Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a mental condition that can afflict anybody. Unbeknown to him, an NPD sufferer may make the people around him uncomfortable, sometimes even fearful.
And if he has a wide audience, his typically charismatic, solipsistic persona can have far-reaching adverse effects on society.
While NPD isn’t considered a serious mental disease, it is what in the medical parlance is called co-morbid. This means NPD is often accompanied by other, more serious, disorders. In extreme cases, these may include delusions of grandeur and paranoia.
No cure exists, but psychotherapy has been known to keep the condition in check, especially if treatment is initiated shortly after the onset of NPD. As is usually the case with progressive conditions, time is of the essence.
So take a couple of minutes to run through the simple checklist below. This will enable you to recognise the symptoms of NPD in yourself and, if needed, get a head start on the treatment.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) describes NPD as possessing at least five of the following nine criteria:
- A grandiose sense of self-importance (exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognised as superior without commensurate achievements)
- Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
- Believing that they are “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
- Requiring excessive admiration
- A sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)
- Being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends)
- Lacking empathy (unwilling to recognise or identify with the feelings and needs of others)
- Often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them
- Showing arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes
A High-Functioning/Exhibitionistic subtype of NPD has been described as “high functioning narcissists [who] are grandiose, competitive, attention-seeking, and sexually provocative; they tend to show adaptive functioning and utilise their narcissistic traits to succeed.”
If you show such symptoms, make sure you take immediate action lest the condition progress beyond any chance of successful therapy. And if you know someone who may be an NPD sufferer, suggest to him that he seek medical help immediately.
NPD sufferers often succeed in business, especially as salesmen or negotiators, areas where their overbearing personalities and lack of scruples often give them the upper hand. But they naturally gravitate towards careers promising a higher visibility, such as those in show business or politics.
Once they’ve reached a position of power, they demand unquestioning loyalty and sycophantic adulation. These are the main, often sole, criteria on which they choose their entourage. Whenever they detect a hint of disloyalty or insufficient obeisance, NPD sufferers tend to lash out, often to the detriment of their core business.
If it all possible, keep NPD sufferers away from ponds, highly polished tables, mirrors, TV monitors and other surfaces in which they can admire their reflection or projection. This protective measure is akin to barring a drug addict’s access to his preferred narcotic substances.
And if you find yourself in a conversation with an NPD sufferer, try not to contradict his idea of himself too forcefully. If you do, he may instantly turn abusive and, in especially advanced cases, physically violent. Keep in mind that an NPD sufferer will never forget a presumed slight, and he will harbour vengeful designs for a long time.
Hope you’ll find these tips useful. Remember, if we take NPD seriously, we can protect society from its toxic effects.
P.S. On a totally unrelated subject, the adulation of Trump has reached hagiographic proportions in some quarters. Not only the president himself but also members of his family have become the objects of cultish worship.
By way of illustration, here is a video of Barron Trump’s encounter with a homeless waif: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wfFpGFTnOo. The language and narrative structure haven’t been widely used since the Gospels, although one can detect some parallels with the glorification of Lenin’s family in the Soviet Union.
The simulacrum gospel according to Trump features the president as God the Father, Barron as God the Son and Melania as the Holy Vir… oops! Oh well, perhaps this analogy doesn’t work in every detail.
Another one, with the Kim family in North Korea, may be more accurate. Actually, that giant gold statue makes it airtight. It’s good to see that America’s First Family and its adulators have found a perfect role model.
HEALTH WARNING: If you decide to watch the video, have a sick bag close at hand.