"cooperation and collaboration at some level or we are misinterpreting the process of adaptational success as mindless, selfish, mechanistic consumption, satisfaction, reproduction etc. which to me is a frightening recipe for pathological narcissism in human beings.  We would not have survived this long..."
It seems quite common to compartmentalize "fitness" into the random, unmotivated processes of "evolution" and an apparently more directed or "active" (in your words) group of processes that somehow arise by a different means. Yet the sentiment of your statement implies a high "fitness" score for cooperation and collaboration (a sentiment with which I heartily agree) otherwise those qualities flirting with "pathological narcissism" would have prevailed. An anthropogenic bias leaves many understanding cooperation and collaboration as functions of a conscious mind rather than simply beneficial interactions between even non-sentient entities. Cooperativity is a well recognized physical property where reaction product is facilitated by multiple interaction of identical participants (e.g. oxygen/haemoglobin reaction). Even atoms are (non-sentient) "collaborations" between subatomic particles, themselves collaborations between fundamental particles. We humans - remarkable collaborations between multiple cell types and also in essential collaborations with other humans and a multitude of other components in the world around us. The universe is built upon collaboration which humans seem to have wrongly co-opted as their own invention rather than recognized as something that has existed throughout the duration of the universe as we know it.

The brain is a computer, wired by evolution and programmed by circumstance. We are blinded by the illusion of our own intellect and fabricate notions of a more "magical" mechanism than reality suggests. You probably accept the inherited wiring of a monosyllabic reflex and the inherited complexity of something like an eye, but most people fall far short of accepting an inherited neural complexity sufficient to underpin behavior or even emotions or morality. All of these are essential to our survival. As such, they are perfect candidates for evolution.

Built upon those genetic foundations is another world of memes. The sum total of current knowledge. Inheritance and mutable - just like genes. Many of them human discoveries and inventions, continuously modified and selected. Not because humans "thought they were good" but because experience selected (evolved) those that helped their adherents to thrive.