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 to Overcome Pandemic’s CPTSD (Keynote Speech Covid-19 Global Summit)
Professor Sam Vaknin discussed the psychological implications of the COVID pandemic, focusing on trauma psychology models. He explained that the pandemic has caused a collective trauma, leading to a potential increase in mental health issues and personality disorders. The pandemic has disrupted our ability to create meaningful narratives and has attacked our core identity, causing dissociative symptoms and identity disturbance. Vaknin suggests that mental health practitioners must help facilitate the healing process for individuals affected by the pandemic.
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.
Love Your Narcissist? Make Him Stay, Depend on You (Tips, Resolutions)
In a relationship with a narcissist, it is important to know what not to do and what to do to maintain the relationship. Avoid disagreeing, contradicting, or criticizing the narcissist, and never offer intimacy or challenge their self-image. To make the narcissist dependent on you, listen attentively, agree with everything they say, offer something unique, be patient, and be emotionally and financially independent. It is also crucial to know yourself and set personal boundaries, treating yourself with dignity and demanding respect from others. If the relationship becomes abusive, consider going no-contact and ending the relationship for your own well-being.
Social Values and the Healthcare System (Webinar on Health Care, Health Economics, and Policy)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the issues of equity, efficiency, and solidarity in healthcare systems, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. He argues that privatizing public goods, such as healthcare, leads to market failures and inefficiencies, and that public goods must remain public to be efficient in the long term. Vaknin also emphasizes the importance of redesigning healthcare systems to better serve the poor, disenfranchised, women, and minorities.