The challenge of understanding and treating narcissistic personality disorder has been compounded by the multiple, wide-ranging, and often ambiguous meanings of the terms narcissism and narcissistic pathology. As Cooper has written,…

The diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder does not in and of itself imply a given treatment. Because the range of narcissistic character pathology is broad, the reasons for seeking treatment multiple, and the…

Although individual psychodynamically informed treatment is generally recommended to achieve lasting character change, other therapeutic modalities have a role in special circumstances. Conjoint marital and individual therapy have been found useful in…

Arnold Cooper has explored the intimate interweaving between narcissism and masochism in both normal development and pathological character. He argues for the union of the two categories into a single “narcissistic-masochistic…

What brings individuals with narcissistic personality disorder to a psychiatrist’s or psychotherapist’s office? A range of symptoms and precipitants, which revolve around a threat to or breakdown of the person’s defensive…

Otto Kernberg’s description of the pathological narcissistic individual centers around a set of paradoxes: self-inflation existing alongside a limitless need for praise, a charming and engaging surface covering a ruthless interior,…

For Heinz Kohut and the school of self psychology that he founded, the narcissistic individual is known by the transference he or she forms. Kohut opened the world of narcissistic pathology…