Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality [Hardcover]

I wanted to know more information on this disorder. Having been exposed to many people exhibiting this particular problem I thought it would do me good to understand why they think as they do and how to interact with them more effectively. I have come to realize that you cannot help them but you can understand their disorder by having this information at your disposal.

I am sharing parts of the book so you will see exactly how it is written and so helpful to those of us dealing with these types of personalities and their associated disorders.

Borderline-narcissistic and narcissistic-borderline disorders affect moods, a sense of inapporopriateness, depersonalization, anger, feelings of emptiness and bordeom and a sense of injustice and alienation are noted.

The Phallic narcissistic character as described in the book being self-confident, arogant, vigorousm and impressive individual an athletic type-with hard and sharp features. These individuals are haughty, cold, reserved or aggressive with disguised sadistic traits in relation to others. When hurt, they react with cold reserve, deep depression, or intense aggression. Their narcissism is expressed in an exaggerated display of self-confidence, dignity, and superiority.

They often choose relationships and social context that support and enhance themselves but also intentionally influence the interpersonal or social situation in the service of self-promotion or enhancement of self-esteem. Soliciting admiration and constraining or manipulation others' views to obtain a desired self-image are examples of such strategies. In other words, people with high narcissism are strongly motivated to make positive self-distortions and exaggerate self-attributes in relationships with others.

In addition, narcissistic individuals use various strategies to protect theirselves at expense of others. they tend to devalue, derogate, or blame others, and then respond to threatening feedback with anger and hostility. Other examples of interactive strategies are biased interpretations of feedback, selective attention, and selective or distorted recall of past events. A specific strategy, self-handicapping behavior, serves to protect public image as the individual identifies impediments to performance, which are used either to discount subsequent failure or to reinforce success.

The dynamics of these self-regulatory processes have been related to clinical diagnostic traits for narcissism such as self-exaggeration, arrogant behavior, hostility, entitlement, and lack of empathy.

Description of the narcissistic personality and people driven by it has been clearly defined on this book. It has given me much insight into the minds of those I have been exposed to and had to deal with over the past nine years. I was missing the whole point of why they feel such a need for self-promotion and self-interest to the extremes of coercing those around them to join in to be a part of their distorted and dishonest plots of exploitations.

This book is worth more than its purchase price and more. It gives you a fresh outlook and complete understanding into many issues narcissistics have including the suicidal tendencies and attempts many of them exhibit. It has given me a greater understanding and compassion for a dear man I know well who has had many of these narcissistic influences to cope during his own upbringing and even in recent years, the negativity that surrounds many he once knew.

If you want to be enlightened, buy this book and read it. I highly recommend it.

I was not dissapointed with this book.But anyone considering purchasing it should be aware that it has been largely written for clinicians. Becuase of this, the topic is not written about in a chatty easily understtod form as so many books and articles on narcissism are. Helpful summaries exist at the end of each chapter, nevertheless, the average lay reader may find themselves going over recently read sections several times before they fully grasp what is being said. It is a balanced insightful up to date and highly informative book and anyone who is seriously interested in coming to grips with this oftentimes crippling condition should consider reading it.

Having only an amateur interest in personality and personality disorders, I found this to be an excellent resource. It explains what narcissism is, it's relation to self-esteem regulation, how it interacts with other personality disorders, and discusses suicide motivation and ideation in narcissistic individuals.

It presents a modern and balanced view of NPD, taking careful note of the differences between hyper-vigilant and arrogant types of narcissism, explaining how they can be expressed under a wide range of circumstances, and cognizant of both narcissism's benefits and detriments, particularly among leadership and in the workplace.

Thanks to the author for a very helpful book!