Narcissistic Personality Disorder CLAIRE DEUTER

Definition  Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) - in which a person is excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity, mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing to themselves and to others in the process

Symptoms  Self-centered  Lack of empathy and intimacy  Need for admiration, constant attention and positive reinforcement  Arrogant, unrealistic  Expects to be recognized without great accomplishments  Defense narcissism  Actually have low self esteem  Bring others down to bring themselves up  Defense mechanism

Other Information  Affects 6.2% of the population  More common in men  Most common in adulthood when done developing  Will typically decrease in age  Few symptoms at 40+ years

Cause  Cause is unknown  Theories include:  Severe emotional abuse in childhood  Excessive praise form others  Never receiving realistic feedback (unbalanced)  Less volume of grey area in left anterior insula of the brain  Region has to do with empathy, compassion, emotional regulation, and cognitive functioning

Treatment  Long-term psychotherapy (talking rather than treatment)  Group treatment has some benefits  Issues in treatment for narcissism:  Denying the problem is common  Too proud  Without recognizing the problem, it’s hard to reach a solution

Media: Video on the narcissistic personality disorder

Bibliography  procedures/psychotherapy/basics/definition/prc procedures/psychotherapy/basics/definition/prc   treatment/ treatment/  disorder/basics/definition/con disorder/basics/definition/con