3 Core Facets of Narcissism, from Malignant to AdaptiveNew research provides insights into narcissism’s complex features.Posted Feb 27, 2018
Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.
There seems to be no end to the fascination that psychologists as well as the public to the narcissistic personality. Given that narcissism as a personality disorder is technically not highly prevalent, the attention it receives seems disproportionate compared to, for example, depression and anxiety disorders. At a February 2018 meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association, narcissism was the topic of a considerable number of papers and presentations, as well as casual talk at various receptions. In particular, the psychoanalysts interviewed for the
New York Times commented extensively on the “malignant†form of narcissism.
Although abiding by the Goldwater Rule that prohibits mental health professionals from diagnosing politicians, the topic of Donald Trump naturally enough became part of the conversation.That ironic tendency of narcissism to become a topic demanding constant attention was aptly summarized by Zlatan Krizan and Anne Herlache of Iowa State University, noting in the opening of their 2018 study that “the narcissistic personality stubbornly persists in puzzling psychologists attempting to understand it, all the while perplexing clinicians attempting to treat its pathological manifestations†(p. 3). Scholars, they note, disagree about (a) narcissism’s key features, (b) how its features are organized, and (c) what accounts for their organization.
The list of traits thought to exist in narcissism do tend to focus around grandiosity and self-aggrandizement, the Iowa State researchers observe, but they also involve a considerable degree of insecurity and vulnerability. These contradictory features “have awkwardly co-existed throughout the history of the construct†(p. 4).
A resolution, Krizan and Herlache believe, is to define narcissism as simply “entitled self-importance†(p. 5). Narcissists, in other words, think they’re more important than everyone else, and feel they deserve special treatment. This definition doesn’t rule out investigations of whether narcissists have high or low self-esteem, are good or poor leaders, or are prone to shame. However, self-importance as a core narcissistic feature does, the authors believe, cut across various theoretical lines and makes it possible to move on to the other two core issues.
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References
Krizan, Z., & Herlache, A. D. (2018). The narcissism spectrum model: A synthetic view of narcissistic personality. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(1), 3-31. doi:10.1177/1088868316685018
