Excessive Praise and Narcissism

Here is an excerpt from a Scientific American article that I saw linked somewhere, titled "Too Much Praise Promotes Narcissism":

"Two prominent but nearly opposing schools of thought address how narcissism develops. The first attributes extreme self-love to a lack of affection from parents; the other implicates moms and dads who place their children on a pedestal by lavishing them with praise."

R' Chaim Kanievsky, in his section on Chinuch in ארחות יושר weighs in on the matter:

והורים שמכניסין בלב בניהם שהם בעלי כשרון ומצוינים והם מהכי טובים ומוצלחים אע"ג זה נכון ואע"ג שכונתם לטובה כדי לזרזם ללמוד אעפ"כ יצא שכרם בהפסדם כי מכניסין בלבם גאוה ומדות רעות וגורמין שמתנכלים לחבריהם ופוגעין בהן וסופן שיהיו שנואין מכולם. והנערים האלו כשנכנסין אח"כ לישיבה ושם יש הרבה טובים מהם ואין מסתכלין עליהם כמו שהיו רגילין נכנסין למשבר כידוע, ומהם מפסיקין ללמוד, ומהם נכנסין לשגעון וכו' כידוע כל זה, ואח"כ יש מהם צרות צרורות...

"And parents who instill in their children that they are geniuses and among the best and most succesful, even if it is true, and even if their intent is pure, to encourage them to learn, nevertheless the negatives outweighs the positives. For they instill in their children haughtiness and [other] poor character traits, and they cause their children to look down upon others. In the end, they will be the most hated. And when the child enters Yeshiva (I think he means high school, or post-high school. A.J.), and discovers that there are students much stronger than him, and they pay him none of the attention that he is accustomed to receiving, he becomes broken, as is known. Some of them stop learning altogether, and others become depressed etc. as is known. Afterwards they will have great troubles..."

R' Chaim quotes no sources for this, which is quite noteworthy, for if you were to peruse through ארחות יושר, you would notice that he rarely makes an original comment. It is mostly a compendium of sources from Chazal, Rishonim and some Achronim on various topics, with perhaps a line here and there from R' Chaim himself. But in this paragraph he quotes nobody.

What does Scientific American conclude?

"In a March issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, the Dutch researchers report that children of excessively praising parents were more likely to score high on narcissistic qualities but not on self-esteem. They also found that lack of parental warmth showed no such link to narcissism."

"The correlation shows that positive feedback should be tied to good behavior in a child rather than piled on indiscriminately, says psychologist Luke Hyde of the University of Michigan, who did not participate in the work. A 2008 meta-analysis of 85 studies showed that narcissism is on the rise in young adults in the West, which could stem in part from a cultural emphasis on praise, with the goal of boosting high self-esteem, notes Eddie Brummelman, lead author of the PNAS paper. 'It might be well intended,' he adds, 'but it actually backfires.'" 

So while praise is intended to boost self-esteem, excessive praise moves out of the realm of self-esteem and into the realm of narcissism. At first glance this seems indicative of the Rambam's "golden middle road", always keeping character traits in check, and never straying to the extremes. But a second glance is necessary, as it is unclear exactly what the Rambam's stance is when it comes to גאוה and ענוה. (See הלכות דעות פרק א, ובלחם משנה שם, וראה גם בהקדמה למס' אבות פרק ד)