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Articles from Sam Vaknin | Selfgrowth.com
- Diagnosing Personality Disorders - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2007 from Sam VakninPersonality traits are enduring, usually rigid patterns of behavior, thinking (cognition), and emoting expressed in a variety of circumstances and situations and throughout one's life (typically from early adolescence onward). Some personality traits are harmful to both oneself and to others. ...
Views: 1129 - Differential Diagnoses of Personality Disorders - by Submitted on Apr 05, 2007 from Sam VakninIt is not easy to tell when the patient's anxiety and depression are autonomous and neurotic problems or symptoms of a personality disorder. These should, therefore, be ruled out as differential diagnostic criteria. In other words, the mere existence of depression or anxiety in a patient does ...
Views: 945 - Histrionic Personality Disorder - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2007 from Sam VakninMost patients with the Histrionic Personality Disorder are women. This immediately raises the question: Is this a real mental health disorder or a culture-bound syndrome which reflects the values of a patriarchal and misogynistic society? A man with similar traits is bound to be admired as a ...
Views: 3441 - How Victims are Affected by Abuse - by Submitted on Aug 24, 2005 from Sam VakninRepeated abuse has long lasting pernicious and traumatic effects such as panic attacks, hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, flashbacks (intrusive memories), suicidal ideation, and psychosomatic symptoms. The victims experience shame, depression, anxiety, embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, ...
Views: 1345 - I am Afraid to Date Again. I am Considering Online Dating instead of the Real Thing. - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2012 from Sam VakninThere is a delicate balance to be maintained between the need to process the trauma of divorce (to recuperate, heal, and recover) and the need to maintain the interpersonal skills essential to dating and, later, to bonding and pair-formation (pairing). The main problem may be the temporary ...
Views: 2339 - I Can't Live Without Him/Her - by Submitted on Aug 31, 2011 from Sam VakninDependence on other people is a kind of addiction and, therefore, fulfills important mental health functions. First, it is an organizing principle: it serves to explain behaviors and events within a coherent “narrative” (fictional story) or frame of reference (“I acted this way because ...
Views: 1212 - Inner Voices, False Narratives, Narcissism, and Codependence - by Submitted on Aug 22, 2014 from Sam VakninThe narcissist constructs a narrative of his life that is partly confabulated and whose purpose is to buttress, demonstrate, and prove the veracity of the fantastically grandiose and often impossible claims made by the False Self. This narrative allocates roles to significant others in the ...
Views: 3220 - Lidija Rangelovska’s View of Shame - by Submitted on Oct 07, 2015 from Sam VakninLidija Rangelovska advanced the idea that some children subjected to abuse in dysfunctional families – objectified, dehumanized, their boundaries breached, and their growth stunted – develop intense feelings of shame. They turn out to be codependents or narcissists owing to their genetic makeup ...
Views: 1977 - Loving Gaze, Adulating Gaze: False vs. True Self - by Submitted on Jan 19, 2012 from Sam VakninIn the film “The Beaver”, the character played by Mel Gibson suffers from depression. He latches on to a tattered puppet in the shape of a beaver and communicates exclusively through it. The Beaver is everything its ostensible master isn’t: daring, creative, exuberant, omnipotent, and ...
Views: 1687 - Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III) - by Submitted on Apr 08, 2007 from Sam VakninThe third edition of this popular test, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III), has been published in 1996. With 175 items, it is much shorter and simpler to administer and to interpret than the MMPI-II. The MCMI-III diagnoses personality disorders and Axis I disorders but not other ...
Views: 13292 - Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-II) - by Submitted on Apr 07, 2007 from Sam VakninThe MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), composed by Hathaway (a psychologist) and McKinley (a physician) is the outcome of decades of research into personality disorders. The revised version, the MMPI-II (also known as MMPI-2), was published in 1989 but was received cautiously. ...
Views: 4333 - Misdiagnosing Narcissism: Asperger's Disorder - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2014 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Asperger's Disorder is often misdiagnosed as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), though evident as early as age 3 (while pathological narcissism cannot be safely diagnosed prior to early adolescence). In both ...
Views: 2354 - Misdiagnosing Narcissism: Bipolar I Disorder - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2014 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" The manic phase of Bipolar I Disorder is often misdiagnosed as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Bipolar patients in the manic phase exhibit many of the signs and symptoms of pathological narcissism - ...
Views: 2582 - Misdiagnosing Narcissism: Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2014 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Anxiety Disorders – and especially Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – are often misdiagnosed as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Anxiety is uncontrollable and excessive apprehension. Anxiety disorders usually ...
Views: 1707 - Misinformation about Covert vs. Classic Narcissists - by Submitted on May 15, 2014 from Sam VakninContrary to misinformation spread by "experts" online, covert narcissists are not cunning and manipulative. Classic narcissists are: they often disguise their true nature effectively, knowingly, and intentionally. They are persistent actors with great thespian skills. Not so the covert ...
Views: 4367 - Munchausen and Munchausen by Proxy Syndromes: Forms of Pathological Narcissism? - by Submitted on Nov 24, 2013 from Sam VakninPatients afflicted with the Factitious Disorder colloquially known as “Munchausen Syndrome” seek to attract the attention of medical personnel by feigning or by self-inflicting serious illness or injury. “Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome” (Factitious Illness or Disorder by Proxy, or Imposed by ...
Views: 1829 - Narcissism and Personality Disorders - by Submitted on Apr 02, 2007 from Sam VakninAre all personality disorders the outcomes of frustrated narcissism? During our formative years (6 months to 6 years old), we are all "narcissists". Primary Narcissism is a useful and critically important defense mechanism. As the infant separates from his mother and becomes an individual, it is ...
Views: 1488 - Narcissist and His Body in Health, Illness, and Disability - by Submitted on May 05, 2015 from Sam VakninWhen narcissists fall victim to chronic or acute diseases, or survive a traffic accident, they react in either of four typical ways, depending on the type of narcissist: 1. The schizotypal reaction: the belief that the narcissist's predicament is a part of a larger, cosmic plan, or of a ...
Views: 8330 - Narcissist Loves Pain: His and Others' - by Submitted on Mar 18, 2015 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Most narcissists enjoy an irrational and brief burst of relief after having suffered emotionally ("narcissistic injury") or after having sustained a loss. It is a sense of freedom, which comes with being unshackled. Having ...
Views: 2742 - Narcissist vs. Psychopath - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2007 from Sam VakninWe all heard the terms "psychopath" or "sociopath". These are the old names for a patient with the Antisocial Personality Disorder (AsPD). It is hard to distinguish narcissists from psychopaths. The latter may simply be a less inhibited and less grandiose form of the former. Indeed, the DSM V ...
Views: 2080 - Narcissist's Frustrating, Negativistic, and Passive-Aggressive Behaviors - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2016 from Sam VakninFrustrating one's nearest and dearest has the dual "advantage" of simultaneously satisfying the narcissist's masochistic and sadistic urges. By withholding love, sex, intimacy, and the fulfillment of other people's desires and needs, the narcissist torments them even as he obstructs his own ...
Views: 2852 - Narcissist's Projection, Projective Identification, and the Victim's Introjective Identification - by Submitted on Jul 30, 2016 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" The narcissist’s False Self is grandiose. The narcissist seeks to maintain his inflated fantasy of himself. He denies, slices and splits off, and “evacuates” or projects onto others emotions, cognitions (thoughts), traits, ...
Views: 2932 - Narcissist: Fake it Till You Make It - by Submitted on May 19, 2016 from Sam VakninWhy do some narcissists end up being over-achievers, pillars of the community, and accomplished professionals - while their brethren fade into obscurity, having done little of note with their lives? There seem to be two types of narcissists: those who derive ample narcissistic supply ...
Views: 1949 - Narcissistic Abuse: From Victim to Survivor in 6 Steps - by Submitted on Nov 12, 2014 from Sam VakninNarcissistic Abuse: From Victim to Survivor in 6 Steps By Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" You have been abused, maltreated, harrassed, and stalked. You feel that you fell prey to a narcissist or psychopath. But, you must move on from victim to ...
Views: 5776 - Narcissistic Offspring, Narcissistic Parents - by Submitted on Feb 27, 2014 from Sam VakninThe Japanese call them “parasite singles”, the Americans “boomerang kids”. Sociologists refer to the “accordion family”: it expands and then contracts and then expands again as children return to what should have been an “empty nest.” Why do youngsters opt to live with their parents rather ...
Views: 1933 - Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Clinical Features - by Submitted on Apr 18, 2007 from Sam VakninClinical Features of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder Opinions vary as to whether the narcissistic traits evident in in infancy, childhood, and early adolescence are pathological. Anecdotal evidence suggests that childhood abuse and trauma inflicted by parents, authority figures, or even ...
Views: 1232 - Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Diagnostic Criteria - by Submitted on Apr 16, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is not a new psychological construct. In previous centuries it was called "egotism" or "megalomania". It is an extreme form of pathological narcissism. The Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is one of the four personality disorders in Cluster B ...
Views: 1663 - Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Prevalence and Comorbidity - by Submitted on Apr 17, 2007 from Sam VakninWhat is the Difference between Healthy Narcissism and the Pathological Kind? In my book "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited", I define pathological narcissism as: "(A) life-long pattern of traits and behaviors which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of ...
Views: 1881 - Narcissistic Supply and Sex - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2012 from Sam VakninThe psychosexuality of all types of narcissists – cerebral and somatic alike – involves the objectification and interchangeability of intimate partners. Narcissists are polyamorous and autoerotic. Quite a few of them have comorbid sexual paraphilias (are deviant.) The cerebral narcissist aims ...
Views: 11112 - Narcissists, Social Media, and Porn - by Submitted on Oct 08, 2013 from Sam VakninSocial media, such as Tumblr.com, have become the playground of narcissists, psychopaths, and sadists who post extreme and, at times, illegal porn and revel in the reactions to it, thus garnering vicarious narcissistic supply. Via such postings, they express their rabid misogyny by objectifying ...
Views: 3822 - Nationalism vs. Patriotism: Narcissism vs. Self-love - by Submitted on Nov 09, 2014 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Patriotism is akin to the healthy form of self-love: it consists mainly of pride in one’s self-identity and values based on one’s culture and shared history. Patriotism is not exclusionary, but inclusive. The patriot, in ...
Views: 1847 - Psychological Defense Mechanisms - by Submitted on Apr 29, 2007 from Sam VakninAccording to Freud and his followers, our psyche is a battlefield between instinctual urges and drives (the id), the constraints imposed by reality on the gratification of these impulses (the ego), and the norms of society (the superego). This constant infighting generates what Freud called ...
Views: 2380 - Psychological Tests - Introduction - by Submitted on Apr 06, 2007 from Sam VakninPersonality assessment is perhaps more an art form than a science. In an attempt to render it as objective and standardized as possible, generations of clinicians came up with psychological tests and structured interviews. These are administered under similar conditions and use identical stimuli ...
Views: 1363 - Psychopathic Narcissists: The Uncanny Valley of Cold Empathy - by Submitted on Aug 22, 2011 from Sam VakninCold Empathy evokes the concept of “Uncanny Valley”, coined in 1970 by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori. Mori suggested that people react positively to androids (humanlike robots) for as long as they differ from real humans in meaningful and discernible ways. But the minute these ...
Views: 2329 - Putting the Broken Humpty-Dumpty Narcissist Back Together - by Submitted on Oct 12, 2014 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Positive feelings (about oneself or pertaining to one's accomplishments, assets, etc.) – are never gained merely through conscious endeavor. They are the outcome of insight. A cognitive component (factual knowledge regarding ...
Views: 2494 - Rorschach Inkblots Test - by Submitted on Apr 10, 2007 from Sam VakninThe Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach developed a set of inkblots to test subjects in his clinical research. In a 1942 monograph, Rorschach postulated that the blots evoke consistent and similar responses in groups patients. Only ten of the original inkblots are currently in diagnostic use. ...
Views: 2461 - Schizoid Personality Disorder - by Submitted on Apr 25, 2007 from Sam VakninSchizoids enjoy nothing and seemingly never experience pleasure (they are anhedonic). Even their nearest and dearest often describe them as "automata", "robots", or "machines". But the schizoid is not depressed or dysphoric, merely indifferent. Schizoids are uninterested in social relationships ...
Views: 3377 - Schizotypal Personality Disorder - by Submitted on May 03, 2007 from Sam VakninDo you believe in UFOs and alien abductions? You may be suffering from the Schizotypal Personality Disorder. Do you believe in the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary and in the resurrection of her son? Then you are merely a religious person. In other words, it is OK to believe in certain ...
Views: 1874 - Sex - Or Gender? Children of Same-sex Couples - by Submitted on Jul 02, 2013 from Sam Vaknin"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949) With same-sex marriage becoming a legal reality throughout the world, many more children are going to be raised by homosexual (gay and lesbian) parents, or even bytransgendered or transsexual ones. ...
Views: 1644 - Sexual Fantasies of Narcissists and Psychopaths - by Submitted on Aug 07, 2013 from Sam VakninInevitably, the sexual fantasy life of narcissists and psychopaths reflects their psychodynamic landscape: their fear of intimacy, misogyny, control freakiness, auto-eroticism, latent sadism and masochism, problems of gender identity, and various sexual paraphilias. Fantasies which reflect a ...
Views: 12742 - Solitude as a Rational Choice - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2013 from Sam Vaknin“Purebred” schizoids shrug off their disorder: they simply don’t like being around people and they resent the pathologizing of their lifestyle “choice” to remain aloof and alone. They consider the diagnosis of Schizoid Personality Disorder to be spurious, a mere reflection of current social ...
Views: 2006 - Spite and Envy: Passive-Aggressive Narcissists - by Submitted on Dec 03, 2014 from Sam VakninBy Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Negativistic (Passive-Aggressive) Personality Disorder is not yet recognized by the DSM Committee. It makes its appearances in Appendix B of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, titled "Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for ...
Views: 3059 - Teen Suicide and Social Media - by Submitted on Aug 25, 2018 from Sam VakninTeen Suicide and Social Media By Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" Social media and the devices that they run on are designed to be addictive, as many industry executives have confessed. Addiction is always punctuated by periods of withdrawal and its “cold ...
Views: 1696 - The Aging Narcissist - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2011 from Sam VakninInterview granted to Harmony (India) The first thing that occurs to me when thinking of aging is a gradual change in one’s physical structure that is apparent to others, and to oneself of course. Now what precisely do we mean by aging, or getting old or older, in terms of the mind or psyche? ...
Views: 7833 - The Construct of Normal Personality - by Submitted on Mar 26, 2007 from Sam VakninPersonality disorders are dysfunctions of our whole identity, tears in the fabric of who we are. They are all-pervasive because our personality is ubiquitous and permeates each and every one of our mental cells. I just published the first article in this topic titled "What is Personality?". Read ...
Views: 1112 - The Death of Traditional Sex in a Unisex World - by Submitted on Nov 07, 2013 from Sam VakninTraditional sex – the heady cocktail of lust and emotional bonding - is all but dead. In a culture of casual, almost anonymous hookups, suppressing attendant emerging emotions is the bon ton and women and men drift apart, zerovalent atoms in an ever-shifting, kaleidoscopic world, separated by a ...
Views: 1826 - The Demise of Empathy at Home and in the Family and the Role of Technology - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2012 from Sam VakninEmpathy is on a precipitous decline in the family and home environments. Technology is partly to blame, but so are other social and economic trends. On June 9, 2005 the BBC reported about an unusual project underway in Sheffield (in the United Kingdom). The daily movements and ...
Views: 2202 - The Demise of Empathy in Business and the Workplace - by Submitted on Jun 08, 2012 from Sam VakninEmpathy is at the foundation of both altruism and collaboration. Thus, while it does consume scarce resources, empathy confers important evolutionary advantages both from the individual’s point of view (cooperation) and from the species’s (altruism.) Yet, we are witnessing a marked ...
Views: 2585 - The History of Personality Disorders - by Submitted on Apr 04, 2007 from Sam VakninWell into the eighteenth century, the only types of mental illness - then collectively known as "delirium" or "mania" - were depression (melancholy), psychoses, and delusions. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the French psychiatrist Pinel coined the phrase "manie sans delire" ...
Views: 1501 - The Insanity of the Insanity Defense - by Submitted on Aug 31, 2011 from Sam VakninAron Levy, who kidnapped, murdered and dismembered 8-year old Leiby Kletzky in Brooklyn now faces a battery of defense-appointed experts in an attempt to plead NGRI (“Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity”). He has a history of “psychiatric disorders” and had been hearing voices, his lawyers claim. ...
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