Inordinate self-love: experts disagree on treating narcissists By: Ernest Dempsey Narcissism can be a big threat to mental health

and social life. Contemporary experts are not entirely hopeless on chronic narcissism cases. As healers and as humans, they tend to recognize the narcissists problem as not self-induced. Loving oneself is natural but when it possesses ones personality, it assumes the form of narcissism, a personality disorder that has several threateningly dysfunctional sides to it. Whether it is treatable or is the case of the narcissist is gone is a question about which contemporary subject experts seem to disagree. According to Dr. Sam Vaknin, expert on narcissism and author of the book Malignant Self Love Narcissism Revisited, pathological narcissism is maladaptive, rigid, persisting, and causes significant distress, and functional impairment. Besides being sickeningly self-centered, these individuals rarely seek therapeutic help and they definitely do not listen to advice of any kind. Dr. Vaknin is of the opinion that people with narcissistic personality disorder have no hope of recovering from their disease or returning to normal life. Pathological narcissism cannot be healed", or "cured," says Dr. Vaknin. He goes on to warn that social contact with narcissists can become a threat to ones own mental health: Narcissists cannot be fixed and, if you do not keep absolute distance, will ruin your life thoroughly. Psychodrama expert Dr. Daniel Tomasulo, author of Confessions of a Former Child, agrees with Dr. Vaknin on the point that narcissists are a potential threat to the overall wellbeing of a society. He calls narcissists the cancer of society. To him, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is all consuming, self-and-other-destructive, and profoundly self-defeating. But he does allow detaching with compassion from the narcissist, recognizing that they have a disorder that they have no control over. Still other professionals practicing in the field of psychology/psychotherapy believe that the case of the narcissist is not all gone. Australian psychiatrist Dr. Niall McLaren, who is a staunch critic of contemporary psychiatric theory and practice, thinks it unethical and unprofessional to give up on any psychological patient. Dr. McLaren admits that no therapy can work against the patients will. I have very lengthy experience treating people whom everybody else says are impossible. The first thing is to give them a chance, says Dr. McLaren. To the question whether it is ethical for a psychiatrist to excommunicate a narcissist on account of saving himself from the psychopathic fallout of the patient's personality, Dr. McLaren replies, It is legitimate for a therapist to decline to accept a patient for treatment. However, anybody who does so needs to be in therapy himself. Consistently declining particular types of patients says that the therapist's training is incomplete, similar to the therapist who always ends up with the same kind of patient. Equally open and even more optimistic is psychotherapist and Richard Singer, author ofNow: Embracing the Present Moment, who has treated a number of patients diagnosed with narcissism and tells that there has been significant progress in therapy.

The key as with all human beings is to develop a strong therapeutic relationship and not treat the label but treat the whole human beings. Personality Disorders are hard to treats, yes, however to give up on someone with certain characteristic is unethical for practitioners and very sad to do generally as human beings, says Richard. He believes that narcissists can make progress through the therapist gaining insight into their behaviors and working on developing empathy with the help of a trusting therapist. Richard adds please, lets never give up on anyone. Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/303713#ixzz1E7fcqiCl Click on the links: http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/faq77.html

In their seminal tome, "Personality Disorders in Modern Life" (New York, John Wiley & Sons, 2000), Theodore Millon and Roger Davis write (p. 308): "Most narcissists strongly resist psychotherapy. For those who choose to remain in therapy, there are several pitfalls that are difficult to avoid ... Interpretation and even general assessment are often difficult to accomplish..." The third edition of the "Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry" (Oxford, Oxford University Press, reprinted 2000), cautions (p. 128): "... (P)eople cannot change their natures, but can only change their situations. There has been some progress in finding ways of effecting small changes in disorders of personality, but management still consists largely of helping the person to find a way of life that conflicts less with his character ... Whatever treatment is used, aims should be modest and considerable time should be allowed to achieve them." The fourth edition of the authoritative "Review of General Psychiatry" (London, Prentice-Hall International, 1995), says (p. 309): "(People with personality disorders) ... cause resentment and possibly even alienation and burnout in the healthcare professionals who treat them ... (p. 318) Long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis have been attempted with (narcissists), although their use has been controversial."