Narcissistic Personality Disorders

Narcissism, named after the Greek myth of Narcissus, the striking Greek who was condemned to fall in love with his reflection for refusing the nymph, Echo. Unable to achieve his love, he stayed by the water's edge and turned into a flower. A person with narcissistic personality disorder is a person infatuated with themselves who ignores others to reach their goals.

Symptoms

• Persons with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) must display certain multiple behaviors for diagnosis. They are self-important, believing they are better than others are, sometimes overexaggerating to achieve this. With NPD, the ideal goal is control through power, success or physical prowess and the belief that only important people like themselves can understand. The Narcissistic person needs and feels entitled to attention and admiration or yearns to be infamous. Constantly arrogant and envious at the same time, they use others to complete their will, lacking empathy for anyone along the way.

Causes

• The causes of narcissistic personality disorder are unclear. It affects mainly men, and research shows it is most likely a mixture of genetics and upbringing. Some childhood causes may be either an extremely abusive and neglectful upbringing that teaches the child scheming behaviors. On the opposite end, however, extreme overindulgence, praise and approval could promote the disorder in these usually oversensitive children. The ones closest to the child their peers, caregivers and authority figures are usually the distributors of this behavior.

Types

• There are different types of Narcissistic Personality Disorders that control the pursuits of the individual. Cerebral individuals are ones that thrive on intellectual pursuits, usually believing that they are highly intelligent, whereas somatic individuals claim their superiority because of their physical beauty and conquests. In addition, there are the classic individuals that display multiple symptoms of a narcissistic disorder but also there are compensatory individuals that allow their personality and actions to compensate for the internal low self-confidence and inadequacy.

Treatment

• There are no available medicinal treatments for narcissistic personality disorder, but through psychotherapy, many live a normal life. Through long-term therapy sessions, patients address their issues that have developed with the disorder. People diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder usually have a personality shaped around most of the egotistical symptoms so a complete recovery is not the solution. Reshaping the personality to put things in a better perspective rather than changing the patient completely is the long-term goal.

Considerations

• Many times, people with a narcissistic personality disorder develop other non-related problems. It is common for narcissistic patients to develop depression, anxiety, drug or alcohol abuse, mental health disorders or reckless behavior. Because of the already severe delusions coupled with other disorders, it is important to seek medical help as soon as possible to prevent any suicidal or malicious acts and to prevent any further conditions developing.