Doubling and Role Reversal in Therapies
Psychodrama techniques, such as doubling, role playing, role reversal, soliloquy, and mirroring, are useful in cognitive behavior therapy and in treating cluster B personality disorders. Doubling involves the therapist emulating the client’s emotions, cognitions, and behaviors, while role playing involves the client assuming the role of a particular person in their life. Role reversal is similar to doubling, but the therapist and client switch roles. Soliloquy involves the client describing their inner thoughts and feelings to the therapist, while mirroring involves the client observing other people’s behaviors and emotions. These techniques are intended to penetrate the resistances and defenses of rigid personalities not open to change or intervention.
6 Cluster B Personality Disorders Misconceptions (Conference Presentation)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses six misconceptions about personality disorders in a YouTube video. He explains the differences between codependents and borderlines, the role of abuse in relationships, the distinction between mental illness and mental health, and the characteristics of approach avoidance repetition compulsion and intermittent reinforcement. Additionally, he delves into the emptiness at the core of borderline and narcissistic conditions and how it becomes a choice for individuals with these disorders.
Ironic Rebound in Narcissism, Borderline, Psychopathy
Ironic process theory, introduced by psychologist Daniel Wegner, suggests that the more we try to suppress certain thoughts, the more likely they are to surface. This theory is relevant to narcissism, borderline personality disorder, and psychopathy, as these individuals attempt to suppress thoughts that threaten their inner balance. In abusive relationships, the abuser and the victim both engage in ironic processes, amplifying and magnifying each other’s troubling thoughts. This cycle of abuse can lead to severe long-term mental damage.
Narcissist Pays Heavy Price For Betrayal Fantasy
The Narcissist Betrayal Fantasy is a strategy used by narcissists to get rid of their intimate partners by pushing them to cheat or betray them. This allows the narcissist to maintain the high moral ground and dissolve the shared fantasy, which is highly addictive and difficult to break. The narcissist experiences pain in the form of narcissistic injury or mortification due to the misinterpretation of their actions by others, but this short-term cost is outweighed by the long-term benefits of a victimhood narrative. This strategy is also applied in other relationships, such as friendships and work collaborations, by engineering situations that set people up for failure and then pointing to their misbehavior as justification for ending the relationship.
Sex Addiction, Hypersexuality, Compulsive Sexual Behaviour Disorder ( CSBD)
Sex addiction is a real clinical entity, but it is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. It is not the same as promiscuity, as sex addicts often have certain standards and are not indiscriminate in their sexual partner selection. Sex addiction is a compulsion, and many sex addicts are celibate or masturbate excessively. The root of sex addiction is not fully understood, but it is linked to shame and early traumatic experiences. There is no good treatment, and the prognosis is poor.
Narcissist’s Betrayal Fantasy Painful Mommy Separation
The narcissist pushes their intimate partners to betray them in order to fulfill their betrayal fantasy, which stems from their early childhood experiences with their mother. This betrayal allows the narcissist to separate from their partner, who they have turned into a mother figure, and experience the pain of betrayal, which they believe will make the separation irreversible. The narcissist’s self-destructive behavior is a form of emotional disinvestment, allowing them to detach from the fantasy and move on. However, this cycle often repeats itself with new partners, as the narcissist is unable to fully separate and individuate.
Women=Wrong Men: Toxic Unigender (TalkTV with Trisha Goddard)
The census for England and Wales has recorded the number of transgender and non-binary people for the first time, with 262,000 people identifying as a gender different to their sex registered at birth. The census also recorded sexuality for the first time, with 1.5 million people aged over 15 or 3.2% identifying as gay or lesbian, bisexual or other sexual orientation. Professor Sam Vaknin, a clinical psychologist, believes that the emergence of a unigender is part of a historical process, with the two world wars creating a shortage of males and capitalism transitioning into a paradigm of eternal growth, which required the introduction of women into the workforce and as consumers.
Why Narcissist Never Says “ I Am Sorry”
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the narcissist’s inability to apologize or feel remorse, attributing it to their grandiosity, sense of entitlement, and lack of empathy. He also delves into the sources of the narcissist’s immunity to consequences, including their false self, magical thinking, and manipulative skills. Vaknin argues that narcissists should be held accountable for their actions, as they are aware of right and wrong but simply do not care about others enough to refrain from harmful behavior.
Narcissism Narrative Therapy ( Fix Your Narrative, Heal Yourself)
Narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps patients identify values and skills associated with them, and provides them with knowledge or ability to experience these values and exercise these skills in order to confront problems. The therapist encourages self-authorship and co-authoring a new narrative about themselves. Narrative therapy is closely associated with other therapies, such as collaborative therapy and person-centered therapy. The therapist and the client are perceived as having valuable information relevant to the process and they create together the content of the therapeutic conversation by imbuing it and suffusing it with this valuable information.
How to Resolve (T)horny Dilemmas
In this video, Professor Sam Vaknin explains how to resolve dilemmas. He defines a dilemma as a cognitive dissonance involving two courses of action that are mutually exclusive and contradictory. He provides an example of a typical relationship dilemma and shows a simple method to resolve it. The method involves breaking down the dilemma into its problem, need, and assumption components and analyzing each horn of the dilemma. Finally, he suggests changing assumptions if both needs have equal power.