager to stay connected — sexually and intimately — with both ourselves and others during this anxiety-fraught period of extended social isolation.