Imagine a world in which you are the main character. Now imagine a desire of others being responsible for fulfilling your wishes. You understand that you have to work towards them. However, your desire to be ‘great’ is as pervasive as your desire to be told that you are great.

Narcissism is a controversial personality construct which has received much scientific and popular attention. You could look at Patrick Bateman (from the 2000 movie American Psycho) as having significant narcissistic features. Narcissism is also a part of the Dark Tetrad of Personality, which feature other dark traits of psychopathy, Machiavellianism and sadism.

In this article, I will provide a brief introduction to narcissism. I will define it, detail its types and how it may develop.

So, let’s begin!

Defining Narcissism

Various classical theorists have attempted the conceptualization of narcissism.

Narcissus syndrome is characterized by people who are very cocky, controlling, hostile, and uncaring toward others. People who are narcissistic want recognition and respect from others but don’t give it to others. They also think that there is only one winner in relationships, so they treat everyone equally.

Group ego is another thing that can happen. The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, which Erich Fromm wrote in 1973, mentioned that group narcissism is a level higher than individual narcissism. The person’s selfish needs are met by associating with and relating to a group, like a political or religious one. This need for associating with people of ‘higher means’ is also one of the major features of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

Types of Narcissism

Narcissism is thought to have different levels or types, which can be generally put into two groups: narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic fragility. Paul Wink did a study in which he used the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to get six narcissism scores. He then used a principal components analysis to find two independent components, which he named vulnerability-sensitivity and grandiosity-exhibitionism.

I further explain these types in the following subsections.

Grandiose Narcissism

People who show signs of grandiosity are sometimes called malicious, overt, ignorant, thick-skinned, special child, cunning, arrogant, and psychopathic. People who were high on grandiosity-exhibitionism were the only ones in Wink’s study who were seen as bold, talkative, confident, and showy.

In a study, it was observed that there was a positive relationship between grandiose narcissism and assertiveness (from extraversion) and intellect (openness/intelligence). On the other hand, there was a negative relationship between grandiose narcissism and agreeableness, conscientiousness, and withdrawal (from neuroticism).

This indicates that grandiose narcissists are more socially outgoing, perceive themselves as high in intellect but are argumentative and less likely to follow a set routine or actually strive for getting success.

Vulnerable Narcissism

Some words that have been used to describe people who show signs of fragility are wanting, hidden, hypervigilant, thin skinned, shamed child, compensatory, and shy. Only people who scored high on vulnerability-sensitivity were described as worried, emotional, defensive, and nervous by their wives in Wink’s study.

Surprisingly, people who were vulnerable narcissists also had higher levels of openness, much like the grandiose narcissists.

Hence, this indicates that vulnerable narcissists are more sensitive to criticism but they also could possess higher levels of fantasy and/or intellect and a desire for novel experience.

Having understood the sub-types of narcissism, I will now explain the 3 factors of narcissism and how they relate.

The 3-Factor Model of Narcissism

The first factor is present in both grandiose and sensitive narcissism. It has been called competition, hostility, or entitlement. When someone is high in hostility, they are likely to be cocky, cruel, dishonest, spoiled, sarcastic, and ungrateful, even if they seem more grand or sensitive in public.

The second factor, which has been called agentic extraversion, admiration, or grandiosity, is more adaptive (meaning it causes the narcissistic person fewer interpersonal problems). It is linked to assertiveness, leadership, high self-esteem, behavioral activation/approach orientation (like wanting to be proactive instead of reactive and being motivated by reward more than punishment), and it is unique to grandiose narcissism.

The third factor, which is called narcissistic neuroticism or fragility, is at the heart of sensitive narcissism. It is linked to unstable and unstable self-esteem, negative emotions, and feelings of shame and other self-conscious emotions. This factor is mostly the same as psychological discomfort, but it’s also linked to interpersonal damage, like having trouble getting along with other people.

Development of Narcissism

There are two major psychological theories which explain how narcissism develops in a person:

• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Social Learning Theory

I will attempt to explain both perspectives.

Psychoanalytic Theory

I will explain the psychoanalytic perspective through two authors: Kernberg and Kohut.

Kernberg says that narcissism happens when parents reject or leave their children. Parents who don’t love and accept their children may cause the child to become protective and think that only they can be trusted and loved. This is called the parental-devaluation hypothesis. In some ways one could understand this as reaction formation.

Kernberg believes in a stage model of libidinal development. Problems happen when there is decline in the developmental process of undifferentiated libido, autoeroticism, narcissism, and then object love, with selfish people not making it to the last stage.

Kohut, on the other hand, doesn’t think that selfish desire changes into object love. Instead, he thinks that it grows into adulthood on its own. Kohut’s theory is really a theory of how the self develops. It says that abnormal narcissism can happen when a child fails to idealize their parents because they were rejected or didn’t care about them.

To summarize the psychoanalytic perspective, it argues that critical and unloving parents sow the seeds of narcissism in an individual.

Social Learning Theory

When parents think they are better than other kids and deserve more, social learning theory says that the child is more likely to become selfish as an adult. Sometimes, kids might start to think that they are unique and deserve special treatment.

Cross-sectional study, on the other hand, shows that adult narcissists are more likely than nonnarcissists to remember their parents as cold and overly valued them as kids.

Still, a more thorough study would put more light on the subject.

In the study, 565 kids and their parents talked about child vanity, child self-esteem, maternal overvaluation, and parental love over the course of four 6-month waves.

The results go against Freudian theory and back the idea of social learning: Instead of a lack of kindness, maternal overvaluation was linked to narcissism.

So, kids may pick up narcissism by taking on board their parents’ inflated views of them. As proof of how specific this result is, parental love, not parental overvaluation, was found to predict self-esteem.

Conclusion

Narcissism has been the object of fascination for a long time. At times, ironically, the narcissistic individuals are idealized by many individuals. Part of the reason why we are fascinated by such characters or characterizations is that humans have a general inclination towards self-preservation. In fact, at certain points standing up for oneself is actually a positive thing.

However, individuals high in narcissism often have dysfunctional lives because of their self-serving behaviors. While some might gain insight and actively try to mitigate this, others struggle in various functional areas of their lives. I have painted a picture in this snapshot story.

If you believe that you or someone you know might have high levels of narcissism and if you want to resolve it, please refer to a clinician.