Feelings of Superiority and Vulnerability
By:
THEODORE MILLON and
Seth Grossman
Carrie Millon
Sarah Meagher
Rowena Ramnath
Imagine that
you and your family lived in a small village downriver from a large dam. Now
imagine that the dam broke; half the village survived and the others drowned or
were crushed by the debris of collapsing structures. Imagine that you watched
your mother swept away by the current. If you survived, you would have
experienced a traumatic event far outside the range of normal human experience.
Memories of lost loved ones would intrude into your daily thoughts, turn your
dreams into nightmares, and set your heart racing. You would re-experience the
event again and again and be helpless to stop it.
Veterans of
war, victims of rape, and even individuals who observe someone else suffer
serious threat of physical harm are often diagnosed with posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). Nevertheless, of those who experience the same traumatic
event, only some develop PTSD. Whatever the event, clinicians now know that its
effects must be interpreted within the context of the total personality.
Among the
characteristics that increase vulnerability to PTSD is a narcissistic style (B.
Johnson, 1995). But why would narcissists be vulnerable? Recall that
narcissists use grandiosity and omnipotence as a defense against a fragile
self-concept, an empty sense of self-worth. Moreover, their superiority makes
them believe that they could not possibly suffer the bad luck of others or be
caught up with inferiors in some swirl of uncontrollable events.
Traumatic
events shatter these assumptions. Among outpatient veterans who develop PTSD,
for example, narcissistic traits are some of the most common (Crosby &
Hall, 1992). Far from being invulnerable and immortal, the individual is
instead just like everybody else, a speck in a vast cosmos, with random potential
for disaster and death.
No one is
excepted, solid proof that narcissists are not the special persons they
believed themselves to be. Among military veterans, Karen (1994) suggests that
those with PTSD have fallen far short of the warrior ideal they sought to
become. Because narcissists are notorious for idealizing themselves as
unusually bright, successful, and admired, we might suppose that traumatic
events generally puncture the bubble of these narcissistic fantasies. The
individual is brought down to earth in a way that is particularly crushing
given the needs of this personality.
The persistent
question many victims ask, “Why me?” can precipitate feelings of anger and rage
in those with a narcissistic style, who feel entitled to better treatment from
the universe.
References
Personality Disorders in Modern Life, second edition , 2000, 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
HIV and Personality DisordersRead Also
Narcissistic Personality
No comments:
Post a Comment