Kernberg Narcissism Essay

Narcissism personality disorder according to DSM-V is (and now also in Section II of DSM-5) describe “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy . . .,” indicated by five or more of the following: (a) a grandiose sense of self-importance; (b) preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love; (c) beliefs of being special and unique; (d) requirements of excessive admiration; (e) a sense of entitlement; (f) interpersonal exploitativeness; (g) lack of empathy; (h) envy of others; and (i) arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes. Narcissism has been around or studied for thirty years. Rosenfeld thought that that his client had invented an alter ego at first. In the article what part do narcissism play in the narcissistic disorder? It talk about narcissistic disorder arise when an ego-destructive super ego has arisen in the course of development. The article talks about that trauma as a child or infant may also play a big part of narcissism. A large part of narcissistic disorder comes from a wide range of symptoms like self-enhancing and self-serving incentives. (Elsa Ronningstam) described a 21 none year old client that she treated, his parents brought him in to see her and they described him as selfish, inconsiderate, demanding, and demeaning, with threatening and verbally aggressive behavior, and involved in poly substance abuse (pp 434-438). Bob his self-admitted that some

Freud developed the psychoanalytic theory of personality development, which argued that personality is formed through internal conflicts among three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated trends; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego (Wikipedia, 2017).

In his book “The Culture of Narcissism”, Lash (1980) demonstrates how the media intensify narcissistic dreams of fame and glory, how the “common man” is encouraged to identify himself with celebrities and make it more difficult for him to “accept the banality of everyday existence “(p.21). This observation indicates that recent culture is surviving in a way by these dreams and the attachment to celebrities functions as a lifeline. The emergence of worthless individuals during the 1980s and 1990s, whose achievements are questionable came instantly through entertainment and mainly advertising. This fact implies that people’s values and beliefs have completely transformed.

The unconscious mind houses the preconscious, a small section that houses material that is non-threatening, and easily brought to mind. But deeper in the unconscious mind are the instinctual drives, the wishes, desires, demands, and needs that are kept hidden from out conscious selves because of the conflicts and pain they would cause if they were brought to bear every day. Psychoanalytic personality theory tells us that the personality consists of three separate, but forever intermingling elements, id, ego, and superego. The id section of a personality is by far the largest, the only section that we are born with, and the section that contains the unconscious thoughts, it is raw, unorganized, and from the time of birth it tries to reduce tension caused by our primary drives. The ego, a section that develops soon after birth, balances the instinctual desires of the id and the realities of the outside world. Last of course is the superego, the final personality structure that is developed in childhood, and represent the rights and wrongs of society, contained within the superego is the conscience, the part of us that prevents us from behaving in a morally deplorable way and is responsible for guilt. Psychoanalytic personality theory is not without its virtues; Freud’s proposed five psychosexual stages – oral, anal, phallic-oedipal, latency and genital – are all supported in life.

Sigmund Freud was a well known psychologist whose theories have founded the understanding of the human psyche. Freud’s theory of personality is one of his most known theories. It details that there are three segments of consciousness. The id is desire, immorality and is what drives us to do wrong. The superego exists to counteract and overpower the id, as it is morality, commonly known as our conscious. The ego exists to balance out both extremes and devises a solution to sate each segment. Then there are the defense mechanisms, repression, denial, projection, displacement, regression and sublimation. These are employed by the ego to keep the balance between the id and the superego and to protect the psyche, especially in traumatic times. Last, the Oedipus complex which Freud believed, only exists in children from the ages of 3-5, when they become attracted to

Freud’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.

The construct of narcissism finds its origins in ancient Greece and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with the proud and vain figure of Narcissus, cursed by the goddess, Nemesis, to fall in love with his own reflection. However, conceptualizations of pathological narcissism did not became a part of psychological theory until the late nineteenth century with Freud’s eminent essay: On Narcissism (Ronningstam, 2005). As Freud theorized on narcissism and, ironically, experimented with cocaine, the formal diagnosis of addiction was precipitously incorporated into the medical literature in response to increasing uncontrolled narcotic use and growing public health concern (Markel, 2012). Perhaps predictably, theorizing on the possible association between narcissism and addiction, particularly in the psychoanalytic tradition, has been addressed by theorists since. The term narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) was first introduced by Heinz Kohut in 1968, and saw inclusion in formal diagnostic literature in 1980 as a part of the significant revisions to personality disorders in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; American Psychiatric Association, 1980).

Freud is the psychologist who is credited with the development of psychodynamic perspective. He thought your personality came from id, ego, and superego. Your id is your unconscious drives and where a person’s sexual energy comes from. Your ego is what deals with demands of reality, it tries still bring you pleasure, but under the norms of reality. Your super ego is the harsh internal judge of your behavior. Freud also believed in defense mechanisms, strategies for dealing with anxiety. Defense mechanisms distort reality and protect you from a stressful situation. Denial is a defense mechanism in which the ego refuses to acknowledge a situation. Displacement is directing unacceptable impulses at a less frightening target. Projection is the defense mechanism in which we see in others those impulses that we most fear about ourselves. Freud thought every behavior stemmed from your sexual drive. When you 're a baby it is your oral stage, the pleasure center is the mouth. When you are a toddler it is your anal stage. Children learn they control when they can go to the bathroom. When you are 3-6 it 's your phallic stage.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. (Mayo Clinic, 2014) Like other personality disorders, narcissists have traits that cause them to feel and behave in socially distressing ways, limiting their ability to function in important areas of life, such as school, work, and relationships. What may not be apparent to the outside eye is that there is a very fragile and friable self-esteem that is very thin-skinned. Those with this disorder think very highly of themselves and have a hard time seeing anyone else’s views, because they believe their way is the best way. They have self-centered fantasies that are high and wide of actual reality. Receiving criticism for them, even in the slightest, can be so detrimental. You may never see the extreme sensitivity to the criticism because it is often kept so quiet and hidden from others.

Part of Freud’s theory was that the Id, Ego and Super Ego were in constant conflict with each other. It involves the Id wanting immediate satisfaction and the super ego who wants the id/person to behave leaving the ego constantly trying to resolve the issue.

From a Freudian perspective human development is based on psychosexual theory. From a psychosexual perspective maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). Ultimately, Freud believed that sex was the most important instinct and any mental disturbance revolved around sexual conflicts that were suppressed from childhood. Furthermore, Freud believed that parents permitting too much or too little gratification of sexual needs led

Psychologist, psychoanalyst, doctor of medicine, and author, Sigmund Freud’s contributions to the world of science and psychology were far from limited. The self and widely regarded scientist was born in Friedberg in 1856 where he lived before moving to Vienna, Germany, where he would later produce founding revelations at the birth of psychology as a science. From his beginnings, Freud focused on psychopathology and the conscious mind (Jones, 1949). The renowned “Father of Psychoanalysis” created a pathway and a foundation for psychology, influencing the world of psychology from its birth to modern day practice. Freud’s delve into the unconscious, dreams, psychosexual development, and the id, ego, and super-ego, are just a limited number of his studies that greatly influenced numerous psychologists and theories of modern psychology. One of his earliest practices and most accredited work dealt with psychoanalysis specifically. Though this practice is seldom used in modern psychology in the treatment of psychological disorders, it assuredly carried great influence in the development of modern practices of psychological theories. Freud’s creation of psychoanalysis exceeded his professional career, influencing modern psychologists and theories, one specifically being ego psychology, that was founded in the mid 20th century of modern

Freud believed that narcissism, which he considered a normal and healthy part of human development, was formed in the stage known as the “original libidinal cathexis of the ego” (Freud, 1914). In this stage, Freud makes note of the fact that younger children sometimes have to refocus their libidinal drives because the child has a hard time differentiating between themselves and their mother (Freud, 1914). During this hard time that the child has, the energy and drives that are devoted to their care taker are known as libidinal drives and what is left in the child is seen as narcissistic, as those drives are consumed within its

It is a well-known fact that narcissists are great story tellers, and more often than not they are the center of their tale. According to Sigmund Freud, we are all born with a natural healthy form of narcissism, the notion of self-love and self-care, and a balance between them and the notion of object-love. However, when that balance is broken, it can greatly affect the individual and those around him. In

This research paper will compare and contrast two of the most influencial psychologists who helped shape the way we understand the development of the human mind; Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. The paper will focus on the similarities and differences between Freud’s Psycho-sexual theory, and Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Freud was one of the very first influencial psychologists who changed the way we study humans. Erikson recognized Freud’s contributions, and although he felt Freud misjudged some important dimensions of human development, he was still influenced by Freud, which caused some similarities in their theories.