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Leaders
Published in S. Alexander Haslam, Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Society, 2020
This is most likely to happen when a leader emerges whose own personality is dominated by a malignant narcissism, and who encourages large sections of the public into regressed states of mind in which the world is grossly simplified. The large group’s identity (typically that of a ‘nation’) is idealised, and the process of splitting, on which that idealisation depends, also produces demonised enemies, and a number of other adverse effects. A large group is vulnerable to this process, says Volkan, when it is unable to process and tolerate the level of anxiety to which its members are subject. In terms of the ideas which are outlined in this book, this would mean that an insufficient experience of safety and/or dignity has raised levels of anxiety to a point at which the group will seek a defensive response. This is offered by a leader who promises safety and dignity, linked in more toxic cases to an image of a purified national community, of which more below.
Deviant and sick medical staff
Published in John C. Gunn, Pamela J. Taylor, Forensic Psychiatry, 2014
John Gunn, Rob Hale, Tony Maden, Pamela J Taylor
The likeliest diagnosis was the generalization which psychiatrists fall back on all too frequently, ‘personality disorder’. If the term personality disorder is to be used then one useful adjective to apply to it would be the term used by Fromm (1973), ‘necropholous’, indicating an extreme variant of a narcissistic personality disorder in which the individual is fascinated by the process of dying and many of the trappings surrounding death. Some such people go on to obtain erotic satisfaction from corpses but there is no evidence at all that Shipman did this. Kernberg (1970, 1984) has a more appropriate label in this case ‘malignant narcissism’. He says there are five features which make up this syndrome, marked narcissistic traits, antisocial behaviour (not amounting to antisocial personality disorder), a paranoid orientation, a capacity for loyalty, and a concern for others. This almost exactly describes Shipman. It doesn’t explain however his ‘addiction to killing’ (he may well have fitted the criteria used by Gresswell and Hollin, 1997; chapter 9). Many commentators, including the journalist Carol Peters (2005), have commented on the awful experience he had as a teenager of watching his beloved mother die slowly from cancer, needing constant injections of morphine, and perhaps seeing her die on the end of a needle. Other journalists, Whittle and Richie (2000), took a series of expert opinions and concluded that the Shipman case is at odds with the usual run of serial killings, in that he was much older than the typical profile of serial killers and that superficially at least he managed to have a normal life with a wife and children as well as working with colleagues who while not liking him much did not find him alarming. They point out that his killings were not particularly violent and they were not random. They end up concluding as before that he suffered from a ‘personality disorder’, which Singleton et al. (1998a) tell us is suffered by 78% of the male prison population, not much value added there. Whittle and Richie (2000) quote Coid, a forensic psychiatrist, as concluding that:Shipman was driven by a compulsive urge to kill... it is likely that what killing did for Shipman was to provide him with an intense feeling of exhilaration, pleasurable excitement, probably with a profound sense of satisfaction and achievement.
A Scoring Procedure for Malignant Narcissism Based on Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Facets
Published in Journal of Personality Assessment, 2022
Jonathan Faucher, Claudia Savard, David D. Vachon, Maude Payant, Dominick Gamache
Malignant narcissism (MNARC) has received interest since its early clinical and theoretical descriptions (Kernberg, 1992; see Goldner-Vukov & Moore, 2010, for a review). It was mostly within Kernberg’s model of personality organization (see Caligor & Clarkin, 2010) that the notion of MNARC was developed, where it is described as a personality disorder (PD) that regroups five key elements: narcissism, antisociality/psychopathy, paranoia, sadism, and aggressiveness; the combination of these features results in a severe, potentially dangerous syndrome.1 MNARC is associated with a constellation of antagonistic dispositions, including a grandiose self-image, a strong need for admiration from others, a propensity for dishonesty and manipulation, a lack of empathy, relationships characterized by duplicity, manipulation and domination, and chronic feelings of mistrust. People with MNARC are described as impulsive, irritable, and sometimes violent, both toward themselves and others, while presenting with destructive and revengeful tendencies (e.g., Caligor & Clarkin, 2010; Goldner-Vukov & Moore, 2010; Kernberg, 1992). Unsurprisingly, this form of narcissism is associated with significant relational impairment, including inadequate and problematic parenting practices, conflicting and superficial romantic relationships, and tyrannical management styles in the workplace (Goldner-Vukov & Moore, 2010).
Narcissism and central serotonergic neurotransmission in depression
Published in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2023
Paraskevi Mavrogiorgou, Florian Seltsam, David Kiefner, Vera Flasbeck, Georg Juckel
Although at first, it seems to be absurd, there are also indications of a connection between narcissism and depression. In addition to grandiose-malignant narcissism with inflated self-esteem, there is also a second type, vulnerable-fragile narcissism with lowered self-esteem and which is much more common clinically (Lammers et al. 2013; Vater et al. 2013). This vulnerable-fragile narcissism is characterised by depressiveness, anxiety, shame, sensitivity to existing narcissistic fantasies and ideas, and fear of narcissistic offending (Pincus and Roche 2011). Furthermore, for Kernberg and Hartmann (1996), the essential characteristics of narcissism are not only a pronounced preoccupation with oneself but also a strong ambition and a constant need for recognition.
Recognising Narcissistic Abuse and the Implications for Mental Health Nursing Practice
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2019
Like other disorders, narcissism is identified as occurring on a spectrum and at the most severe end of the spectrum is malignant narcissism that can co-occur with anti-social behaviour and psychopathy (Hart & Hare, 1998; Kernberg, 1998; Ronningstam, 2009). This dangerous form of a narcissist has been described as using people to satisfy their own needs then casting them aside when they’re done (Malkin, 2015). It is a malignant narcissist’s behaviours which can often be identified in features of narcissistic abuse whereby a multitude of diversionary tactics can be used to distort the reality of victims and avoid any accountability (Arabi, 2017).