Narcissism

Introduction

The term Narcissism hold myriad of meanings depending on the situation in which it is used. It may be used to describe a mental illness, psychoanalytic theory's central idea, a personality trait or a cultural or social problem. Keeping aside the common narcissism, i.e. healthy or positive self-love, this term is more often used to describe an issue in a group's or a person's relationships with self or other people (Moore, pp. 65-70).

Narcissist Personality Disorder

The character disorders described in psychology relates to the one-to-one traits which study maladaptive patterns of behavior. These patterns of behavior are believed to weaken a person's ability to function and create discomfort within. A minimum of 10 personality disorders, believed to affect the personality in the above mentioned manner have been recognized. Amongst these, one is the narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) that the American Psychological Association (APA) classifies as a "cluster B" disorder.

NPD is a highly complicated psychological-behavioral syndrome that stuns and baffles those who are close to the afflicted. Once appreciated, although, one accomplishes clarity of vision. Socio-biologists sustain that narcissism is natural for both persons and assemblies because self-love is an innate, natural-selection trait. That is why all young children are narcissists (Vronsky, pp. 77-81). When narcissism in mature individuals is unwarranted, psychologists address it to be a signal of immaturity or poorer, a pathology--that of narcissistic personality disorder.Discussion

According to The Diagnostic and Statistical of Mental Disorders fourth edition, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, a NPD could have the following traits: grandiose sense of self-importance, always dreaming about the unlimited success, talent, beauty or perfect love, thinking himself as special and could only be understood by special and high-status people, demanding excessive amount of praises, demanding favorable treat from others, exploitative toward others, lack of sympathy, frequently envious of others or believed to be the envy of people around, and frequently acting in a arrogant way. If you have five or more the above nine descriptions, then you may be a Narcissist.

The Narcissistic personality disorder is one of the top three most difficult personality disorders to treat, according to Dan William, a doctor in clinical psychology, for, the patients are always very defensive and believe that they are superior to their therapists, therefore, falling to stay in therapy (William, www.peaceandhealing.com) .According to The Diagnostic and Statistical of Mental Disorders, NPD is greatly associated with childhood experiences; therefore, since all of us may have a chance to become parents, it is important to know the causes of NPD, and thus we may not rear up our babies in a way that may lead them to have NPD when they grow up.

Though the exact cause of NPD is still unknown, presently two theories are used to explain the occurrence of NPD. One is explains NPD as an arrested psychological development, while believes NPD as the child's defense against psychological pain caused by parents or important caregivers. Basically, these two theories, raised respectively, by Heinz Kohut and Otto Friedmann Kernberg, both trace the roots ...