Narcissism
C’est moi! C’est moi, I’m forced to admit.
‘Tis I, I humbly reply.
Alan Jay Lehrner
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Personality Disorder:
An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectation of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition (DSM-IV)
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When I first explained Mildred and Dwain to my counselor, he commented immediately, “So, they’re both narcissists.”
I always thought a narcissist was a person in love with himself who spent a lot of time primping in the mirror. In the mental health profession, however, narcissism is one of the recognized personality disorders.
Well, that’s certainly my parents, I thought, after borrowing Mark’s tattered copy of DSM-IV. Not quite like the other children, and suffering because of it.
According to the manual, five or more of nine criteria are considered necessary for a clinical diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I calculate that Dwain fits six of them and that seven of them accurately describe Mildred: A grandiose sense of self-importance; preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success or fame or of ideal, everlasting love or passion; a belief that he or she is special and can only be understood by other special people; a requirement of excessive admiration, attention or affirmation; a feeling of entitlement or unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment; “interpersonal exploitation,” or using others to achieve one’s own ends; a lack of empathy or unwillingness to recognize the feelings and needs of others; envy of others or persecutory delusions, and arrogant and hauty behavior, or rage when frustrated or contradicted.
I also seem to see Oklahoma in five of the criteria.