Here is a little information on types of Personality Disorders
A personality disorder is a pattern of deviant or abnormal behavior
that the person doesn't change even though it causes emotional upsets
and trouble with other people at work and in personal relationships. It
is not limited to episodes of mental illness, and it is not caused by
drug or alcohol use, head injury, or illness. There are about a dozen
different behavior patterns classified as personality disorders by DSM-IV. All the personality disorders show up as deviations from normal in one or more of the following:
(1) cognition -- i.e., perception, thinking, and interpretation of oneself, other people, and events;
(2) affectivity -- i.e., emotional responses (range, intensity, lability, appropriateness);
(3) interpersonal functions;
(4) impulsivity.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
While grandiosity is the diagnostic hallmark of pathological narcissism, there is research evidence
that pathological narcissism occurs in two forms, (a) a grandiose state
of mind in young adults that can be corrected by life experiences, and
(b) the stable disorder described in DSM-IV, which is defined less by
grandiosity than by severely disturbed interpersonal relations.
The
preferred theory seems to be that narcissism is caused by very early
affective deprivation, yet the clinical material tends to describe
narcissists as unwilling rather than unable,
thus treating narcissistic behaviors as volitional -- that is,
narcissism is termed a personality disorder, but it tends to be
discussed as a character disorder. This distinction is important to prognosis and treatment
possibilities. If NPD is caused by infantile damage and consequent
developmental short-circuits, it probably represents an irremediable
condition. On the other hand, if narcissism is a behavior pattern
that's learned, then there is some hope, however tenuous, that it's a
behavior pattern that can be unlearned. The clinical literature on NPD
is highly theoretical, abstract, and general, with sparse case
material, suggesting that clinical writers have little experience with
narcissism in the flesh. There are several reasons for this to be so:
-- The incidence of NPD is estimated at 1% in the general population,
though I haven't been able to discover the basis of this estimate.
-- Narcissists rarely enter treatment and, once in treatment, progress
very slowly. We're talking about two or more years of frequent sessions
before the narcissist can acknowledge even that the therapist is
sometimes helpful. It's difficult to keep narcissists in treatment long
enough for improvement to be made -- and few people, narcissists or
not, have the motivation or the money to pursue treatment that produces
so little so late.
-- Because of the influence of third-party payers (insurance
companies), there has been a strong trend towards short-term therapy
that concentrates on ameliorating acute troubles, such as depression,
rather than delving into underlying chronic problems. Narcissists are
very reluctant to open up and trust, so it's possible that their NPD is
not even recognized by therapists in short-term treatment. Purely
anecdotal evidence from correspondents and from observations of people
I know indicates that selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors, such as
Prozac, aggravate narcissists' grandiosity and lack of social
inhibition. It has also been suggested that self-help literature about
bolstering self-esteem and getting what you want out of life or that
encourages the feeling of victimization has aggravating effects on NPD
thinking and behavior.
-- Most clinical writers seem unaware that narcissists' self-reports
are unreliable. This is troubling, considering that lying is the most
common complaint about narcissists and that, in many instances, defects
of empathy lead narcissists to wildly inaccurate misinterpretations of
other people's speech and actions, so that they may believe that they
are liked and respected despite a history of callous and exploitative
personal interactions.
1. An exaggerated sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates
achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without
commensurate achievements)
Translation: Grandiosity is the hallmark of narcissism. So what is grandiose?
The simplest everyday way that narcissists show their exaggerated sense
of self-importance is by talking about family, work, life in general as if there is nobody else in the picture.
Whatever they may be doing, in their own view, they are the star, and
they give the impression that they are bearing heroic responsibility
for their family or department or company, that they have to take care
of everything because their spouses or co-workers are undependable,
uncooperative, or otherwise unfit. They ignore or denigrate the
abilities and contributions of others and complain that they receive no
help at all; they may inspire your sympathy or admiration for their
stoicism in the face of hardship or unstinting self-sacrifice for the
good of (undeserving) others. But this everyday grandiosity is an
aspect of narcissism that you may never catch on to unless you visit
the narcissist's home or workplace and see for yourself that others are
involved and are pulling their share of the load and, more often than
not, are also pulling the narcissist's share as well. An example is the
older woman who told me with a sigh that she knew she hadn't been a
perfect mother but she just never had any help at all -- and she said
this despite knowing that I knew that she had worn out and discarded
two devoted husbands and had lived in her parents' pocket (and
pocketbook) as long as they lived, quickly blowing her substantial
inheritance on flaky business schemes. Another example is claiming
unusual benefits or spectacular results from ordinary effort and
investment, giving the impression that somehow the narcissist's time
and money are worth more than other people's. [Here is an article about
recognizing and coping with narcissism in the workplace; it is rather
heavy on management jargon and psychobabble, but worth reading. "The Impact of Narcissism on Leadership and Sustainability"
by Bruce Gregory, Ph.D. "When the narcissistic defense is operating in
an interpersonal or group setting, the grandiose part does not show its
face in public. In public it presents a front of patience,
congeniality, and confident reasonableness."]
In popular usage, the terms narcissism, narcissist, and narcissistic
denote absurd vanity and are applied to people whose ambitions and
aspirations are much grander than their evident talents. Sometimes
these terms are applied to people who are simply full of themselves --
even when their real achievements are spectacular. Outstanding
performers are not always modest, but they aren't grandiose if their
self-assessments are realistic; e.g., Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay,
was notorious for boasting "I am the greatest!" and also pointing out
that he was the prettiest, but he was the greatest and the prettiest
for a number of years, so his self-assessments weren't grandiose. Some
narcissists are flamboyantly boastful and self-aggrandizing, but many
are inconspicuous in public, saving their conceit and autocratic
opinions for their nearest and dearest. Common conspicuous grandiose
behaviors include expecting special treatment or admiration on the
basis of claiming (a) to know important, powerful or famous people or
(b) to be extraordinarily intelligent or talented. As a real-life
example, I used to have a neighbor who told his wife that he was the
youngest person since Sir Isaac Newton to take a doctorate at Oxford.
The neighbor gave no evidence of a world-class education, so I looked
up Newton
and found out that Newton had completed his baccalaureate at the age of
twenty-two (like most people) and spent his entire academic career at
Cambridge. The grandiose claims of narcissists are superficially
plausible fabrications, readily punctured by a little critical
consideration. The test is performance: do they deliver the goods?
(There's also the special situation of a genius who's also strongly
narcissistic, as perhaps Frank Lloyd Wright. Just remind yourself that
the odds are that you'll meet at least 1000 narcissists for every genius you come across.) [More on grandiosity.]
2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
Translation: Narcissists cultivate solipsistic or "autistic"
fantasies, which is to say that they live in their own little worlds
(and react with affront when reality dares to intrude).
3. Believes he is "special" and can only be understood by, or should
associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
Translation: Narcissists think that everyone who is not special
and superior is worthless. By definition, normal, ordinary, and average
aren't special and superior, and so, to narcissists, they are
worthless.
4. Requires excessive admiration
Translation: Excessive in two ways: they want praise,
compliments, deference, and expressions of envy all the time, and they
want to be told that everything they do is better than what others can
do. Sincerity is not an issue here; all that matter are frequency and
volume.
5. Has a sense of entitlement
Translation: They expect automatic compliance with their wishes
or especially favorable treatment, such as thinking that they should
always be able to go first and that other people should stop whatever
they're doing to do what the narcissists want, and may react with hurt
or rage when these expectations are frustrated.
6. Selfishly takes advantage of others to achieve his own ends
Translation: Narcissists use other people to get what they want without caring about the cost to the other people.
7. Lacks empathy
Translation: They are unwilling to recognize or sympathize with
other people's feelings and needs. They "tune out" when other people
want to talk about their own problems.
In clinical terms, empathy
is the ability to recognize and interpret other people's emotions. Lack
of empathy may take two different directions: (a) accurate
interpretation of others' emotions with no concern for others'
distress, which is characteristic of psychopaths; and (b) the inability
to recognize and accurately interpret other people's emotions, which is
the NPD style. This second form of defective empathy may (rarely) go so
far as alexithymia, or no words for emotions, and is found with
psychosomatic illnesses, i.e., medical conditions in which emotion is
experienced somatically rather than psychically. People with
personality disorders don't have the normal body-ego identification and
regard their bodies only instrumentally, i.e., as tools to use to get
what they want, or, in bad states, as torture chambers that inflict on
them meaningless suffering. Self-described narcissists who've written
to me say that they are aware that their feelings are different from
other people's, mostly that they feel less, both in strength and
variety (and which the narcissists interpret as evidence of their own
superiority); some narcissists report "numbness" and the inability to
perceive meaning in other people's emotions.
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him
Translation: No translation needed.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty, patronizing, or contemptuous behaviors or attitudes
Translation: They treat other people like dirt.
For more information Please read:
http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/dsm-iv.html
http://www.ptypes.com/narcissisticpd.html