Created January 2011

Metamorphosis of Narcissus / Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Wiki entry on narcissism
What is Narcissism? by Dr. Sam Vaknin
On Narcissism by Sigmund Freud
DSM-5
Narcissism, social rejection, aggression and high school shootings
Narcissistic defenses
Rousseau’s Narcissus or the Self-Admirer: A Comedy

Eve Harrington in “All About Eve”
The sorceress queen in “Snow White”
Ahab in “Moby Dick”
Gatsby in “The Great Gatsby”
Raskolnikov in “Crime and Punishment”

Narcissistic Personality Quiz This quiz tests for seven component traits of narcissism: authority (a person’s leadership skills and power,) self-sufficiency (how much you rely on others versus abilities to meet your needs in life,) superiority (how superior you feel to those around you,), exhibitionism (a person’s need to be the center of attention,) exploitativeness (how willing you are to exploit others in order to meet your own needs or goals,) vanity (belief in one’s own superior abilities and attractiveness compared to others,) and entitlement (the expectation and amount of entitlement a person has in their lives, that is, unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with one’s expectations.) Scores between 12 and 15 is average, celebrities often score closer to 18, narcissists score over 20.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Someone with an inflated ego, need for constant praise and lack of empathy for others might sound like a shoe-in for psychotherapy. But the introduction of narcissistic personality disorder into the DSM in 1980 was not without controversy. The biggest problem was that no one could agree on who had the disorder. Up to half of people diagnosed with a narcissistic personality also met the criteria for other personality disorders, like histrionic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder, according to a 2001 review in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling. Which diagnosis they got seemed almost arbitrary. To solve the problem, the American Psychiatric Association has proposed big changes to the personality disorder section of the DSM-5 in 2010. The new edition would move away from specific personality disorders to a system of dysfunctional types and traits. The idea, according to the APA, is to cut out the overlap and create categories that would be useful for patients who have personality problems, not just full-blown disorders.

What is psychological assessment? Psychologists seek to take the information gathered from psychological assessment and weave it into a comprehensive and complete picture of the person being tested. Recommendations are based on all the assessment results and from discussion with peers, family, and others who may shed light on the person’s behavior in different settings. Major discrepancies among the findings must be resolved before any diagnostic decisions or recommendations for treatment are made. Psychological assessment is never focused on a single test score or number. Every person has a range of competencies that can be evaluated through a number of methods. A psychological assessment report will not only note weaknesses found in testing, but also the individual’s strengths.

Why Rousseau Still Matters
Question: Is amour de soi or amour-propre narcissistic? "Amour de soi is a passion or a drive that conduces to our preservation as natural creatures. So when we seek food for the sake of nutrition, or clothe ourselves to preserve our bodily heat, or seek shelter from a storm, or defend ourselves against the attack of a wild animal, we are, for Rousseau, directed by amour de soi. Amour propre is different. It is an irreducibly social sentiment which moves us to seek the good opinion of others and to value our status relative to others. Essentially it is concerned with what has come to be called, in the discourse of some modern political theory, “recognition”. Amour propre is both “very different” from amour de soi and an outgrowth of it. The drive to self-preservation that Rousseau has guiding us in our natural environment is transformed in a social environment into something else, perhaps not surprisingly, since the good opinion of others is now necessary both in itself but also for the securing of the goods (food, shelter, warmth) that amour de soi seeks."

Healthy narcissism Wikipedia

WHAT NARCISSISM MEANS TO ME (by Tony Hoagland )

There’s Socialism and Communism and Capitalism,
said Neal,
and there’s Feminism and Hedonism,
and there’s Catholicism and Bipedalism and Consumerism,

but I think Narcissism is the system
that means the most to me;

and Sylvia said that in Neal’s case
narcissism represented a heroic achievement in positive thinking.

And Ann,
who calls everybody Sweetie pie
whether she cares for them or not,

Ann lit a cigarette and said, Only miserable people will tell you
that love has to be deserved,

and when I heard that, a distant chime went off for me,

remembering a time when I believed
that I could simply live without it.

Neal had grilled the corn and sliced the onions
into thick white disks,
and piled the wet green pickles
up in stacks like coins
and his chef’s cap was leaning sideways like a mushroom cloud.

Then Ethan said that in his opinion,
if you’re going to mess around with self-love
you shouldn’t just rush into a relationship,

and Sylvia was weeping softly now, looking down
into her wine cooler and potato chips,

and then the hamburgers were done, just as
the sunset in the background started
cutting through the charcoal clouds

exposing their insides – black,
streaked dark red,
like a slab of scorched, rare steak,

delicious but unhealthy,
or, depending on your perspective,
unhealthy but delicious,

— the way that, deep inside the misery
of daily life,
love lies bleeding.