Kirketchel
8th April 2007, 17:49
You are a Nacissist if you exhibit the following:
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack
of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as
indicated by 5 or more of the following:
• Has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
• Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal
love.
• Believes that she is “special” & unique & can only be understood by, or should
associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions.
• Requires excessive admiration.
• Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable
treatment or automatic compliance with her expectations.
• Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve her own
ends.
• Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings & needs of
others.
• Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of her.
• Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
In addition to the above, I’ve compiled the following, after having read, assimilated, and
synthesized a great deal of the literature on this subject. Instead of the typical approach
taken by the psychological literature on NPD--which describes the disorder as a
syndrome of various attributes--what I attempt to do here is to uncover the central logic
that accounts for the syndrome.
In the following description of the NPD syndrome, I use the pronoun “she” to refer to the
narcissist, for the sake of avoiding the cumbersome “he/she” and “ his/her.” The
psychological literature, however, claims that male NPDs outnumber females. The
literature also claims that the incidence of NPD is relatively rare, afflicting an estimated
1% of the population. Both of these claims, however, are not verified by my own
personal experiences. The problem, as the psychological literature itself admits, is that
the very nature of NPD prevents narcissists from admitting they have a problem and to
seek professional help. As psychiatrist M. Scott Peck explains: “To receive treatment
one must want it, at least on some level. And to want it one must consider oneself to be
in need of it. One must, at least on some level, acknowledge his or her imperfection.”i
The few narcissists who do seek therapy, do so when their narcissism has led to a major
life crisis, such as divorce, drug addiction, unemployment, and imprisonment. Even
when NPDs seek counseling, they typically do not complete the course of psychotherapy.
Instead, when the therapist confronts them with their pathological narcissism, the NPD
would simply abandon treatment and flee. Given this, I have every reason to conclude
that the statistics claimed in the literature are suspect. The simple truth, I believe, is that
psychologists don’t really know how many NPDs there are in the population, nor do they
really know that male NPDs outnumber females.
:iphonepost:
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack
of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as
indicated by 5 or more of the following:
• Has a grandiose sense of self-importance.
• Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal
love.
• Believes that she is “special” & unique & can only be understood by, or should
associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions.
• Requires excessive admiration.
• Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable
treatment or automatic compliance with her expectations.
• Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve her own
ends.
• Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings & needs of
others.
• Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of her.
• Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
In addition to the above, I’ve compiled the following, after having read, assimilated, and
synthesized a great deal of the literature on this subject. Instead of the typical approach
taken by the psychological literature on NPD--which describes the disorder as a
syndrome of various attributes--what I attempt to do here is to uncover the central logic
that accounts for the syndrome.
In the following description of the NPD syndrome, I use the pronoun “she” to refer to the
narcissist, for the sake of avoiding the cumbersome “he/she” and “ his/her.” The
psychological literature, however, claims that male NPDs outnumber females. The
literature also claims that the incidence of NPD is relatively rare, afflicting an estimated
1% of the population. Both of these claims, however, are not verified by my own
personal experiences. The problem, as the psychological literature itself admits, is that
the very nature of NPD prevents narcissists from admitting they have a problem and to
seek professional help. As psychiatrist M. Scott Peck explains: “To receive treatment
one must want it, at least on some level. And to want it one must consider oneself to be
in need of it. One must, at least on some level, acknowledge his or her imperfection.”i
The few narcissists who do seek therapy, do so when their narcissism has led to a major
life crisis, such as divorce, drug addiction, unemployment, and imprisonment. Even
when NPDs seek counseling, they typically do not complete the course of psychotherapy.
Instead, when the therapist confronts them with their pathological narcissism, the NPD
would simply abandon treatment and flee. Given this, I have every reason to conclude
that the statistics claimed in the literature are suspect. The simple truth, I believe, is that
psychologists don’t really know how many NPDs there are in the population, nor do they
really know that male NPDs outnumber females.
:iphonepost: