|
Understanding Narcissistic Personality Disorder
By Dr. Sam Vaknin
The narcissist is both victimizer and victim. The essence of the narcissistic disorder is a breakdown of internal communication. The narcissist invents and nurtures a false self intended to elicit attention--positive or negative--from others and thus to fill his or her innermost void.
The Energy of Self
By Dr. Sam Vaknin
Normally, one's energy is expended on the proper functioning of one's personality. The personality disordered devote any shred of vitality to the projection and maintenance of a False Self, whose sole purpose is to elicit attention, admiration, approval, acknowledgement, fear, or adulation from others.
Whistling in the Dark
By Dr. Sam Vaknin
The disparity between the accomplishments of the narcissist and his grandiose fantasies and inflated self image--the "grandiosity gap"--is staggering and, in the long run, insupportable. It imposes onerous exigencies on the narcissist's grasp of reality and social skills. It pushes him either to seclusion or to a frenzy of "acquisitions"--cars, women, wealth, power.
|
