Sima Saleem
Personality disorders are one of the most common in societies and because of their importance, which can cause profound problems in communities, especially in health.
Gender and personality disorder
In the topic of personality disorders are different in both genders for example, the likelihood that women are borderline, dramatic or dependent disorders are more visible and in the other side men are anti-social, the narcissistic and obsessive.
One of these disorders is narcissistic personality disorder.
A famous speech is ,
I am afraid of the day you look in your mirror
Fall in love with yourself and can’t see me
Somehow this speech directly related to the narcissistic personality disorder
What is narcissistic?
The word narcissism goes back to the Greek myth of narcissus. Narcissus was a handsome young man who was so fascinated by himself that he sat by the water and had no contact with anyone. Eventually he fell in love with the photo in the water. So he tried to catch him, but when he did not succeed, he was disappointed and in the end he died of this grief! This is actually the definition of a narcissist. A person who thinks only of himself and, according to one of the famous psychologists” all his mental strength is focused on himself “.
Loving oneself and respecting oneself is a good and necessary command for every person, but when this loving and praising oneself takes one away from one’s own realities and problems, then itself becomes a problematic and harmful disorder.
Narcissistic personality disorder
It is a personality disorder in which a person considers himself great and important and feels capable and worthy. A sense of selfishness and worthiness removes any worries about the needs, problems and feeling of others. They are arrogant and assertive, consider themselves superior to others and expect respect and admiration from others. When they and the world around them fail to achieve their unrealistic and impossible expectation, they often become frustrated.
Statistics of this disorder
The approximate prevalence of narcissistic personality disorder two to sixteen percent of the clinical population and less than one percent of the general population. The risk of the developing this disorder in the children of affected people may be higher than others, because they also instill in their children an unrealistic feeling of impotence, self-magnification, beauty and intelligence. The number of people with the disorder is being reported more and more every day.
Symptoms and diagnostic feature
Self-aggrandizement (in imagination or behavior), the need for acceptance and lack of empathy. This disorder usually marked by the presence of at least five of the following:
•Have a sense of self-importance (for example, exaggerating his successes and talents, or expecting him to be considered a great and impotent person without achieving worthy success).
•His mind is occupied with fantasies such as success, power, mastery and intelligence, beauty or being loved and loved indefinitely.
•Believes that he is exceptional and that only high ranking individuals or institutions can understand him, that he or she should relate only to these individuals.
•Needs to be highly praised.
•Expect that people will voluntarily submit to his or her demands.
•Be exploitative in interpersonal relationships, they try to use others success to achieve own goals.
•Lack of empathy, they don’t want to understand or recognize the feelings and of others.
•They are often jealous of others or believes that others are jealous of him.
•Their behavior and attitudes should be pragmatic and arrogant.
Common causes for narcissistic personality disorder
Accordingly, the narcissistic personality disorder develop in the children of cold and callous parents, who rarely praise the child s achievements. Such parent often deem their children’s successes. As a result of these experiences, children try to find ways to deal with feelings of worthlessness, dissatisfaction, and rejection. One way for them is to comfort yourself and convince their self that you are a valuable and talented person.
What confirms this view is the past of people with narcissistic personality disorder, as most of them have been victims of abuse. But childhood abuse and neglect are not a sufficient condition for narcissistic personality disorder, and some clinical psychologists believe that excessive parental love and over positive behavior cause children to become overconfident and have unreasonable beliefs.
Interestingly, random evidence also confirms that most people with narcissism are the first or only children of the family, because in this case parents spend a lot of time and attention caring for their children.
Treatment
There are usually two treatments for narcissistic personality disorder; psychotherapy and medication.
It is difficult to treat narcissistic personality disorder, because if there is to be progress in the work, the patient must give up his narcissism. Some psychologists recommend group therapy for their patients so that the can learn how to engage with others and respond empathetically to others. Cognitive therapy tries to replace the misconceptions or fantasies of these people by focusing on enjoyable everyday experiences that are truly achievable.
Coping strategies, such as relaxation, are used to help these people cope with and accept criticism from others. Another one is to help these people focus on the feelings of others. Because these people are very vulnerable to period of severe depression, especially in middle age, their depression is also treated with psychotherapy.
However, any conclusions about the effect of such psychotherapy on narcissistic personality disorder are impossible. And also depending on the patient s condition, medication is also given to them.
Dealing with narcissists
Dealing with narcissists is not easy. Their minds are so limited that they hardly notice a world beyond their own. Their inner world is a small world that has nothing to do with the outside world. So try to deal with them with patient and effort.
References
– Frances, Allen (2013). Fundamentals of psychiatric diagnosis based on DSM-5.
– Kringos, NM(2009). Psychopathology.
– Harold Kaplan and Benjamin saddock, abstract of clinical psychiatry.
– Ganji, Mahdi (2013). Personality disorders based on DSM-5.
