Narcissistic Personality Symptoms

Narcissistic personality disorder is one of many mental disorders, according to the Mayo Clinic. It can cause a person to be limited when functioning socially and to have difficulty building strong personal relationships.

Features

• The person with narcissistic personality disorder in general believes himself to be better than others, according to the Mayo Clinic. The individual can be perceived as thinking that he is more important than others, more attractive than others or has a greater level of intelligence than others. The narcissistic personality, however, also comes with a very delicate ego that can be easily hurt by the comments of others.

Identification

• Those with narcissistic personality disorder are not only consumed with feelings of their own self-worth abundantly, they can become enraged by others who challenge this perception. Additionally, they believe that they are entitled to the best of what life has to offer and will work diligently to ensure that they have those things in their existence.

  The Mayo Clinic reports that the narcissistic personality sufferer may demonstrate symptoms that include: an exaggeration of accomplishments, a grandiose sense of self, demands for praise, a lack of sympathy or empathy for others, manipulation of others, extensive jealousy, a fragile self-esteem, inability to maintain relationships, inability to accept those believed to be inferior and setting goals that cannot be achieved realistically.

Expert Insight

• There is no definite known cause of narcissistic personality disorder. Some psychologists and psychiatrists think the disorder may be the result of too much pampering in childhood, or of childhood abuse, the Mayo Clinic reports. Nonetheless, narcissistic personality disorder does not usually present itself until the individual has become a young adult, although cases have been recorded with a diagnosis in the teen years.

Misconceptions

• The Mayo Clinic states that those who have a normal, healthy sense of self-esteem are often believed to possess narcissistic personality disorder. It is for this reason that the evaluation of an individual with this disorder be done by a professional in psychology or psychiatry who has an ample understanding of the person's mental health history supporting the diagnosis.

Considerations

• Psychologists think there are certain risk factors that may contribute to the development of narcissistic personality disorder over time, according to the Mayo Clinic. These risk factors may include a child demonstrating that he or she is oversensitive to others, parents who overindulge the child or provide consistent evaluation of the child, the child being told that she is admired without any specific foundation for the admiration, inconsistent care from parents, emotional abuse in childhood, a child who learns to manipulate others at an early age and a child who is consistently praised for being talented or good looking in childhood.