4 Paths of Trauma Release and Reactance (International Summit on Depression, Anxiety and Stress Management)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the connection between trauma, including external shocks such as the pandemic, and reactants, or disproportional reactions to daily triggers. He reconceives personality disorders as post-traumatic conditions, with all personality disorders in cluster B starting as trauma and abuse in early childhood. Trauma imprinting is the core of post-traumatic stress disorder and complex trauma, and triggers are places, people, smells, sounds, circumstances, dates, and objects that are reminiscent of the same classes of stressors involved in the original trauma. The pandemic has touched upon every dimension of existence, making it difficult to recover from, and there is a risk of a secondary pandemic of mental health, with millions of people developing personality disorders.
Narcissist: Don’t Touch My Narcissism
Narcissism is a choice that can be influenced by genetics and environmental factors, such as childhood trauma. It serves as a role play and narrative that helps individuals make sense of their lives and the world around them. In modern society, narcissism is often rewarded, making it difficult for individuals to give up their narcissistic behaviors. As a result, narcissism has become a pervasive aspect of society, functioning as an organizing principle and explanation for various aspects of human behavior.
If You Love a Narcissist, This is For You
The text describes a relationship with a person who is emotionally unavailable and causes pain and rejection. The person craves love and intimacy but pushes the other person away and hurts them first. The relationship is described as a form of self-harm, but the other person cannot let go. The relationship is a mix of good times and bad times, and the person is described as fleeting and penumbral.
Your Empathy as Narcissistic Injury: Narcissist Never Learns, No Insight
Narcissists reject empathy and intimacy because it challenges their grandiosity, and they become paranoid and aggressive when someone tries to be intimate with them. Narcissists lack empathy and access to positive emotions, leading to a truncated version of empathy called “cold empathy.” Narcissists are self-aware but lack the incentive to get rid of their narcissism, and therapy is more focused on accommodating the needs of the narcissist’s nearest and dearest. Cold Therapy is experimental and limited, as it removes the false self but does not develop empathy or improve the narcissist’s interpersonal relationships.
Your Role in Narcissist’s Shared Fantasy is Why He Hates You (hint: you make him feel himself – and human)
In summary, the narcissist’s intimate partner plays a crucial role in the shared fantasy by fulfilling the roles of admirer, playmate, and mother. This allows the narcissist to experience maximal grandiosity and feel safe enough to separate and individuate. However, the intimate partner’s presence also leads to the narcissist’s self-hatred and inability to maintain meaningful communication with both the outside world and himself. The intimate partner ultimately becomes a threat to the narcissist, as they make the narcissist feel human, which is something the narcissist does not want to be.
How Trauma Breaks You Apart (Structural Dissociation in Cold Therapy)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the opening of a new YouTube channel and responds to a comment about a theory in psychology. He delves into the theory of structural dissociation and its application to trauma and personality disorders. He also discusses the interaction between the apparently normal part and the emotional part in the context of trauma and dissociation. He suggests that all personality disorders should be reconceived as post-traumatic conditions.
How To Recognize Collapsed/Covert Personality Disorders
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the concept of Occam’s Razor in science and proposes that all personality disorders are a single clinical entity. He delves into the covert states of various personality disorders, such as covert narcissism, covert histrionic, and covert borderline, and their characteristics and behaviors. He also touches on the collapsed states and the transition between different states in each overlay. Additionally, he mentions the collapsed histrionic and the covert antisocial personality disorder.
Collapsed Covert Narcissist: Dissonances, Indifference, No Boundaries
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses his upcoming controversial claim that all narcissists oscillate between being overt and covert in reaction to changing life circumstances and extreme narcissistic injury. He also delves into the behaviors of covert narcissists and the collapsed state of narcissism. Vaknin emphasizes the importance of recognizing the signs of a collapsed narcissist and the rationality of walking away from relationships with narcissists. He also discusses the concept of “no contact” as a strategy for dealing with narcissistic abuse.
Magical Thinking in Personality Disorders and Conspiracy Theorists
Today’s topic is malignant magical thinking. Magical thinking is a healthy stage of development in early childhood, but in adulthood, it can indicate underlying pathology. It involves the belief that thoughts can affect reality, and can lead to delusional disorder. Magical thinking is common in mental health disorders and is exploited by scammers. It is associated with narcissism, borderline personality disorder, psychopathy, and conspiracy theories. It is also linked to ignorance and conspiracism. This refusal to grow up and embrace reality can have destructive consequences for society and the individual.
Borderline Mislabels Her Emotions (as do Narcissist, Psychopath)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the emotional and cognitive deficits in individuals with Cluster B personality disorders, such as narcissists, borderlines, psychopaths, histrionics, and codependents. These individuals have deformed, mutated forms of empathy, and their emotional regulation is not healthy. They do not have the basic tools to understand and label emotions in themselves and others, and instead, they use cognitive emotion, analyzing their emotions rather than experiencing them wholeheartedly. Coping strategies in all these personality disorders involve self-soothing, which is dysfunctional. Many of them switch from self-soothing to repetition compulsions.