The Habit of Identity
Habits are reflexive and form part of our identity, but they are not our true identity. Our true identity is our personality, which is a loosely interconnected pattern of reactions to our changing environment. Personality is able to combine, recombine and permute in hundreds of unforeseeable ways, and the constancy of these vicissitudes and changes is what gives us a sense of identity. People with personality disorders cannot change and are incapable of loving and living.
Psychopathic Bully and Stalker
Stalking is a crime and stalkers are criminals, yet the horrid consequences of stalking are often underestimated. Many criminals, and therefore many stalkers, suffer from personality disorders, most prevalently the antisocial personality disorder, formerly known as psychopathy. Psychopaths regard other people as objects to be manipulated, in instruments of gratification and utility. The best coping strategy is to convince the psychopath that messing with your life or with your nearest is going to cost him dearly.
Corporate Narcissists and Fraud
Perpetrators of financial frauds in the United States have been diagnosed as malignant, pathological narcissists. Narcissists are driven by the need to maintain a grandiose self-image and seek attention to validate their self-worth. This leads them to engage in fraudulent activities to bridge the gap between their grandiose fantasies and reality. Pathological narcissism is pervasive and independent of culture and society, but its manifestation and experience depend on the particulars of societies and cultures.
Abuse By Proxy
Abusers often use third parties to control, coerce, threaten, stalk, tempt, seduce, harass, communicate, or manipulate their targets. They use the same mechanisms and devices to control these unaware instruments as they plan to control their ultimate prey. The abuser perverts the system, and therapists, marriage counselors, mediators, court-appointed guardians, police officers, and judges end up upholding the abuser’s version and helping him further abuse his victims. The victim’s children are the abuser’s greatest source of leverage over his abused spouse or mate.
Narcissist’s Language as Weapon
Narcissists use language as a weapon of self-defense, to obscure, not to communicate, and to obtain narcissistic supply. They talk at others or lecture them, exchange subtexts, and spawn private languages, prejudices, superstitions, conspiracy theories, rumors, phobias, and hysterias. The rules that govern the narcissist universe are loopholeed, incomprehensible, open to interpretation so wide and so self-contradictory that it renders them meaningless. The narcissist, in this respect, is a great social menace, undermining language itself.
Narcissist’s Pain: Narcissism, Sadism, and Masochism
Narcissists experience a sense of relief after suffering emotionally, enduring a narcissistic injury, or sustaining a loss. This elation is so addictive that the narcissist often seeks pain, humiliation, punishment, scorn, and contempt. The narcissist is also a sadist, albeit a bit of an unusual sadist. The narcissist pendulum swings between the extremes of torturing others and then empathically soothing the resulting pain.
Narcissist’s Reactions to Abandonment, Separation, and Divorce
Narcissistic abusers often resort to self-delusion when faced with the dissolution of a meaningful relationship. They may adopt a masochistic avoidance solution, punishing themselves for their failure, or construct a delusional narrative in which they are the hero. Some may become antisocial psychopaths, while others develop persecutory delusions and withdraw completely from social contact, becoming schizoids. Finally, some abusers resort to an aggressive stance, becoming verbally, psychologically, and sometimes physically abusive towards loved ones.
Narcissist’s Dream: The Interpretation (Part 2 of 2)
The dreamer, who believes himself to be a narcissist in the process of healing, has a dream where he is with two friends who vanish towards the end of the dream. The dreamer is not worried about their disappearance, suggesting that they are not three-dimensional friends but rather friendly mental functions. The dreamer is manipulated by his friends to react to an old woman’s antiques, and he finally confronts her. The dreamer is the plaything of others, and his actions and reactions are determined by input from the outside. The dreamer must leverage his own disorder to disown it and move on to another plane of existence.
International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10)
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is published by the World Health Organization and included mental health disorders for the first time in 1948. The ICD-8 was implemented in 1968 and was descriptive and operational, but sported a confusing plethora of categories and allowed for rampant comorbidity. The ICD-10, the current version, was revolutionary and incorporated the outcomes of numerous collaborative studies and programs. However, an international study carried out in 112 clinical centers in 39 countries demonstrated that the ICD-10 is not a reliable diagnostic tool as far as personality disorders go.
Passive-Aggressive (Negativisitic) Patient Therapy Notes
The negativistic, passive-aggressive personality disorder is not a formal diagnosis in the psychiatric community, but it is widely diagnosed and treated. In a simulated therapy session, Mike, a 52-year-old male diagnosed with negativistic or passive-aggressive personality disorder, attends therapy at the request of his wife. Mike is emotionally absent and aloof, and he regards psychotherapy as a form of conartistry. He admits to being unappreciated and underpaid at work, and he believes that he deserves more than that. Mike is a cantankerous curmudgeon who sulks and gets into arguments.