Psychopath or Trauma Victim? Autistic or Schizoid? Borderline Anyone?
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the difficulty in distinguishing between psychopathy, autism, schizoid personality, and PTSD or complex PTSD during intake interviews. All four conditions present similarly, with reduced affect display, reticent self-disclosure, and idiosyncratic use of language. However, there are some differential diagnostic signs, such as attitude to sex and intimacy, deceitfulness, and devaluation of others. It is crucial for clinicians to apply these differential diagnostic criteria to avoid misdiagnosis and potential harm to patients.
Study: Weak Self of Covert Narcissists, Secondary Psychopaths
A study has found that individuals with Cluster B personality disorders, specifically those with dark triad traits, have a weak, unstable, and unclear sense of self. The study’s authors suggest that recognizing these traits is important in predicting behaviors and avoiding destructive, impulsive, and callous behaviors. The study also found that high-level dark triad traits are associated with a weaker sense of self, regardless of gender and age. However, when analyzing sub-traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, the study found that vulnerable narcissism and secondary psychopathy are most strongly correlated with a weaker or unclear sense of self.
Narcissist’s Outsourced Existence, Trauma-Bonded Fantasy with YOU
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses three solutions narcissists use to cope with their empty schizoid core: outsourced existence, substitutive existence, and displaced existence. Outsourced existence involves collecting bits of existence from the environment and experiencing it as their own. Substitutive existence involves internalizing whole people and assimilating their existence. Displaced existence involves living vicariously through others, experiencing existence by proxy. These solutions are often hampered by narcissistic traits such as devaluation, paranoia, passive aggression, and entitlement.
Rigid Personality to OCD: Break the Cycle
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the importance of self-discipline and its connection to self-efficacy, which is the ability to secure positive outcomes from one’s environment. A lack of self-discipline can lead to impaired self-efficacy, resulting in generalized anxiety. To overcome this, Vaknin suggests a five-step program: 1) identify constricting rigidity and magical thinking, 2) exit your comfort zone, 3) shift the locus of control and develop self-efficacy, 4) focus on one priority at a time, and 5) alternate between your pathologies and addictions.
Narcissist’s Grandiosity, Borderline’s Promiscuity: 3Ss+E2A
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the demands of a narcissist in a relationship, the compensatory cerebral narcissist, and the complexities of borderline personality disorder, including the distinction between formative and situational promiscuity. He also addresses the likelihood of a borderline transitioning to a stable, long-term, sexually-exclusive relationship.
Toxic Sex: When “Love” Is Bad For You
Sex can be bad for mental health, just like cigarettes. Some forms of sex, such as those intended to regulate emotions or moods, or those without meaningful informed consent, are toxic and should be avoided. Sex used as a form of self-mutilation or self-harm, or as a way to self-objectify, is also bad for mental health. Non-autonomous sex, where sex is used to make a partner like or love you, is possibly the sickest form of sex. The psychosexuality of those who engage in bad, toxic, and wrong sex is part psychopathic and part people-pleasing.
Narcissist (NPD) Hijacks Borderline (BPD), People-pleasing, Casual Sex
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the comorbidity of narcissistic and borderline personality disorders, explaining that the only way to reconcile the two is by assuming the existence of semi-dissociated self-states. He also talks about people-pleasing behavior, which can stem from anxiety or social phobia, and how it can lead to self-defeating and self-trashing behaviors. Lastly, he discusses the current state of sex and gender in the West, where casual sex has become the dominant sexual practice, and how this has led to a separation between men and women, as well as a decline in intimacy and meaningful relationships.
Serial idealizers, Anxious People-pleasers, Addicts: NOT Narcissists
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses four groups of people who exhibit behaviors similar to pathological narcissism but are not narcissists: serial idealizers, anxious people pleasers, addicts, and those with borderline personality disorder. Serial idealizers create fantasies to legitimize their actions and feel loved, while anxious people pleasers seek acceptance and belonging to alleviate their anxiety. Addicts share traits with narcissists and psychopaths, such as grandiosity and defiance, but use addiction to maintain an illusion of control. Lastly, those with borderline personality disorder fear both abandonment and engulfment, leading to compulsive cheating and dysregulated behavior.
Hijacked by Fantasies in Cluster B (Intl. Conference on Psychiatry and Mental Health, May 2021)
Fantasy is a powerful psychological defense mechanism that can lead to mental health issues when it becomes malignant and all-pervasive. In small doses, fantasies can be healthy and help individuals cope with frustrating or intimidating environments. However, when fantasies become entrenched and hijack an individual’s emotions, cognitions, memories, and identity, they can impair reality testing and lead to dysfunction. In extreme cases, individuals with Cluster B personality disorders, such as narcissistic and borderline personality disorders, may experience a confusion between internal and external objects, leading to a state that is close to psychosis.
Our World is One Big Trauma (with Symone Fairchild, EyeOnDV)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses various topics in this transcript, including cluster B personality disorders, the power of social media platforms, trauma, unsatisfactory sex and intimacy, and the concept of personality. He argues that society incentivizes abuse and narcissism, and that we need to change society to prevent the rise of personality disorders. Vaknin also criticizes social media platforms for spreading evil and poison to children. He talks about how abuse can interfere with a victim’s ability to work and how dissociation is becoming more common as a defense mechanism against environmental trauma. Finally, Vaknin goes on an anti-American rant, stating that America is a narcissistic society and that it exports toxicity all around the world.