Are You a Narcissist?

In a prior post I spoke about the narcissism that's seemingly ubiquitous in social media. It's all about me, me, ME! Well, isn't it? Don't we have our profile for a reason - to post about ourselves? Maybe. But that's not what this post is about. It's not a rant against the self-centredness of social media, but an attempt to question you...

Are YOU a narcissist?

James Doty's a professor of neurosurgery, and has founded the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University. Given he's founded such a centre you mightn't call him a narcissist would you? Well, in his lifetime he's racked up tens of millions of dollars and has given it away. But before then he was living for the penthouses, fast cars, and the rich life. It was about his 'wants' being satisfied rather than the selfless needs of others. Does that necessarily make him a narcissist? Or a reformed-narcissist? It depends on how you define the term. 

The term narcissist comes from the story of Narcissus, a super handsome hunter found in Greek Mythology. It's said that he was walking by a pool of water and saw his reflection. "Damn I'm good lookin'" he thought to himself. With that thought, he fell head-over-heels in love with himself. 

If we define being a narcissist that way - a person that's truly in love with themselves - then we'd probably won't find as many people to call narcissists as we once thought (or maybe you might). 

Taking it a step further, let's look at a psychiatric understanding of the term narcissist. Now, in psychiatry and psychology we've put together a term to describe a disorder that's narcissistic in nature. It's called narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). With it comes a conglomeration of symptoms and signs that are potentially damaging to the personality of the beholder. It' the latter that I'm going to focus on today.

So what's NPD? Let's find out.

The DSM-5 (2013) describes NPD as "a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy." What's that mean? It's basically saying that when you think you're all that, when you want others to notice you, and when you can't put yourself in the shoes of others, you could be suffering from NPD. 

That's probably all teenagers right? Not too convincing...

Well, let's break it down a little bit more. In order to be diagnosed with NPD a person's got to satisfy five criteria.

1. Inflated self-importance

2. Fantasies of limitless success

3. Sees self as only associated with "special" people of high regard

4. Craves admiration

5. Sense of entitlement

6. Exploits people

7. Lacks empathy

8. Envious

9. Arrogant

If you've got any of those five, you might be in the running of being labelled a narcissist. But wait! There's more! 

To actually be considered a prime candidate for the diagnosis of NPD you must qualify for significant disturbances in your life (for the most part). So, if you're 'symptoms' are causing duress for yourself or others. Having a significant impact on your family life, career prospects, relationships with others, and so on, you might very well be 'suffering' from NPD.

So how do you treat it?

Well you could admit yourself to hospital and get a team of specialists to take a look at you (only in the extreme cases though), or you could - and this is my preferred method - seek individual psychotherapy. 

The latter could address your sense of self. Why you need to be seen in such an inflated manner. Get to the bottom of thoughts, emotions (if there are any), and behaviours. 

But then again, since you probably know the best, you might end up becoming the therapist, right?

References

American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Images retrieved from:

http://www.matrixbookstore.biz/img_narcissus.jpg

http://www.thomasvan.com/wp-content/files/57596-49806.jpg

http://sparkfreedom.org/files/2013/04/narcissism-disorders.jpg