Narcissistic Personality Disorder essays

Narcissistic Personality Disorder essays Few people associate narcissism with Narcissus, the mythical character in antiquity who drowned because he was so fond of looking at his image reflected in the water of a pool, fell in and drowned. Fewer still might associate narcissism, which has become a popular term for anyone who is self-involved (the quintessential Valley Girl of a generation ago, and, arguably, Friends on TV of the current one) to an overwhelming extent. And still fewer might associate narcissism with heinous criminal acts. Yet, all of these associations are arguably true, particularly the last. Worse, still, it is resistant to treatment. "Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a common and often disabling syndrome. Although persons with narcissistic personality disorder are often difficult to treat, certain psycho therapeutic strategies have been identified which can lead to effective interventions with these clients," according to Schwartz and Farrell and Edson, on the other hand, seem to believe narcissism is a psychopathology that is genetic, and, as such, is not much likely to be affected by any treatments currently available. Farrell and Edson (2003) note that "Hare (1993) suggests that psychopathy emerges from a complex and poorly understood interplay of biological and social factors. Additional studies support and extend this research, indicating that psychopaths' brains are different from those of normal people (Patrick, 1994 and Doren, 1987)." Stawar (1997) wondered, "Do some individuals have the ability to manipulate certain others into committing horrendous acts of violence and mayhem' What parameters might define such an antisocial personality disorder by proxy, and what are the underlying dimensions and dynamics'" This possibility will be further examined later in this paper. However, few would argue that "Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is essentially characteri...