Understanding Narcissism

[Edwardo Piet]

Mmm.

Beer.

...

[Rayaan]

I'm really interested in NPD and I'd love to know more about it. Narcs confuse me.

Descriptions from scientific literature:

"It is assumed that underlying all the surface grandiosity, narcissists secretly harbor fears of inferiority and worthlessness (e.g., Akhtar & Thomson, 1982)." (Source)

"Narcissists appear to have a heightened chronic activation level for self-esteem implicating events - such that they readily perceive and try to take advantage of opportunities for self-enhancement, and they also have an amplified need to fend off potential self-threats." (Source)

"Narcissistic personality disorder is characterised by an overly inflated sense of entitlement and grandiosity. Generally, there is preoccupation with the need for praise rather than overwhelming suspiciousness of others’ intent, although paranoid features redolent of paranoid personality disorder may emerge under stress." (Source)

"Also, narcissists are more likely than nonnarcissists to display the self-serving bias (SSB; appropriating credit for success, deflecting blame for failure) when attributional options include blaming another person for failure or usurping credit from this person for success." (Source)

"In a study by Buss and Chiodo (1991), individuals who described narcissistic acquaintances reported that the narcissists act in ways to impress others, such as bragging about accomplishments, showing off money and possessions, as well as insulting others’ intelligence and putting them down." (Source)

"When an ego-threatening event occurs, they engage in cognitive reorganization of information in line with their self-schema to restore self-esteem (e.g., reframing failure as someone else's or the tasks' fault, or selectively retrieving favorable 'facts')." (Source)

"In addition, many theorists view narcissists' grandiose self-views as concealing an unacknowledged base of self-doubt and self-recrimination (Brown & Bosson, 2001; Kernberg, 1970; Kohut, 1971). In other words, narcissists are viewed as simultaneously holding positive conscious self-views while harboring significant self-doubts at less conscious levels, consistent with our conceptualization of defensive individuals as possessing high explicit but low implicit SE [self-esteem]." (Source)

"For the narcissist, social interactions are the settings for the enactment of social manipulations and self-presentations designed to engineer positive feedback or blunt negative feedback about the self." (Source)

[Rayaan]

Narcs are suppoedly often charming... can they also be super sexy?

This is known as superficial charm, and this quality is also common in psychopaths and machiavellians.

Tall, Dark, And Narcissistic: Women Attracted To Men Exhibiting 'Dark Triad' Trait May Have More Reproductive Success

Psychology Uncovers Sex Appeal of Dark Personalities

For those who don't know, the the three personality traits - narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism - are all grouped together in a larger personality contruct called the "Dark Triad." That is because the three traits have many similarities between each other. There's a large degree of overlap between them. Some researchers have also argued that the three traits are positively correlated. In other words, anyone that has any of the three traits will tend to have the other two traits present as well.

The core features of the Dark Triad are as follows:

"Despite their diverse origins, the personalities composing this Dark Triad share a number of features. To varying degrees, all three entail a socially malevolent character with behavior tendencies toward self-promotion, emotional coldness, duplicity, and aggressiveness." (Source)

"Although the personality constructs of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy had different origins, there are striking similarities. To varying degrees, all three entail a dark, socially destructive character with behavior tendencies such as grandiosity, emotional coldness, manipulation and aggressiveness. In the clinical literature, the link between narcissism and psychopathy has been noted for some time (for a review, see Hart & Hare, 1998). The recent development of non-clinical measures of narcissism (Raskin & Hall, 1979) and psychopathy (Forth et al., 1998) has permitted direct comparison of the three dark traits in normal populations. For example, there is now empirical evidence that, in non-clinical populations, Machiavellianism and psychopathy may coincide (McHoskey et al., 1998). Similarly, there is evidence that narcissism and psychopathy overlap (Gustafson & Ritzer, 1995)." (Source)

"Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy are distinct constructs, but they share several common features. All three traits are typified by a high degree of selfishness and a willingness to put one’s own needs ahead of others. All three are socially repugnant (hence their grouping), and as a result they are often deliberately hidden from others rather than openly expressed. Machiavellians and psychopaths use social skill and superficial charm to hide true intentions, and even a narcissist will occasionally appear humble if only to elicit praise from others." (Source)

[The Grand Nudger]

A true war story is -always- fiction.  

-You- may be pure of forum heart, and need the win to be natural...but -me-...well...Imma put a 1 in the w column all the same.

I don't know what that's like. I can never appreciate flattery or praise if I sense it isn't genuine. I can get very mad at people if I ever catch them doing it. I hate that shit with a vengeance.

Meh,, not me..praise is praise...all part of the cluster of disorders.  

[Edwardo Piet]

I'm really interested in NPD and I'd love to know more about it. Narcs confuse me.

Descriptions from scientific literature:

"It is assumed that underlying all the surface grandiosity, narcissists secretly harbor fears of inferiority and worthlessness (e.g., Akhtar & Thomson, 1982)." (Source)

"Narcissists appear to have a heightened chronic activation level for self-esteem implicating events - such that they readily perceive and try to take advantage of opportunities for self-enhancement, and they also have an amplified need to fend off potential self-threats." (Source)

"Narcissistic personality disorder is characterised by an overly inflated sense of entitlement and grandiosity. Generally, there is preoccupation with the need for praise rather than overwhelming suspiciousness of others’ intent, although paranoid features redolent of paranoid personality disorder may emerge under stress." (Source)

"Also, narcissists are more likely than nonnarcissists to display the self-serving bias (SSB; appropriating credit for success, deflecting blame for failure) when attributional options include blaming another person for failure or usurping credit from this person for success." (Source)

"In a study by Buss and Chiodo (1991), individuals who described narcissistic acquaintances reported that the narcissists act in ways to impress others, such as bragging about accomplishments, showing off money and possessions, as well as insulting others’ intelligence and putting them down." (Source)

"When an ego-threatening event occurs, they engage in cognitive reorganization of information in line with their self-schema to restore self-esteem (e.g., reframing failure as someone else's or the tasks' fault, or selectively retrieving favorable 'facts')." (Source)

"In addition, many theorists view narcissists' grandiose self-views as concealing an unacknowledged base of self-doubt and self-recrimination (Brown & Bosson, 2001; Kernberg, 1970; Kohut, 1971). In other words, narcissists are viewed as simultaneously holding positive conscious self-views while harboring significant self-doubts at less conscious levels, consistent with our conceptualization of defensive individuals as possessing high explicit but low implicit SE [self-esteem]." (Source)

"For the narcissist, social interactions are the settings for the enactment of social manipulations and self-presentations designed to engineer positive feedback or blunt negative feedback about the self." (Source)

I dunno if I am being massively harsh on myself or not but... I feel like besides the parts I have bolded (I don't socialize to get positive and negative feedback, I socalize to enjoy it and to make other people feel good, which makes me feel good and I certainly never insult others or put them down to make myself feel better: that makes me feel worse not bette) I can see this all in myself a lot.

ETA: Oh I also definitely don't deflect blame. I tend to both praise and blame myself a lot.

[GrandizerII]

Descriptions from scientific literature:

"It is assumed that underlying all the surface grandiosity, narcissists secretly harbor fears of inferiority and worthlessness (e.g., Akhtar & Thomson, 1982)." (Source)

"Narcissists appear to have a heightened chronic activation level for self-esteem implicating events - such that they readily perceive and try to take advantage of opportunities for self-enhancement, and they also have an amplified need to fend off potential self-threats." (Source)

"Narcissistic personality disorder is characterised by an overly inflated sense of entitlement and grandiosity. Generally, there is preoccupation with the need for praise rather than overwhelming suspiciousness of others’ intent, although paranoid features redolent of paranoid personality disorder may emerge under stress." (Source)

"Also, narcissists are more likely than nonnarcissists to display the self-serving bias (SSB; appropriating credit for success, deflecting blame for failure) when attributional options include blaming another person for failure or usurping credit from this person for success." (Source)

"In a study by Buss and Chiodo (1991), individuals who described narcissistic acquaintances reported that the narcissists act in ways to impress others, such as bragging about accomplishments, showing off money and possessions, as well as insulting others’ intelligence and putting them down." (Source)

"When an ego-threatening event occurs, they engage in cognitive reorganization of information in line with their self-schema to restore self-esteem (e.g., reframing failure as someone else's or the tasks' fault, or selectively retrieving favorable 'facts')." (Source)

"In addition, many theorists view narcissists' grandiose self-views as concealing an unacknowledged base of self-doubt and self-recrimination (Brown & Bosson, 2001; Kernberg, 1970; Kohut, 1971). In other words, narcissists are viewed as simultaneously holding positive conscious self-views while harboring significant self-doubts at less conscious levels, consistent with our conceptualization of defensive individuals as possessing high explicit but low implicit SE [self-esteem]." (Source)

"For the narcissist, social interactions are the settings for the enactment of social manipulations and self-presentations designed to engineer positive feedback or blunt negative feedback about the self." (Source)

I dunno if I am being massively harsh on myself or not but... I feel like besides the parts I have bolded (I don't socialize to get positive and negative feedback, I socalize to enjoy it and to make other people feel good, which makes me feel good and I certainly never insult others or put them down to make myself feel better: that makes me feel worse not bette) I can see this all in myself a lot.

ETA: Oh I also definitely don't deflect blame. I tend to both praise and blame myself a lot.

That's why to meet the criteria for NPD, you have to regularly and consistently exhibit the minimal number of the DSM symptoms. Otherwise, most of us would be diagnosable with NPD.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yesh.