When their self-admiration has some basis in reality, narcissistic leaders can achieve great things; that was certainly the case with Steve Jobs at Apple. But over the past decade, researchers have grown increasingly concerned by the destructive effects of narcissists on organizations. Cautionary tales abound, from Enron to Uber to Theranos.
The occurrence of narcissistic personality disorder presents a high rate of comorbidity with other mental disorders.[24] People with NPD are prone to bouts of psychological depression, often to the degree that meets the clinical criteria for a co-occurring depressive disorder.[25] NPD is associated with the occurrence of bipolar disorder and substance use disorders,[1][21] especially cocaine use disorder.[2] NPD may also be comorbid or differentiated with the occurrence of other mental disorders, including histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, or paranoid personality disorder.[2] NPD should also be differentiated from mania and hypomania as these cases can also present with grandiosity, but present with different levels of functional impairment.[2] Narcissistic personality disorder differs from self-confidence which is associated with a strong sense of self.[2][12] It is common for children and adolescents to display personality traits that resemble NPD, but such occurrences are usually transient, and register below the clinical criteria for a formal diagnosis of NPD.[12]
Risk factors for NPD and grandiose/overt and vulnerable/covert subtypes are measured using the narcissistic personality inventory, an assessment tool originally developed in 1979, has undergone multiple iterations with new versions in 1984, 2006 and 2014. The subtype is also assessed with the pathological narcissism inventory (PNI).[39] The PNI is a screening tool for antisocial, borderline, narcissistic personality disorders. The PNI scales exhibited significant associations with parasuicidal behavior, suicide attempts, homicidal ideation, and several aspects of psychotherapy utilization.[40] Pathological narcissism is a term for concurrent grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, which is linked to poor self-esteem, lack of empathy, feelings of shame, interpersonal distress, aggression, and significant impairments in personality functioning across both clinical and non-clinical samples. Despite the phenomenological and empirical distinction between vulnerable and grandiose narcissism, some theories suggest that grandiose narcissists also have fragile personality traits.[27] There are a number of other assessment tools for narcissism and NPD subtypes.[41]
Narcissistic injury and narcissistic scar are terms used by Freud in the 1920s. Narcissistic wound and narcissistic blow are other, almost interchangeable, terms.[78] When wounded in the ego, either by a real or a perceived criticism, a narcissistic person's displays of anger can be disproportionate to the nature of the criticism suffered;[12] but typically, the actions and responses of the NPD person are deliberate and calculated.[2] Despite occasional flare-ups of personal insecurity, the inflated self-concept of the NPD person is primarily stable.[2]
The term narcissistic rage was a concept introduced by Heinz Kohut in 1972. Narcissistic rage was theorised as a reaction to a perceived threat to a narcissist's self-esteem or self-worth. Narcissistic rage occurs on a continuum from aloofness, to expressions of mild irritation or annoyance, to serious outbursts, including violent attacks.[84]
Narcissistic rage reactions are not necessarily limited to NPD. They may also be seen in catatonic, paranoid delusion, and depressive episodes.[84] It was later suggested that narcissistic people have two layers of rage; the first layer of rage being directed constant anger towards someone else, with the second layer being self-deprecating.[85]
To the extent that people are pathologically narcissistic, the person with NPD can be a self-absorbed individual who passes blame by psychological projection and is intolerant of contradictory views and opinions; is apathetic towards the emotional, mental, and psychological needs of other people; and is indifferent to the negative effects of their behaviors, whilst insisting that people should see them as an ideal person.[citation needed] The merging of the terms "inflated self-concept" and "actual self" is evident in later research on the grandiosity component of narcissistic personality disorder, along with incorporating the defence mechanisms of idealization and devaluation and of denial.[88]
One clear exception though is borderline personality disorder (and perhaps as well avoidant personality disorder). Neuroticism is the domain of general personality structure that concerns inherent feelings of emotional pain and suffering, including feelings of distress, anxiety, depression, self-consciousness, helplessness, and vulnerability. Persons who have very high elevations on neuroticism (i.e., persons with borderline personality disorder) experience life as one of pain and suffering, and they will seek treatment to alleviate this severe emotional distress. People with avoidant personality may also seek treatment for their high levels of neuroticism (anxiousness and self-consciousness) and introversion (social isolation). In contrast, narcissistic individuals will rarely seek treatment to reduce their arrogance; paranoid persons rarely seek treatment to reduce their feelings of suspiciousness; and antisocial people rarely (or at least willfully) seek treatment to reduce their disposition for criminality, aggression, and irresponsibility.
People with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), on the other hand, take mirroring to extremes. Because they lack a stable and sustaining sense of identity and self-worth, narcissists forever look to external sources for definition and esteem. When they find a prospective or new partner, they study that person and attempt to reflect back their personality, style, interests, and values. If you like going to the gym, gardening, chocolatey desserts, and helping at the local animal shelter, so do they! If you have tattoos, suddenly they show up with one too.
People with narcissistic personality disorder may not want to think that anything could be wrong, so they usually don't seek treatment. If they do seek treatment, it's more likely to be for symptoms of depression, drug or alcohol misuse, or another mental health problem. What they view as insults to self-esteem may make it difficult to accept and follow through with treatment.
As divorce attorneys, we field a lot of questions about personality disorders. Many of these questions center around narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), which is characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, deceitfulness, participation in troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. Whether a self-centered divorce litigant could be diagnosed with NPD is often an unknowable question, but in many ways, a formal diagnosis of NPD is less important than recognizing and responding to the narcissistic traits and behaviors engaged in by some spouses during the divorce process.
In this essay, I will examine whether or not Jim Jones was a narcissist by comparing his behavior and the eye-witness accounts of his followers and non-followers to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV-TR) definition of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Even in a society like America, where you are rewarded if you are bold, talented and self-promoting, too much self-love and self-aggrandizement is seen as a negative personal trait and carries with it severe social sanctions for those who engage in this type of behavior (Lasch, 1979). If left unchecked, narcissistic personality disorder can pose a serious and direct threat to all those around the narcissistic person. Most people in American society will tell you that they dislike or even hate narcissistic people and will work to cut ties with them. It this is how most people view narcissists, then why do good, smart people fail in love with, join organizations run by and assist dangerous, sociopathic narcissists, like Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong Il and Saddam Hussein?
In order to understand narcissistic personality disorder, the concept of personality is important. As with a normal personality, a person with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) has a pervasive way of thinking, feeling, and interacting with other people that tends to be fairly established and fixed by the time the individual reaches adulthood. A narcissist is someone who has therefore established a long-standing pattern of being fixated on him- or herself that permeates their thoughts, feelings, actions, and relationships.
d0d94e66b7