Has anyone ever met an extreme narcissist?
SilverProteus
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As in Multiple Personality Disorder?
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A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
(8 ) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Reprinted with permission from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth Edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association
from http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/narcissisticpd.htm
This is the definition of my grade 9 math teacher 6 and 7 don't apply too much, but then again I didn't listen to him all that much
SilverProteus
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Borderline personality disorder suffers can suffer from dissociation:
From Wikipedia:
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SilverProteus
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From another source: NIMH
Symptoms
While a person with depression or bipolar disorder typically endures the same mood for weeks, a person with BPD may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day. These may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse. Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BPD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most acute when people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.
People with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike). Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all. Even with family members, individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations as a vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change in plans. These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are physically absent, leaving the individual with BPD feeling lost and perhaps worthless. Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.
People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.
Treatment
Treatments for BPD have improved in recent years. Group and individual psychotherapy are at least partially effective for many patients. Within the past 15 years, a new psychosocial treatment termed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed specifically to treat BPD, and this technique has looked promising in treatment studies. Pharmacological treatments are often prescribed based on specific target symptoms shown by the individual patient. Antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers may be helpful for depressed and/or labile mood. Antipsychotic drugs may also be used when there are distortions in thinking.
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It isn't dissassociative, it's dissociative. This is why it confuses some people, because it's often mispronounced. Although people with AS sometimes don't like to associate with others, this isn't the same thing. It's also very different from being totally full of yourself.
Dissociative Identity Disorder used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder. The person will kind of slip into being an entirely different person, then have no idea what they did while they were this different person. Many people with this disorder have a history of extreme childhood stress, like physical or sexual abuse and neglect. So, even though the person seems to have moved beyond their traumatic experiences, there's a part of them that hasn't...and that part might just go out and rape kids or kill people. Did you ever watch that show Heroes? The blond chick who went between being super mean Jessica and super nice mommy? Yeah...kinda like that. Some people have completely different identities/names/ages, while others just have polar opposite personalities which recurrently emerge.
I saw some film in college (in an abn. psych. class) which featured some higher-up 50-60-ish married politician guy in DC...his other personality was this wild guy in his 30s who was a total womanizer and loved rollerblading. Hilarious to see the videos of them "both". I wish I could remember his name, because it's probably on the internet somewhere.
Bipolar Disorder used to be called Manic-Depressive Disorder...the people bounce back and force between mania and depression with very little middle ground, and very little warning. They experience the "polar opposites" of their personalities: extreme mania (happiness, frenetic activity, laughter, fun) and extreme depression (not being able to get out of bed, ignoring friends/family, suicidal ideation). The meds generally seek to even things out, so that the person can spend more time in the middle ground of "normalcy". As you can imagine, it would be hard to keep a job if you were either so depressed you couldn't even get up in the morning, or so super-excited that you decided instead of going to work you should paint all the walls in your house, have a party, then take a road trip.
He sounds like he might have a dissocial personality disorder (also known as antisocial personality disorder). It's closely related to narcissism.
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Unfortunately, my mother. And worse, she perceived me, her oldest daughter, to be competing with her, even when I was still an infant.
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Oh...I have known a few NPDs.....awful nasty beasts.....an ex-neigbor of mine....an ex roommate and alas, an ex boyfriend......egads....can't bring myself to go into it at the moment....
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SilverProteus
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Compensatory Narcissistic Personality Disorder: a pervasive pattern of unstable, "overtly narcissistic behaviors [that] derive from an underlying sense of insecurity and weakness rather than from genuine feelings of self-confidence and high self-esteem", beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by ten (or more) of the following:
seeks to create an illusion of superiority and to build up an image of high self-worth;
has disturbances in the capacity for empathy;
strives for recognition and prestige to compensate for the lack of a feeling of self-worth;
may acquire a deprecatory attitude in which the achievements of others are ridiculed and degraded;
has persistent aspirations for glory and status;
has a tendency to exaggerate and boast;
is sensitive to how others react to him or her, watches and listens carefully for critical judgment, and feels slighted by disapproval;
is prone to feel shamed and humiliated and especially hyper-anxious and vulnerable to the judgments of others;
covers up a sense of inadequacy and deficiency with pseudo-arrogance and pseudo-grandiosity;
has a tendency to periodic hypochondria;
alternates between feelings of emptiness and deadness and states of excitement and excess energy;
entertains fantasies of greatness, constantly striving for perfection, genius, or stardom;
has a history of searching for an idealized partner and has an intense need for affirmation and confirmation in relationships;
frequently entertains a wishful, exaggerated, and unrealistic concept of himself or herself which he or she can't possibly measure up to;
produces (too quickly) work not up to the level of his or her abilities because of an overwhelmingly strong need for the immediate gratification of success;
is touchy, quick to take offense at the slightest provocation, continually anticipating attack and danger, reacting with anger and fantasies of revenge when he or she feels frustrated in his or her need for constant admiration;
is self-conscious, due to a dependence on approval from others;
suffers regularly from repetitive oscillations of self-esteem;
seeks to undo feelings of inadequacy by forcing everyone's attention and admiration upon himself or herself;
may react with self-contempt and depression to the lack of fulfillment of his or her grandiose expectations.
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All of this while hiding behind "ethics".
From http://www.ptypes.com/compensatory-narpd.html
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Last edited by SilverProteus on 02 Apr 2008, 10:12 am, edited 1 time in total.