Malignant Self Love | Page 6

right to tax his time, energy, or emotions - so
he feels.
To borrow Freud's trilateral model, the narcissist's Ego is weak,
disorganised and lacks clear boundaries. Many of the Ego functions are
projected. The Superego is sadistic and punishing. The Id is
unrestrained.
Primary Objects in the narcissist's childhood were badly idealised and
internalised.
His object relations are distraught and destroyed.
The first chapters offer a detailed, first hand account of what it is like to
have a Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It offers new insights
and an organised methodological framework using a new
psychodynamic language. It is intended for professionals.
The first part of the book is more accessible. It comprises 99
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding narcissism and
personality disorders. The posting of "Malignant Self-Love -
Narcissism Revisited" on the Web has elicited a flood of excited, sad

and heart rending responses, mostly from victims of narcissists but also
from people suffering from the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This
is a true picture of the resulting correspondence with them.
This book is heavy reading. It is not intended to please or to entertain.
NPD is a pernicious, vile and tortuous disease, which affects not only
the narcissist. It infects and forever changes people who are in daily
contact with the narcissist. In other words: it is contagious. It is my
contention that narcissism is the mental epidemic of the twentieth
century, a plague to be fought by all means.
This book is my contribution to minimising the damages of this
disorder.
Sam Vaknin
Malignant
Self Love
Narcissism Revisited
The Narcissistic Personality Disorder
A Primer on Narcissism
Narcissism (n. sing.)
A pattern of traits and behaviours which signify infatuation and
obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and the egotistic
and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition.
Narcissism is named after the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, a
handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the
nymph Echo. In punishment of his cruelty, he was doomed to fall in
love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Unable to consummate
his autoerotic love, he pined away and changed into the flower that
bears his name to this very day.
What is NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder)?
The Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) has been recognised as a
separate mental health disorder in the third edition of the Diagnostic
and Statistics Manual (DSM) in 1980. Its diagnostic criteria and their
interpretation have undergone a major revision in the DSM-III-R [1987]
and were substantially revamped in the DSM-IV-TR in 2000. The
European ICD-10 basically contains identical language.
An all-pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behaviour), need
for admiration or adulation and lack of empathy, usually beginning by
early adulthood and present in various contexts. Five (or more) of the

following criteria must be met:
_ Feels grandiose and self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements
and talents to the point of lying, demands to be recognised as superior
without commensurate achievements);
_ Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome
power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist),
bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal,
everlasting, all-conquering love or passion;
_ Firmly convinced that he or she is unique and, being special, can only
be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other
special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions);
_ Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation -
or, failing that, wishes to be feared and to be notorious (Narcissistic
Supply);
_ Feels entitled. Expects unreasonable or special and favourable
priority treatment. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or
her expectations;
_ Is "interpersonally exploitative", i.e., uses others to achieve his or her
own ends;
_ Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with or
acknowledge the feelings and needs of others;
_ Constantly envious of others or believes that they feel the same about
him or her;
_ Arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes coupled with rage when
frustrated, contradicted, or confronted.
The language in the criteria above is based on or summarised from:
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR, Washington [2000]
Vaknin, Sam. Malignant Self-Love - Narcissism Revisited. Revised ed.
Prague and Skopje, Narcissus Publications [1999, 2001, 2003]
More Data About Pathological Narcissists
_ Most narcissists (75%) are men.
_ NPD (=the Narcissistic Personality Disorder) is one of a "family" of
personality disorders (formerly known as "Cluster B"). Other members:
Borderline PD, Antisocial PD and Histrionic PD.
_ NPD is often diagnosed with other mental health disorders
("co-morbidity") - or with substance abuse, or impulsive and reckless

behaviours ("dual diagnosis").
_ NPD is new [1980] mental health category in the Diagnostic and
Statistics Manual (DSM).
_ There is only scant research regarding narcissism. But what there is
has not demonstrated any