Compensatory Narcissistic Personality Disorder

The Disease Perspective

PTypes personality types proposes Compensatory Narcissistic Personality Disorder as a pervasive pattern of unstable, "overtly narcissistic behaviors [that] derive from an underlying sense of insecurity and weakness rather than from genuine feelings of self-confidence and high self-esteem" (Millon), beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by ten (or more) of the following:

·         X  seeks to create an illusion of superiority and to build up an image of high self-worth (Millon);

·         _  has disturbances in the capacity for empathy (Forman);

·         _  strives for recognition and prestige to compensate for the lack of a feeling of self-worth;

·         X  may acquire a deprecatory attitude in which the achievements of others are ridiculed and degraded (Millon);

·         X  has persistent aspirations for glory and status (Millon);

·         X  has a tendency to exaggerate and boast (Millon);

·         X  is sensitive to how others react to him or her, watches and listens carefully for critical judgment, and feels slighted by disapproval (Millon);

·         X  is prone to feel shamed and humiliated and especially hyper-anxious and vulnerable to the judgments of others (Millon);

·         X  covers up a sense of inadequacy and deficiency with pseudo-arrogance and pseudo-grandiosity (Millon);

·         _  has a tendency to periodic hypochondria (Forman);

·         X  alternates between feelings of emptiness and deadness and states of excitement and excess energy (Forman);

·         X  entertains fantasies of greatness, constantly striving for perfection, genius, or stardom (Forman);

·         X  has a history of searching for an idealized partner and has an intense need for affirmation and confirmation in relationships (Forman);

·         X  frequently entertains a wishful, exaggerated, and unrealistic concept of himself or herself which he or she can't possibly measure up to (Reich);

·         _  produces (too quickly) work not up to the level of his or her abilities because of an overwhelmingly strong need for the immediate gratification of success (Reich);

·         X  is touchy, quick to take offense at the slightest provocation, continually anticipating attack and danger, reacting with anger and fantasies of revenge when he or she feels frustrated in his or her need for constant admiration (Reich);

·         X  is self-conscious, due to a dependence on approval from others (Reich);

·         X  suffers regularly from repetitive oscillations of self-esteem (Reich);

·         X  seeks to undo feelings of inadequacy by forcing everyone's attention and admiration upon himself or herself (Reich);

·         X  may react with self-contempt and depression to the lack of fulfillment of his or her grandiose expectations (Riso).

The Behavior Perspective

"Delophilia: ["exhibitionism"] can be defined as the desire to express oneself and to fascinate others by one's self-exposure, to show and to impress, to merge with the other through communication" (Wurmser, pg. 158). With the delophilic drive "the subject basically wants to overpower the object by the magic force of his expressions, of his looking, talking, and thinking; he wants to fascinate, charm, mesmerize, magnetize, subjugate the other and merge with him" (pg. 165).


"Theatophilia ["idealization"] can be defined as the desire to watch and observe, to admire and to be fascinated, to merge and master through attentive looking"...(pg. 158). With the theatophilic drive "the magical force of the object is incorporated, identified with, submitted to, and merged with, with the help of looking, hearing, and being touched; one is filled with, gripped by the power of the awe-inspiring object and becomes enthusiastically enriched" (pg. 165).

Thanks Mark. I have no idea what to do with this information.