“We are living in the age of entitlement,” says San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge. And she has a lot of data to back up that assertion. Twenge is the author of the new book The Narcissism Epidemic, which has been making the rounds in major media circuits since it was published this past spring. Citing a variety of broad trends toward self-infatuation—some obvious and some quite shocking—the book charts the emergence of our culture of narcissism in the 1960s and how it is shaping the values of young people today.

In this interview with EnlightenNext magazine founder Andrew Cohen and associate editor Joel Pitney, Twenge describes some of the findings of her research, which measures everything from the increase in plastic surgery to the demand for easy credit to the latest results of the national Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Defining narcissism as a cultural disease that causes people to hold “an overly inflated view of themselves,” Twenge plays the role of social epidemiologist, diagnosing the problem, describing its root causes, and offering her own prescription to treat this cultural disorder.

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