A free eBook – 4X4 for Nons
|
When I was researching NPD and BPD co-morbidity, I stumbled on this interesting blog post about the self-proclaimed NPD expert Sam Vaknin. I don’t do much in the NPD world because I believe that BPD and NPD is essentially incompatible, despite what other people on the Internet say and despite even some studies. The experts that I’ve spoken with basically agree with me, but not all of them. I think there’s something of a split on the subject. Anyhow, here is an excerpt from the blog post (it’s long so I didn’t copy all of it).
Are you sick of seeing the same Psychopath posting all over the web when researching Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Did you get sucked into his boards, forums, books, speeches?
Or are you one of the victims who adore Sam Vaknin, Look up to him and hold him up on a pedestal as your life saver?
if so let’s take a closer look at the supposed “Dr Sam Vaknin PhD”
In one of his repetitively & compulsively posted online articles, Vaknin reveals in his own words the reason he really runs the Narcissism ‘Support’ Groups all over the net and so on….
‘There is nothing to be learned from the answers to these questions because each individual has her own threshold. No, I simply enjoy the momentary ability to inflict traumatic pain (emotional pain – I am not the physical type and will never harm a woman physically). It is as close as I can get to omnipotence. It is the perfect gender revenge.’…
‘As a Jew I would have done the same to Nazis. As a victim of a woman, I celebrate with unrestrained glee my ability to degrade women, to humiliate them, to frustrate them, to make them beg for life itself, for they see their (often imagined) relationship with me as life itself. This is why I abstain from sex. This is why I dazzle them with my intellect and charm and wit and knowledge, with unprecedented intrusive interest in their petty, boring, housewivish lives – and then I let go abruptly. At this stage, they are so brittle, so vulnerable that they crash to a million shreds with the crystalline sound of agony.’
Is this really a man you want to give you advice and support on Narcissism, Psychopathy or on your relationships? . Imagine for a moment, you have left your Narcissistic partner/spouse/family and have finally seen the light. You stumble across Sam Vaknin and drink in everything he has written on the subject.
You have just walked out on one Narcissist into the world of another.
Imagine, as an abuse survivor of someone with malignant narcissism or narcissistic personality disorder, giving your life over to a psychopath, and doing it with trust and a firm belief in his authority. What if said psychopathic conman, was advising victims? It seems absurd, that an abuser would advise the abused. It seems even more absurd, that the abused would take the advice to heart.
Vaknin is now a DIAGNOSED PSYCHOPATH – not a Narcissist!
Read the entire article at the original site.
An article from the NY Times:
November 29, 2010
A Fate That Narcissists Will Hate: Being Ignored
By CHARLES ZANOR
Narcissists, much to the surprise of many experts, are in the process of becoming an endangered species.
Not that they face imminent extinction — it’s a fate much worse than that. They will still be around, but they will be ignored.
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (due out in 2013, and known as DSM-5) has eliminated five of the 10 personality disorders that are listed in the current edition.
Narcissistic personality disorder is the most well-known of the five, and its absence has caused the most stir in professional circles.
Most nonprofessionals have a pretty good sense of what narcissism means, but the formal definition is more precise than the dictionary meaning of the term.
Our everyday picture of a narcissist is that of someone who is very self-involved — the conversation is always about them. While this characterization does apply to people with narcissistic personality disorder, it is too broad. There are many people who are completely self-absorbed who would not qualify for a diagnosis of N.P.D.
The central requirement for N.P.D. is a special kind of self-absorption: a grandiose sense of self, a serious miscalculation of one’s abilities and potential that is often accompanied by fantasies of greatness. It is the difference between two high school baseball players of moderate ability: one is absolutely convinced he’ll be a major-league player, the other is hoping for a college scholarship.
Of course, it would be premature to call the major-league hopeful a narcissist at such an early age, but imagine that same kind of unstoppable, unrealistic attitude 10 or 20 years later.
The second requirement for N.P.D.: since the narcissist is so convinced of his high station (most are men), he automatically expects that others will recognize his superior qualities and will tell him so. This is often referred to as “mirroring.” It’s not enough that he knows he’s great. Others must confirm it as well, and they must do so in the spirit of “vote early, and vote often.”
Finally, the narcissist, who longs for the approval and admiration of others, is often clueless about how things look from someone else’s perspective. Narcissists are very sensitive to being overlooked or slighted in the smallest fashion, but they often fail to recognize when they are doing it to others.
Most of us would agree that this is an easily recognizable profile, and it is a puzzle why the manual’s committee on personality disorders has decided to throw N.P.D. off the bus. Many experts in the field are not happy about it.
Actually, they aren’t happy about the elimination of the other four disorders either, and they’re not shy about saying so.
One of the sharpest critics of the DSM committee on personality disorders is a Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. John Gunderson, an old lion in the field of personality disorders and the person who led the personality disorders committee for the current manual.
Asked what he thought about the elimination of narcissistic personality disorder, he said it showed how “unenlightened” the personality disorders committee is.
“They have little appreciation for the damage they could be doing.” He said the diagnosis is important in terms of organizing and planning treatment.
“It’s draconian,” he said of the decision, “and the first of its kind, I think, that half of a group of disorders are eliminated by committee.”
He also blamed a so-called dimensional approach, which is a method of diagnosing personality disorders that is new to the DSM. It consists of making an overall, general diagnosis of personality disorder for a given patient, and then selecting particular traits from a long list in order to best describe that specific patient.
This is in contrast to the prototype approach that has been used for the past 30 years: the narcissistic syndrome is defined by a cluster of related traits, and the clinician matches patients to that profile.
The dimensional approach has the appeal of ordering à la carte — you get what you want, no more and no less. But it is precisely because of this narrow focus that it has never gained much traction with clinicians.
It is one thing to call someone a neat and careful dresser. It is another to call that person a dandy, or a clotheshorse, or a boulevardier. Each of these terms has slightly different meanings and conjures up a type.
And clinicians like types. The idea of replacing the prototypic diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder with a dimensional diagnosis like “personality disorder with narcissistic and manipulative traits” just doesn’t cut it.
Jonathan Shedler, a psychologist at the University of Colorado Medical School, said: “Clinicians are accustomed to thinking in terms of syndromes, not deconstructed trait ratings. Researchers think in terms of variables, and there’s just a huge schism.” He said the committee was stacked “with a lot of academic researchers who really don’t do a lot of clinical work. We’re seeing yet another manifestation of what’s called in psychology the science-practice schism.”
Schism is probably not an overstatement. For 30 years the DSM has been the undisputed standard that clinicians consult when diagnosing mental disorders. When a new diagnosis is introduced, or an established diagnosis is substantially modified or deleted, it is not a small deal. As Dr. Gunderson said, it will affect the way professionals think about and treat patients.
Given the stakes, the blow-back from experts in personality disorders should come as no surprise.
Dr. Gunderson has written a letter co-signed by other clinical and research leaders to the trustees of the American Psychiatric Association and the task force that governs DSM-5. And Dr. Shedler and seven colleagues published an editorial in the September issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. In the relatively small world of mental health diagnostics, this is most certainly a battle worth watching.
Right now, this much seems clear: It is way too early for the narcissists to give up their seat on the bus.
See my take on BPD vs. NPD.
Duh! Anyway, here is an article from Wired about celebrities and mental illness:
 Celebrities’ bad behavior is rooted in mental illness, according to “Dr. Drew” Pinsky, who is best known as the host of Celebrity Rehab and Loveline — a nationally syndicated radio show that invites listeners to call in with questions about sex and drugs.
In his latest book, The Mirror Effect (on bookstore shelves Tuesday), he spells out a theory that stars are predisposed to narcissistic personality disorder long before they become famous. Their dysfunctional behavior is rewarded by Hollywood and portrayed as normal by the press.
“As reporting on celebrity behavior becomes even more ruthless and mean-spirited, I am struck by this disconnect between how a
celebrity’s behavior is portrayed in the media, and the very real problems that underlie their actions,” wrote Pinsky.
He argues that the media fails to acknowledge that celebrities are mentally ill when holding them up as role models, so everyday people have begun to emulate their unhealthy behavior.
In 2006, Pinsky and his co-author Mark Young published the first systematic study of celebrity psychology in the Journal of Research in Personality. The new book explains that research and how it fits into the larger context of our culture, which they argue has been soiled by shameless producers, agents and paparazzi.
The first three chapters read like a history textbook, recapping famous celebrity mishaps and an era when those unfortunate episodes were carefully hidden from the public. It gives readers a glimpse of just how conservative Pinsky really is. He seems to prefer the good old days when movie studios were able to keep Rock Hudson in the closet.
The celebrity doctor is not a fan of MySpace or Facebook either, because they allow people to seek attention by acting out like celebrities — posting provocative pictures and personal stories about irresponsible behavior.
“Without appropriate monitoring, these social networking platforms are subject to abuse by those who are most vulnerable to the endless feedback loop they create,” wrote Pinsky. “This is known as an urge/compulsion/reinforcement cycle, and it’s very similar to what happens to those who crave drugs or other addictive substances.”
After that rather stiff introduction, the book becomes a psychology lesson with celebrities as examples.
Pinsky seems fond of interpreting behavior in the light of evolution, and gave this explanation for the asinine stunts performed by Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O on the show Jackass.
“Some have speculated that such acting out may be deeply rooted in our genes, as a way to display genetic prowess and adaptability,” wrote Pinsky. “In this theory, males (in particular) who survive dangerous stunts are displaying their biological capacity to survive in adversity.”
In their 2006 study, Pinsky and Young found that celebrities from reality television score the highest on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Pinsky is convinced that the producers of those shows carefully select contestants with psychological problems, because they will bring extra drama to each show.
“Having served as a consultant to several reality shows, I know what the producers are looking for in contestants,” wrote Pinsky. “The standards regarding mental health are extremely fluid.”
 I don’t like to quote Sam Vaknin much… for various reasons, but I stumbled on this quote from him about NPD vs. BPD. The reason this came up to begin with is that I was discussing whether certain people in on-line support groups might be dealing with something other than BPD.
There are certain support groups in which women make up a large proportion of the group. This confused me a bit, because BPD is much more likely to be diagnosed in women, rather than men. Removing the homosexual female component, there are still more women complaining about their abusive “BPD” men (most often BPxh – which means “Borderline Ex Husband” for all the uninitiated). When I read their accounts, it appears to me that their “BP men” are (mainly, but not exclusively) either suffering from NPD or suffering from the disorder of being an ass.
We talked about this on my board ATSTP some time ago. I also discussed it with an another knowledageble person about BPD. She disagreed with my assessment that BPD and NPD are (usually) mutally exclusive and my idea that perhaps these self-diagnosed “BPs” are really suffering from something else. (again all of this, as always, is my NON-MEDICAL opinion… and this quote below is from Sam Vaknin’s non-medical opinion – he’s a doctor, but not a medical doctor… and I’m not going into the rabbit hole of his degrees). Anyway, here’s the quote and my take on it (again emphasis mine):
http://samvak.tripod.com/faq82.html
NPD and BPD – Suicide and Psychosis
A sense of entitlement is common to all Cluster B disorders.
Narcissists almost never act on their suicidal ideation – Borderlines do so incessantly (by cutting, self injury, or mutilation). But both tend to become suicidal under severe and prolonged stress.
NPDs can suffer from brief reactive psychoses in the same way that Borderlines suffer from psychotic microepisodes.
There are some differences between NPD and BPD, though:
1. The narcissist is way less impulsive;
2. The narcissist is less self-destructive, rarely self-mutilates, and practically never attempts suicide;
3. The narcissist is more stable (displays reduced emotional lability, maintains stability in interpersonal relationships and so on).
Ok, well, given that quote the separation regarding acting on suicidal ideation makes sense to me. However, that being said, his comment about “borderlines do so incessantly (by cutting, self injury, or mutilation)” is basically inaccurate – self-injury is not about suicide, it’s about pain management (and in some ways even suicide attempts, purposeful or accidental, are about pain management)… but I digress…
I was looking over Dr. Heller’s site some more today and found that HIS “other common disorders associated with BPD,” don’t include NPD, but he’s a medical doctor and doesn’t seem to think any disorder should be called a “personality disorder.”
Although I don’t know much about NPD, I think that a borderline is likely to hate herself … a narcisstist love himself. It’s simple (of course again it’s IMO), but seems right to me. I just wonder if people with BPD have been given even more of a bad rap by being confused with those with NPD (or a similiar disorder like APD). Emotional tools will not work (in my experience and in the experience of members of my list with NPD husbands) for someone with NPD.
 When Hope is Not EnoughGet the Non-BPD book that is designed for staying and working on the relationship UPDATE: Since I posted this in June of 2008, Sam Vaknin has since determined that he is a psychopath. Here’s a link to the documentary about his psychopathy.
|
Loading ...