Narcissism and Its Discontents

Diagnostic Dilemmas and Treatment

Strategies with Narcissistic Patients
Glen O. Gabbard
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Narcissism and
Its Discontents
Diagnostic Dilemmas
and Treatment Strategies
With Narcissistic Patients

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.

Holly Crisp, M.D.
NARCISSISM AND ITS
DISCONTENTS
Diagnostic Dilemmas and
Treatment Strategies With
Narcissistic Patients
NARCISSISM AND ITS
DISCONTENTS
Diagnostic Dilemmas and
Treatment Strategies With
Narcissistic Patients

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.

Holly Crisp, M.D.
Note: The authors have worked to ensure that all information in this
book is accurate at the time of publication and consistent with general
psychiatric and medical standards, and that information concerning
drug dosages, schedules, and routes of administration is accurate at the
time of publication and consistent with standards set by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration and the general medical community. As med­
ical research and practice continue to advance, however, therapeutic
standards may change. Moreover, specific situations may require a spe­
cific therapeutic response not included in this book. For these reasons
and because human and mechanical errors sometimes occur, we recom­
mend that readers follow the advice of physicians directly involved in
their care or the care of a member of their family.
Books published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing rep­
resent the findings, conclusions, and views of the individual authors
and do not necessarily represent the policies and opinions of American
Psychiatric Association Publishing or the American Psychiatric Associ­
ation.
If you wish to buy 50 or more copies of the same title, please go to
www.appi.org/specialdiscounts for more information.
Copyright © 2018 American Psychiatric Association Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
First Edition
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gabbard, Glen O., author. | Crisp, Holly, author. | American
Psychiatric Association Publishing, publisher.
Title: Narcissism and its discontents : diagnostic dilemmas and treatment
strategies with narcissistic patients / Glen O. Gabbard, Holly Crisp.
Description: First edition. | Washington, D.C. : American Psychiatric
Association Publishing, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018001808 (print) | LCCN 2018002297 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781615371938 (eb) | ISBN 9781615371273 (pb : alk. paper)
Subjects: | MESH: Narcissism | Personality Disorders—therapy | Personality
Disorders—diagnosis | Treatment Outcome | Physician-Patient Relations
Classification: LCC RC553.N36 (ebook) | LCC RC553.N36 (print) | NLM WM
460.5.E3 | DDC 616.85/854—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001808
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP record is available from the British Library.
Contents
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Disclosure of Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part I
Diagnostic Dilemmas

1 Narcissism and Its Discontents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 The Cultural Context of Narcissism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3 Modes of Relatedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Part II
Treatment Strategies

4 Beginning the Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5 Transference and Countertransference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

6 Tailoring the Treatment to the Patient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

7 Treatment Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

8 Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
About the Authors

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor

College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is also Training and Super­
vising Analyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies in Houston. He
is in the full-time private practice of psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and
psychotherapy.
Holly Crisp, M.D., is Clinical Associate Professor at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston, Texas. She is on the faculty at the Center for Psy­
choanalytic Studies in Houston. She is in the full-time private practice of
psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and psychotherapy.

vii
Disclosure of Interests

The authors have indicated that they have no financial interests or

other affiliations that represent or could appear to represent a compet­
ing interest with their contributions to this book.

ix
Preface

While we were preparing this book, which is written for clinicians who
face the challenges of narcissistically organized patients, we became
aware that a certain fascination with narcissists had emerged within the
recent discourse on politics and celebrity. The popular culture today is
replete with visions of narcissism—for better or worse. In many ways,
narcissistic personality disorder has been garnering the interest that
once surrounded borderline personality disorder. Which public figures
are truly narcissistic? Can mental health professionals dare to diagnose
them? Is narcissism necessary for success? Have social media and
smartphones generated a culture of self-absorbed navel-gazers who are
incapable of connecting to others?
We do not have all the answers to these questions. Our focus is clearly
on the clinical picture of patients struggling with narcissistic issues and
how mental health professionals might approach them. Hence, we de­
vote only one chapter to the new culture of narcissism. Moreover, our
book is not a comprehensive treatment guide but rather an exploration
of common dilemmas that occur in clinical work with narcissistically or­
ganized individuals and a host of strategies to deal with those dilemmas
in the treatment setting.

xi
xii Narcissism and Its Discontents

In our psychiatric practices, we have seen a great many patients with

narcissistic issues over the years. As psychoanalysts, our approach to
treatment, whatever form it may take, is based on the perspective of
contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, which starts with what is par­
ticular, unique, and idiosyncratic about the individual. This book
evolved from years of work with specific narcissistically organized in­
dividuals who did not fit neatly into one category or another. This work
led to the growing realization that narcissism is actually pleomorphic, a
multiheaded hydra with a multiplicity of forms.
Our work is also informed by research data on narcissism, which we
attempt to integrate with our clinical understanding. We examine em­
pirical research data from attachment theory, large surveys of popula­
tions, and psychotherapy studies. Much of the literature on this subject
features psychoanalysis proper as the treatment of choice, but the vast
majority of patients do not have access to that treatment. Thus, although
we discuss psychoanalysis as a treatment, we also address psychother­
apeutic strategies that are less intensive than analysis but also useful. Fi­
nally, we outline general strategies for treating narcissistic patients,
including the use of transference and countertransference, that are ap­
plicable to all treatment settings, whether pharmacotherapy, partial
hospital, or inpatient.
We recognize that narcissistic personality disorder is not well under­
stood. It is a moving target that can vary from day to day in the same
person. There is also a spectrum from healthy to pathological narcis­
sism. Different approaches may be necessary to address the various lo­
cations on the continuum. Some forms of narcissism are regarded as
developmentally “normal” at a particular age while appearing patho­
logical at another. Differentiating healthy from pathological narcissism
is a difficult process. Also, applying the diagnosis of narcissistic person­
ality disorder can be complicated. Some narcissistically organized indi­
viduals may appear monotonously the same and oblivious to the
therapist sitting in the room with them, whereas others may carefully
observe the therapist with laser beam scrutiny. We suggest that narcis­
sism is highly reactive to specific contexts and in some cases may vary
considerably from one appointment to the next. As psychoanalytic cli­
nicians, we think the best approach to the diagnosis and treatment of
narcissistically organized patients is to look for what is idiosyncratic
and unique about the person with the condition rather than applying a
“one-size-fits-all” approach.
A thoughtful, individualized approach is necessary in order to take
into account the specific features of the person sitting in the patient’s
chair. Manualized treatments are necessary for rigorous research but
Preface xiii

may stifle the therapist’s creativity in clinical practice. We strongly be­

lieve that the therapist or analyst conducting the treatment needs to be
flexible. Tailoring the therapy to the patient may require a series of trial­
and-error modifications of one’s technique. There is also a process
within the clinician of finding one’s own voice suited to the person of the
patient but also reflective of who the person of the therapist is (Gabbard
and Ogden 2009). Experienced psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic ther­
apists discover at some point that they are not quite the same as they
proceed from one patient to another in the course of a work day. We all
re-create ourselves to some extent from one hour to the next. With nar­
cissistic patients in particular, clinicians must retain flexibility. More­
over, the gender of the patient and the therapist may create unique
challenges that deserve more attention in the literature on treatment.
Hence, the contributions of a male and a female coauthor are useful in a
text such as this one.
In this volume, we hope to engage the reader in an intersubjective
process of adjusting the treatment to the patient rather than forcing the
patient into a slot that may be problematic for the patient’s subjectivity.
Narcissistic patients spend their lives trying to find someone who can
see them, hear them, and “get” them. We hope to promote this imper­
fect, but always worthwhile, search for a useful “fit” between what the
patient may need and what the therapist may offer.
We wish to thank Jill Craig for her highly skilled typing, editing, and
fact checking. We also want to thank Dr. Laura Roberts, Editor-in-Chief,
and John McDuffie, Interim Publisher, at American Psychiatric Associ­
ation Publishing for their support and wise counsel. We also thank our
many teachers and mentors who taught us how to approach patients as
complex human beings who yearn to be understood rather than diag­
nostic entities who must be classified. And finally, we owe a debt of
gratitude to our patients who have taught us so much about narcissism
and its origins.

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.

Holly Crisp, M.D.

Houston, Texas, 2018

xiv Narcissism and Its Discontents

REFERENCE
Gabbard GO, Ogden TH: On becoming a psychoanalyst. Int J Psychoanal 90(2):311–
327, 2009 19382962
Part I

Diagnostic Dilemmas
 1
Narcissism and Its Discontents

Today, the discontents of narcissism are all around us. First and fore­
most, many patients with narcissistic disturbances are unhappy. They
often live lives of noisy desperation. They cannot seem to find what
they are seeking. In fact, they are not even certain about what it is they
hope to find. The notion of self-love is often used to characterize the es­
sence of narcissism, but it applies to only a subgroup of individuals
with pathological narcissism. More often, narcissists are extraordinarily
insecure about their capacity to love and be loved and are frantic in their
search for others who will admire them, be impressed by them, empa­
thize with their needs, validate their specialness, and/or serve as an
idealized object who will never shame them or humiliate them. How­

3
4 Narcissism and Its Discontents

ever, they tend to go through life disappointed because what they seek
is a tall order—one that usually cannot be fulfilled in a world of imper­
fect, ambivalent relationships.
The level of suffering in persons with narcissistic disturbances is
highly variable. Some have constructed defensive facades such that
they avoid—at least partially—the distress over their emptiness or their
incapacity to obtain the response they wish from others. Others go
through life with an open wound, feeling like they are being attacked
from every direction, with no respite from the pain. Many are on a con­
tinuum between the two extremes, with variations that depend on cur­
rent stressors and specific contexts in their lives. In any case, it would be
safe to assume that the majority are unhappy, if not despairing.
Mental health professionals engaged in clinical work find the term
narcissism vexing because they cannot be certain of what is meant when
a colleague speaks of narcissism. Does pathological narcissism denote
too much self-love? Profound insecurity? Low self-esteem? Too much
self-esteem? Selfishness? Aloofness? A conviction that one is smarter,
better looking, more fashionable, or better connected than others? An
inability to tune in to what others are feeling or thinking? Used as an ad­
jective, narcissistic may refer to someone who is thoroughly unpleasant
and obnoxious or someone whose success and confidence are envied.
Almost everyone recognizes the existence of such a thing as healthy
self-interest, that is, a kind of narcissism that involves self-care and
pride in a job well done. Whether a self-serving behavior is pathological
or not may also depend on the phase of one’s life cycle. An adolescent
girl who spends hours obsessing about how she wishes to appear in the
photo she is about to upload to social media may well be seen as “nor­
mal” for her stage in life. To complicate matters further, one person la­
beled “narcissistic” may respond to a slight by having an emotional
meltdown, whereas another with the same label may appear to be im­
pervious to any insult because of his seeming self-confidence. This
widespread confusion about the nature of narcissism—both healthy
and pathological—clearly reflects the fact that there are many faces of
narcissism (Burgo 2015; Caligor et al. 2015; Campbell and Miller 2011;
Gabbard and Crisp-Han 2016).
The discontent of clinicians is also linked to the frustration they experi­
ence with their attempts to treat narcissistic patients, who may insist on
dictating the conditions of treatment, ignore the comments of their thera­
pists, and “correct” their therapists by indicating to them where they have
gone wrong and pointing out what they should say and when they should
say it. Moreover, these patients are often frustrating because they disap­
pear from treatment abruptly without explanation. On the other end of the
Narcissism and Its Discontents 5

continuum, when they stick with therapy, the treatment may be protracted
with very little sign of change. Indeed, these patients may seem impervi­
ous to the observations of the clinician treating them and yet stay in treat­
ment without making substantial improvements. These treatments may
be among the longest and most arduous and may seem interminable.
Researchers in the mental health field can also be included among the
discontents. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as a clinical entity
has been challenging to study. Because of the pleomorphic nature of
NPD, defining the entity for meaningful research has tried the minds of
a host of skilled researchers. When the American Psychiatric Associa­
tion Personality Disorders Work Group assembled to develop criteria
for DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association 2013), this body sug­
gested that NPD should be deleted from DSM-5 because of its low prev­
alence and the paucity of systematic research on NPD compared with
many of the other personality disorders (Skodol et al. 2011). Intense de­
bate continued about which entities should or should not be included in
the DSM-5 personality disorders, fueled by a recommendation on the part
of the Personality Disorders Work Group to revamp the system for spe­
cific diagnostic criteria. At the same time, scores of clinicians and re­
searchers were outraged at the notion of dropping NPD from the DSM-5
group of personality disorders because of its high prevalence in clinical
practice. Despite the lack of clarity and rigorous research, NPD as a di­
agnosis was ultimately included among the DSM-5 personality disor­
ders, much to the relief of many clinicians.
Families of young adults who have the NPD diagnosis are a third cat­
egory of discontents. It has become a common practice in contemporary
mental health care for clinicians to sit down with the patient and family
and explain the basis for the diagnosis as part of a psychoeducational in­
tervention designed to provide useful information. In many cases, such
as borderline personality disorder, this approach has led to a more so­
phisticated and effective approach to treatment where families and pa­
tients can ally themselves in a systematic effort to improve the symptoms
and the quality of life of the patient (Gunderson and Hoffman 2005).
However, when it comes to the diagnosis of NPD, neither patients nor
families want to hear those three words as the diagnostic conclusion of
the evaluating professional. Because the term narcissistic has such a pe­
jorative connotation in its use throughout society, it is rarely received by
a patient or a family as a useful piece of information that can direct treat­
ment. Sharing that information often results in explosive anger, hurt
feelings, denial, and blaming. The diagnosis may connote to the patient
that he or she is a dreadful person and cause a descent into profound
shame and humiliation.
6 Narcissism and Its Discontents

Lovers and spouses are yet another group of disgruntled individuals

who feel they have been profoundly mistreated by narcissistic individ­
uals. Dombek (2016) noted that the widespread shift of contemporary
discourse to cyberspace has provided a place for victims of narcissists to
share their experience and receive support from others. Web sites where
people can go for support include www.narcissismsurvivor.com,
www.narcissismuncovered.com, www.thenarcissisticlife.com, and
www.narcissismfree.com. Many of the depictions featured at these Web
sites provide horrific portraits of the selfishness of people with narcis­
sistic features and heartbreaking accounts of those who have been mis­
treated by them. They also serve as support groups for those who feel
they have been taken advantage of by severely self-centered spouses or
lovers. Books written for lay readers have also appeared that provide
guidance to those who feel they need help in extricating themselves
from narcissistic relationships (Beharry 2013; Burgo 2015). Hence, there
appears to be a relatively large contingent of discontents who are up in
arms about their victimization at the hands of narcissistic victimizers.
This opening overview of the discontents omits a rarely discussed as­
pect inherent in the treatment of narcissistic patients: the distinct plea­
sure that clinicians may feel with some narcissistically organized
patients who convey a desperate wish to be loved and known that
evokes empathy, admiration, and human connection. With such pa­
tients, a fundamental credo of clinicians, which is to relieve the patient’s
suffering, comes to the fore.

THE MYTH OF NARCISSUS

Psychoanalysts have been fond of appropriating ancient texts from
Greek and Roman authors in their exposition of syndromes they see in
clinical practice. Sophocles provided the tragedy of Oedipus. Ovid
wrote of Narcissus. In the Narcissus myth, which has a number of vari­
ations, a boy looks into a pool of water and falls in love with his own re­
flection. This oversimplified version, however, is probably not what
Ovid intended. In fact, Narcissus thinks he sees another boy, not him­
self. Narcissus is overwhelmed with his experience of finding a perfect
partner with whom an ideal love can exist. He experiences an ideal har­
mony in which two perfectly suited and perfectly identical people are
united in bliss.
In Dombek’s (2016) analysis of the myth, she noted that the story of
Narcissus is actually a cautionary tale about the imperfect capacity to
“know oneself.” She stressed that we can fall into illusions when we find
ourselves everywhere. From her perspective, the narrative of the myth
Narcissism and Its Discontents 7

is often incorrectly regarded as a portrayal of evil or pathology, but it is

fundamentally a case of mistaken identities, that is, the illusions that we
pass through on the way to love. Narcissists cannot see that they are
looking at their own face when they think they are looking at someone
else. The myth, then, is more about misrecognition than self-love.
Ovid’s story is about someone who looks at another person and sees an
idealized version of himself and then falls in love with a reflection rather
than a person.

THE MULTIHEADED HYDRA OF NARCISSISM

The problem of coming to a clear consensus on the nature of NPD or
pathological narcissism arises out of its varied presentations and the di­
versity of the individuals who may receive the diagnosis. The DSM-5
criteria set for NPD is misleading in this regard (Box 1–1).

Box 1–1. DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria for Narcissistic

Personality Disorder 301.81 (F60.81)
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admira­
tion, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a va­
riety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achieve­
ments and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commen­
surate achievements).
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance,
beauty, or ideal love.
3. Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be under­
stood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people
(or institutions).
4. Requires excessive admiration.
5. Has a sense of entitlement (i.e., unreasonable expectations of espe­
cially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expec­
tations).
6. Is interpersonally exploitative (i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve
his or her own ends).
7. Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and
needs of others.
8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.
9. Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

Source. Reprinted from American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association,
2013. Copyright © 2013 American Psychiatric Association. Used with permission.
8 Narcissism and Its Discontents

These criteria are perhaps the ones most widely recognized by indi­
viduals inside and outside the mental health field—the bragging, self­
important boor who wants everyone to admire him and “feed his ego.”
He or she may appear oblivious to the opinions of others and hide be­
hind a veritable coat of armor that provides protection from feeling hurt
or slighted (Gabbard 2014). The notion that five of the nine criteria will
define NPD is oversimplified. The criteria may help in identifying one
variant of pathological narcissism, but the multiheaded hydra of narcis­
sism defies simple definitions that are based on the number of symp­
toms in a checklist.
A more nuanced subtyping has occurred in the past two decades that
has allowed the field to endorse a grandiose or oblivious subtype on the
one hand and a vulnerable or hypervigilant subtype on the other (Dickin­
son and Pincus 2003; Gabbard 1989, 1998; Pincus and Lukowitsky 2010;
Wink 1991). In fact, as long ago as 1987, the British psychoanalyst Her­
bert Rosenfeld made a distinction between thick-skinned and thin-skinned
narcissists. The vulnerable or hypervigilant individual is thin-skinned
in that he or she is always perceiving slights or narcissistic injuries in the
comments of others (Rosenfeld 1987). This subtype of narcissists may
explode in emotional outbursts when feeling wounded. By contrast, the
grandiose type is more oblivious to what is going on with others and
sees those around him as potential audience members who may give
him the admiration he needs.
This distinction between subtypes drawn from research and descrip­
tive psychiatry is mirrored in the classic psychoanalytic writings of Otto
Kernberg and Heinz Kohut. Kernberg’s (1975) early clinical descrip­
tions are similar to the grandiose, self-centered, and aggressive subtype.
Kohut (1971, 1977) emphasized that narcissistic patients are develop­
mentally arrested at a stage at which they require specific responses
from persons in their environment in order to maintain a cohesive self.
Empathic failures in the parents lead to fragmentations of the self.
Hence, aggression in the patient would be regarded as secondary to nar­
cissistic injuries from others. The self of a narcissistically organized per­
son is seen as fragile but potentially “normal” if provided with empathy
and compassion. Missing functions need to be internalized from others.
Kernberg (1975, 1984, Kernberg 2014) emphasized that the self of a nar­
cissistic individual is a highly pathological structure based on a conflict
model, but Kohut’s thinking is based on a deficit model in which the self
is not a defensive structure.
Therapists conducting treatments with narcissistic patients have
their own version of discontent when trying to “fit” their patients into
concise diagnostic subtypes. These subtype distinctions risk an over­
Narcissism and Its Discontents 9

simplification of complex clinical presentations. Those patients who ap­

pear to be grandiose, self-confident, narcissistic individuals may fall
apart in response to disappointments, rejections, or advancing age
(Caligor et al. 2015; Gabbard 2014). Similarly, those who are hypervigi­
lant may erupt into explosions of rage, contempt, and grandiosity if the
narcissistic injury strikes a sensitive target within. Hence, these distinc­
tions can depend on the moment in time when the narcissistic patient is
seen. These subtypes also are problematic in that many of the studies
leading to these conclusions were based heavily on self-report question­
naires. Research suggests that most individuals with personality disor­
ders, and those with NPDs in particular, have little insight into how
others experience them. Carlson and Oltmanns (2015) studied a large
community sample of adults to determine which people might have
personality disorder symptoms. Compared with the individuals in the
study who had fewer personality disorder symptoms, those with more
symptoms typical of personality disorder were less accurate in estimat­
ing the negativity of the impressions they made on their acquaintances.
Hence, the authors concluded that this cohort with personality prob­
lems had difficulties with meta-perception.
To address this difficulty of overreliance on self-report question­
naires, Russ et al. (2008) used the Shedler-Westen Assessment Proce­
dure-II (SWAP-II) to survey how clinicians made a diagnosis of NPD.
Twelve hundred psychiatrists and clinical psychologists participated
and used the SWAP-II to characterize patients who they felt were most
characteristic of NPD. Hence, the prototypes gathered were based on
clinical perspectives rather than self-report. From this exercise, a total of
255 patients met DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association 1994) cri­
teria for NPD. Q-factor analysis was used to identify three subtypes,
which the authors labeled as grandiose/malignant, fragile, and high­
functioning/exhibitionistic. They also found that core features of NPD
include interpersonal vulnerability, difficulties regulating affect, com­
petitiveness, and underlying emotional distress, all of which are absent
from the DSM-5 criteria.
The grandiose/malignant type, or the oblivious narcissist, was character­
ized by exaggerated self-importance, lack of remorse, interpersonal ma­
nipulativeness, seething anger, pursuit of interpersonal power, and
feelings of privilege. Persons in the fragile category, closely resembling the
hypervigilant or vulnerable subtype, warded off painful feelings of inad­
equacy with grandiosity used defensively and had a powerful undercur­
rent of inadequate feelings, negative affect states, and loneliness. The
clinicians whose reports were gathered also noted a considerable amount
of shifting back and forth between grandiose feelings and inadequate
10 Narcissism and Its Discontents

feelings that reflected an alternation of contradictory self-representations

triggered by varieties of threat. The third type, the high-functioning vari­
ant, had an exaggerated sense of self-importance, but these individuals
were also outgoing, energetic, and articulate. They apparently had used
their narcissism as strong motivation to succeed. They tended to be in­
terpersonally adept and achievement oriented.
More recently, Ackerman et al. (2017) tried to clarify the definition of
narcissism as used by both clinical psychologists and social/personality
psychologists. A comprehensive list of attributes associated with narcis­
sism was compiled, and experts from both disciplines rated the charac­
teristics in terms of their centrality to narcissism. There was general
agreement that grandiose features were most central. The key features
rated by both groups of experts included a sense of entitlement, overly
ambitious goals and ideals, grandiose fantasies, narcissistic rage, and
hypervigilance. The fact that hypervigilance made the cut suggests that
vulnerability to slights is recognized as a key factor in the diagnosis.
From a psychoanalytic perspective, a theme that runs across all sub­
types of narcissistic patients is a concern about being seen by others and
how they come across to those who see them. Steiner (2006) attributes
this concern to an acute self-consciousness and a fear of being humili­
ated or shamed. Fragile or hypervigilant narcissists attempt to maintain
self-esteem and avoid humiliating situations by tuning into others and
figuring out how to behave. Oblivious or grandiose narcissists try to in­
sulate themselves from narcissistic injury by screening out the re­
sponses of others (Gabbard 2014).
A common thread found in narcissistic disturbances is a sense of
“lack.” This can be viewed as lacking a sense of self that is durable and
continuous through time, leading individuals to feel empty. Caligor et
al. (2015) noted that an extremely fragile sense of self can be present, but
it depends on the view of oneself as being exceptional in some way. By
feeling grandiose or special, such individuals can have an illusion of
some form of stable self-experience. Narcissistic colleagues or acquain­
tances are often referred to with comments such as “he is so full of him­
self!” The irony is that these individuals are often terribly empty
(Dombek 2016).

FALSE DIALECTICS
A common dilemma faced by clinicians who are attempting to diagnose
a narcissistic problem in a patient occurs when the clinician assumes
that narcissistic people are incapable of altruism. Many of us are prone
to regard narcissism and altruism as being at opposite ends of a contin­
Narcissism and Its Discontents 11

uum, but in fact, some people with serious narcissistic psychopathology

are also capable of being generous with their time and energy in the ser­
vice of helping others. Many physicians and clergy, for example, are
highly devoted to their patients or parishioners because they derive nar­
cissistic gratification from helping others. Whether that amounts to
healthy narcissism or some form of pathological narcissism is often dif­
ficult to determine.
An overarching consideration in this context is that in most cases, peo­
ple who are altruistic are directly benefiting from their altruism (Gabbard
and Crisp-Han 2016). If a stranger sees a child who has fallen into a roar­
ing river, he or she may rescue the child not only for altruistic reasons but
also to receive acclaim as a hero in the local news media. In fact, in a neu­
roimaging study, Moll et al. (2006) demonstrated how altruistic behaviors
are directly beneficial to the person who is performing such behaviors.
Participants in the study had to choose to endorse or oppose societal
causes by anonymous decisions to donate or refrain from donating to real
charitable organizations. The mesolimbic reward system was engaged
when participants donated money in the same way as it was when they re­
ceived monetary awards. The investigators inferred that altruism activates
brain centers that are associated with selfish pleasures like sex or eating.
The capacity to work and love is often viewed as a sign of mental
health, but the situation is more complex when clinicians look for nar­
cissistic pathology. Many narcissists are able to perform at high levels in
their chosen profession. A better reflection of their health or pathology
is to examine the range of relationships and their quality. A useful diag­
nostic tool is to encourage the patient to characterize how she regards
herself and others and listen with a nonjudgmental ear.
Narcissism has its own developmental course along a continuum
from primitive to healthy or mature. Moreover, there are regressions in
this developmental pathway—for example, midlife passage, aging, and
the specter of death—that make it difficult to consider whether narcis­
sism is pathological or healthy in any one moment of time. Context must
be taken into account. Poland (2017) notes that healthy or mature nar­
cissism “serves the self by cherishing the other, by caring about others
and about ideals beyond oneself” (p. 97). Individuals with pathological
narcissism struggle with trying to obtain the response they need from
others in order to maintain a sense of self-esteem. Those with mature
narcissism have some degree of resilience in the face of narcissistic in­
jury and can bounce back from a blow. Yet these distinctions may be­
come blurred when self-doubt is activated.
There is also confusion about whether narcissistic patients genuinely
feel distress or simply stir up distress in others. Clinicians often tend to
12 Narcissism and Its Discontents

minimize the emotional pain that narcissistic patients feel. In a rigorous

study of a nationally representative sample of 34,365 individuals, Eaton
et al. (2017) investigated how NPD related to other mental disorders us­
ing the model of internalizing versus externalizing factors to determine
how these dimensions applied to NPDs. The internalizing factors had
two subfactors: distress and fear, typical of anxiety disorder and mood
disorders. Externalizing factors typical of antisocial personality disor­
der, borderline personality disorder, and substance abuse were also con­
sidered. The results indicated that NPD was best conceptualized as a
disorder of distress for both men and women. It is highly possible that
this high level of distress may be obscured by the grandiosity and self­
promotion of many narcissists as well as by the therapist’s feeling of dis­
tress in trying to engage the patient in a collaborative process.
Identifying who is narcissistic and who is not is far too “all or none”
for the complex understanding required. Different narcissistic persons
have different ways of relating. Because of the variations seen in the way
that narcissists treat others, a careful examination of modes of related­
ness is crucial in trying to gain a greater understanding of the idiosyn­
cratic aspects of each narcissistic patient. In Chapter 3, “Modes of
Relatedness,” we discuss these variations in detail.

THE NARCISSISTIC CONTINUUM

Yet another diagnostic dilemma encountered by clinicians is the severity
of the narcissistic features. Caligor et al. (2015) pointed out that of all the
personality disorders, the broadest spectrum of severity occurs in NPD.
This distinction may be particularly relevant in assessing the degree of
antisocial or psychopathic behavior in a patient. Narcissistic distur­
bances are often conceptualized on a continuum with psychopathy
(Gabbard 2014; Kernberg 2014). The reader must keep in mind that po­
sitions on a hypothetical continuum are not reified or rigid and can shift
on the basis of the emotional or interpersonal context.
Mild narcissistic problems falling short of true NPD appear at the
highest level of the continuum, and psychopathy is at the lowest level.
True psychopaths are totally incapable of investing themselves in non­
exploitative relationships and cannot conceive of others as having altru­
istic motives. Approximately 20%–50% of those who meet criteria for
antisocial personality disorder also meet the criteria for psychopathy
(Hare 2006). Psychopathy appears to have significant biological origins,
as suggested by studies of children with callous-unemotional traits, in­
cluding such characteristics as total lack of empathy and an absence of
guilt (Blair et al. 2001). Such children cannot process fear and sadness.
Narcissism and Its Discontents 13

They may also have less amygdalar reactivity to fearful faces compared
with other children of the same age (Jones et al. 2009). Thus, psycho­
paths may appear to be narcissistic in the way they relate to others, but
the disturbance is far more profound and inalterable than those narcis­
sistic personalities at the higher levels of the continuum.
One can differentiate antisocial personality disorder proper from true
psychopathy by the existence of some capacity for anxiety and depres­
sion, which reflects the existence of superego components. Hence, a key
part of an assessment on this spectrum is to look for deficits in the pa­
tient’s superego, a pattern of dishonesty, and a callous attitude toward
hurting others. The exact point at which antisocial personality disorder
transitions into NPD is difficult to pinpoint. Kernberg (1998) suggests
that malignant narcissism resides one step up on the continuum from an­
tisocial personality disorder. This entity is characterized by ego-syntonic
sadism and a paranoid orientation. These individuals differ from psy­
chopathic and antisocial individuals in that they have some capacity for
loyalty and concern for others. They can also imagine that other people
may have moral concerns and convictions. This capacity is not present
in the true psychopath, who assumes that in every encounter the other
person is operating only out of self-interest.
One step up from the malignant narcissist is NPD, with some degree
of antisocial behavior. Individuals with NPD lack the sadistic and par­
anoid qualities of the malignant narcissist but nevertheless may be ca­
pable of exploiting others in the service of their own goals. However,
they do experience guilt and concern for others and can plan realisti­
cally for the future. Their difficulty in making a commitment to in-depth
relationships may be reflected in what appears to be antisocial behavior.
At the higher end of the narcissistic continuum, clinicians see many pa­
tients who are not a “pure culture” of NPD. They have idiosyncratic mix­
tures of characterological features that are interwoven. Those who fit the
category of the high-functioning subtype may be professionals who have
achieved considerable acclaim in their fields. Many of them have obses­
sive-compulsive features and are workaholics. Perfectionism is a core fea­
ture of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and Rothstein (1980)
has identified the pursuit of perfection as a significant feature of patholog­
ical narcissism. This combination of narcissistic and obsessive-compulsive
features may lead to overbearing and controlling behavior with others, but
people with this mixed characterological picture may also be capable of
empathizing with others and having reciprocity and mutuality in relation­
ships. Although they may joke about their compulsiveness, they rarely
make light of their narcissism. Most prefer to consider their driven behav­
ior as having its origins in obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
14 Narcissism and Its Discontents

The use of diagnostic labels is also affected by gender stereotyping.

When one uses the term “narcissist,” listeners may automatically think
that a male is being referred to. On the other hand, if one uses the term
“histrionic,” the stereotype of an emotionally volatile and highly seduc­
tive woman may enter one’s mind—a modern day version of Scarlett
O’Hara. Similarly, borderline personality disorder is far more common
in females than in males, and some narcissistic females are diagnosed as
having borderline personality disorder. As Kernberg (1975) has long
stressed, someone who meets criteria for NPD may well have an under­
lying borderline personality organization.
The assumption that men are more likely to be narcissistic than
women does not hold up to scrutiny. Klonsky et al. (2002) conducted an
empirical study of 665 college students and found that the study sub­
jects who behaved in a way that was an exaggerated version of their
gender exhibited more narcissistic features, regardless of whether they
were male or female. The authors speculated that there may be mascu­
line and feminine ways of being narcissistic that reflect gender stereo­
types within the culture.
Those individuals who have some mixture of histrionic/hysterical
personality and narcissistic personality traits may present considerable
diagnostic complexity. Many histrionic persons can seem vain and ex­
hibitionistic in the way that some narcissistic persons are. It may be
highly challenging to determine if there is a greater capacity to care
about others and to empathize with the feelings of others. Variations of
these combinations occur, so it is often necessary to continually assess
the level of severity as the evaluation or treatment goes forward.
Obviously, there can be considerable overlap between borderline and
narcissistic personality features as well. However, the narcissistic patient is
somewhat more stable and consistent and less likely to engage in highly
impulsive and self-destructive behaviors such as self-mutilation. When
we attempt to identify features that distinguish NPD from other personal­
ity disorders, however, we must keep in mind that research demonstrates
that there is significant comorbidity with other personality disorders, par­
ticularly histrionic and antisocial, and with passive-aggressive behavior
(Clemence et al. 2009).
Another diagnostic quandary appears on the higher end of the narcis­
sistic continuum. Hypervigilant narcissists may present as having avoidant
personality disorder or even social anxiety disorder. These patients may be
wary of interactions with others for fear of disapproval, criticism, or rejec­
tion. They are reluctant to involve themselves with others unless they are
assured of being liked. However, avoidant individuals feel inadequate
and lack the underlying grandiosity of the hypervigilant narcissist.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Speech of Henry W. Davis, of Maryland,

On the Mission of the American Party.

Extract from Mr. Davis’s speech in the House of Representatives, on the 6th of
Jan., 1857, on the results of the recent Presidential election:—

“The great lesson is taught by this election that both the parties
which rested their hopes on sectional hostility, stand at this day
condemned by the great majority of the country, as common
disturbers of the public peace of the country.
“The Republican party was a hasty levy, en masse, of the Northern
people to repel or revenge an intrusion by Northern votes alone.
With its occasion it must pass away. The gentlemen of the
Republican side of the House can now do nothing. They can pass no
law excluding slavery from Kansas in the next Congress—for they are
in a minority. Within two years Kansas must be a state of the Union.
She will be admitted with or without slavery, as her people prefer.
Beyond Kansas there is no question that is practically open. I speak
to practical men. Slavery does not exist in any other territory,—it is
excluded by law from several, and not likely to exist anywhere; and
the Republican party has nothing to do and can do nothing. It has no
future. Why cumbers it the ground?
“Between these two stand the firm ranks of the American party,
thinned by desertions, but still unshaken. To them the eye of the
country turns in hope. The gentleman from Georgia saluted the
Northern Democrats with the title of heroes—who swam vigorously
down the current. The men of the American party faced, in each
section, the sectional madness. They would cry neither free nor slave
Kansas; but proposed a safe administration of the laws, before which
every right would find protection. Their voice was drowned amid the
din of factions. The men of the North would have no moderation, and
they have paid the penalty. The American party elected a majority of
this House: had they of the North held fast to the great American
principle of silence on the negro question, and, firmly refusing to join
either agitation, stood by the American candidate, they would not
now be writhing, crushed beneath an utter overthrow. If they would
now destroy the Democrats, they can do it only by returning to the
American party. By it alone can a party be created strong at the
South as well as at the North. To it alone belongs a principle accepted
wherever the American name is heard—the same at the North as at
the South, on the Atlantic or the Pacific shore. It alone is free from
sectional affiliations at either end of the Union which would cripple it
at the other. Its principle is silence, peace, and compromise. It abides
by the existing law. It allows no agitation. It maintains the present
condition of affairs. It asks no change in any territory, and it will
countenance no agitation for the aggrandizement of either section.
Though thousands fell off in the day of trial—allured by ambition, or
terrified by fear—at the North and at the South, carried away by the
torrent of fanaticism in one part of the Union, or driven by the fierce
onset of the Democrats in another, who shook Southern institutions
by the violence of their attack, and half waked the sleeping negro by
painting the Republican as his liberator, still a million of men, on the
great day, in the face of both factions, heroically refused to bow the
knee to either Baal. They knew the necessities of the times, and they
set the example of sacrifice, that others might profit by it. They now
stand the hope of the nation, around whose firm ranks the shattered
elements of the great majority may rally and vindicate the right of
the majority to rule, and of the native of the land to make the law of
the land.
The recent election has developed, in an aggravated form, every
evil against which the American party protested. Again in the war of
domestic parties, Republican and Democrat have rivalled each other
in bidding for the foreign vote to turn the balance of a domestic
election. Foreign allies have decided the government of the country—
men naturalized in thousands on the eve of the election—eagerly
struggled for by competing parties, mad with sectional fury, and
grasping any instrument which would prostrate their opponents.
Again, in the fierce struggle for supremacy, men have forgotten the
ban which the Republic puts on the intrusion of religious influence
on the political arena. These influences have brought vast multitudes
of foreign born citizens to the polls, ignorant of American interests,
without American feelings, influenced by foreign sympathies, to vote
on American affairs; and those votes have, in point of fact,
accomplished the present result.
The high mission of the American is to restore the influence of the
interests of the people in the conduct of affairs; to exclude appeals to
foreign birth or religious feeling as elements of power in politics; to
silence the voice of sectional strife—not by joining either section, but
by recalling the people from a profitless and maddening controversy
which aids no interest, and shakes the foundation not only of the
common industry of the people, but of the Republic itself; to lay a
storm amid whose fury no voice can be heard in behalf of the
industrial interests of the country, no eye can watch and guard the
foreign policy of the government, till our ears may be opened by the
crash of foreign war waged for purposes of political and party
ambition, in the name, but not by the authority nor for the interests,
of the American people.
Return, then, Americans of the North, from the paths of error to
which in an evil hour fierce passions and indignation have seduced
you, to the sound position of the American party—silence on the
slavery agitation. Leave the territories as they are—to the operation
of natural causes. Prevent aggression by excluding from power the
aggressors, and there will be no more wrong to redress. Awake the
national spirit to the danger and degradation of having the balance of
power held by foreigners. Recall the warnings of Washington against
foreign influence—here in our midst—wielding part of our
sovereignty; and with these sound words of wisdom let us recall the
people from paths of strife and error to guard their peace and power;
and when once the mind of the people is turned from the slavery
agitation, that party which waked the agitation will cease to have
power to disturb the peace of the land.
This is the great mission of the American party. The first condition
of success is to prevent the administration from having a majority in
the next Congress; for, with that, the agitation will be resumed for
very different objects. The Ostend manifesto is full of warning; and
they who struggle over Kansas may awake and find themselves in the
midst of an agitation compared to which that of Kansas was a
summer’s sea; whose instruments will be, not words, but the sword.
Joshua R. Giddings Against the Fugitive Slave
Law.

In the House of Representatives, April 25, 1848.

“Why, sir, I never saw a panting fugitive speeding his way to a land
of freedom, that an involuntary invocation did not burst from my
lips, that God would aid him in his flight! Such are the feelings of
every man in our free states, whose heart has not become hardened
in iniquity. I do not confine this virtue to Republicans, nor to Anti-
Slavery men; I speak of all men, of all parties, in all Christian
communities. Northern Democrats feel it; they ordinarily bow to this
higher law of their natures, and they only prove recreant to the law of
the ‘Most High,’ when they regard the interests of the Democratic
party as superior to God’s law and the rights of mankind.
“Gentlemen will bear with me when I assure them and the
President that I have seen as many as nine fugitives dining at one
time in my own house—fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, parents,
and children. When they came to my door, hungry and faint, cold
and but partially clad, I did not turn round to consult the Fugitive
Law, nor to ask the President what I should do. I knew the
constitution of my country, and would not violate it. I obeyed the
divine mandate, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. I fed them.
I clothed them, gave them money for their journey, and sent them on
their way rejoicing. I obeyed God rather than the President. I obeyed
my conscience, the dictates of my heart, the law of my moral being,
the commands of Heaven, and, I will add, the constitution of my
country; for no man of intelligence ever believed that the framers of
that instrument intended to involve their descendants of the free
states in any act that should violate the teachings of the Most High,
by seizing a fellow-being, and returning him to the hell of slavery. If
that be treason, make the most of it.
 “Mr. Bennett, of Mississippi. I want to know if the gentleman
would not have gone one step farther?
“Mr. Giddings. Yes, sir; I would have gone one step farther. I
would have driven the slave-catcher who dared pursue them from my
premises. I would have kicked him from my door-yard, if he had
made his appearance there; or, had he attempted to enter my
dwelling, I would have stricken him down upon the threshold of my
door.
 Robert Toombs on Slavery,

At Tremont Temple, Boston, January 24th, 1856.

In 1790 there were less than seven hundred thousand slaves in the
United States; in 1850 the number exceeded three and one quarter
millions. The same authority shows their increase, for the ten years
preceding the last census, to have been above twenty-eight per cent.,
or nearly three per cent. per annum, an increase equal, allowing for
the element of foreign immigration, to the white race, and nearly
three times that of the free blacks of the North. But these legal rights
of the slave embrace but a small portion of the privileges actually
enjoyed by him. He has, by universal custom, the control of much of
his own time, which is applied, at his own choice and convenience, to
the mechanic arts, to agriculture, or to some other profitable pursuit,
which not only gives him the power of purchase over many
additional necessaries of life, but over many of its luxuries, and in
numerous cases, enables him to purchase his freedom when he
desires it. Besides, the nature of the relation of master and slave
begets kindnesses, imposes duties (and secures their performance),
which exist in no other relation of capital and labor. Interest and
humanity co-operate in harmony for the well-being of slave labor.
Thus the monster objection to our institution of slavery, that it
deprives labor of its wages, cannot stand the test of a truthful
investigation. A slight examination of the true theory of wages, will
further expose its fallacy. Under a system of free labor, wages are
usually paid in money, the representative of products—under ours, in
products themselves. One of your most distinguished statesmen and
patriots, President John Adams, said that the difference to the state
was “imaginary.” “What matters it (said he) whether a landlord,
employing ten laborers on his farm, gives them annually as much
money as will buy them the necessaries of life, or gives them those
necessaries at short hand?” All experience has shown that if that be
the measure of the wages of labor, it is safer for the laborer to take
his wages in products than in their fluctuating pecuniary value.
Therefore, if we pay in the necessaries and comforts of life more than
any given amount of pecuniary wages will buy, then our laborer is
paid higher than the laborer who receives that amount of wages. The
most authentic agricultural statistics of England show that the wages
of agricultural and unskilled labor in that kingdom, not only fail to
furnish the laborer with the comforts of our slave, but even with the
necessaries of life; and no slaveholder could escape a conviction for
cruelty to his slaves who gave his slave no more of the necessaries of
life for his labor than the wages paid to their agricultural laborers by
the noblemen and gentlemen of England would buy. Under their
system man has become less valuable and less cared for than
domestic animals; and noble dukes will depopulate whole districts of
men to supply their places with sheep, and then with intrepid
audacity lecture and denounce American slaveholders.
The great conflict between labor and capital, under free
competition, has ever been how the earnings of labor shall be divided
between them. In new and sparsely settled countries, where land is
cheap, and food is easily produced, and education and intelligence
approximate equality, labor can successfully struggle in this warfare
with capital. But this is an exceptional and temporary condition of
society. In the Old World this state of things has long since passed
away, and the conflict with the lower grades of labor has long since
ceased. There the compensation of unskilled labor, which first
succumbs to capital, is reduced to a point scarcely adequate to the
continuance of the race. The rate of increase is scarcely one per cent.
per annum, and even at that rate, population, until recently, was
considered a curse; in short, capital has become the master of labor,
with all the benefits, without the natural burdens of the relation.
In this division of the earnings of labor between it and capital, the
southern slave has a marked advantage over the English laborer, and
is often equal to the free laborer of the North. Here again we are
furnished with authentic data from which to reason. The census of
1850 shows that, on the cotton estates of the South, which is the chief
branch of our agricultural industry, one-half of the arable lands are
annually put under food crops. This half is usually wholly consumed
on the farm by the laborers and necessary animals; out of the other
half must be paid all the necessary expenses of production, often
including additional supplies of food beyond the produce of the land,
which usually equals one-third of the residue, leaving but one-third
for net rent. The average rent of land in the older non-slaveholding
states is equal to one-third of the gross product, and it not
unfrequently amounts to one-half of it (in England it is sometimes
even greater), the tenant, from his portion, paying all expenses of
production and the expenses of himself and family. From this
statement it is apparent that the farm laborers of the South receive
always as much, and frequently a greater portion of the produce of
the land, than the laborer in the New or Old England. Besides, here
the portion due the slave is a charge upon the whole product of
capital and the capital itself; it is neither dependent upon seasons
nor subject to accidents, and survives his own capacity for labor, and
even the ruin of his master.
But it is objected that religious instruction is denied the slave—
while it is true that religious instruction and privileges are not
enjoined by law in all of the states, the number of slaves who are in
connection with the different churches abundantly proves the
universality of their enjoyment of those privileges. And a much larger
number of the race in slavery enjoy the consolations of religion than
the efforts of the combined Christian world have been able to convert
to Christianity out of all the millions of their countrymen who
remained in their native land.
The immoralities of the slaves, and of those connected with
slavery, are constant themes of abolition denunciation. They are
lamentably great; but it remains to be shown that they are greater
than with the laboring poor of England, or any other country. And it
is shown that our slaves are without the additional stimulant of want
to drive them to crime—we have at least removed from them the
temptation and excuse of hunger. Poor human nature is here at least
spared the wretched fate of the utter prostration of its moral nature
at the feet of its physical wants. Lord Ashley’s report to the British
Parliament shows that in the capital of that empire, perhaps within
the hearing of Stafford House and Exeter Hall, hunger alone daily
drives its thousands of men and women into the abyss of crime.
It is also objected that our slaves are debarred the benefits of
education. This objection is also well taken, and is not without force.
And for this evil the slaves are greatly indebted to the abolitionists.
Formerly in none of the slaveholding states was it forbidden to teach
slaves to read and write; but the character of the literature sought to
be furnished them by the abolitionists caused these states to take
counsel rather of their passions than their reason, and to lay the axe
at the root of the evil; better counsels will in time prevail, and this
will be remedied. It is true that the slave, from his protected position,
has less need of education than the free laborer, who has to struggle
for himself in the warfare of society; yet it is both useful to him, his
master, and society.
The want of legal protection to the marriage relation is also a
fruitful source of agitation among the opponents of slavery. The
complaint is not without foundation. This is an evil not yet removed
by law; but marriage is not inconsistent with the institution of
slavery as it exists among us, and the objection, therefore, lies rather
to an incident than to the essence of the system. But in the truth and
fact marriage does exist to a very great extent among slaves, and is
encouraged and protected by their owners; and it will be found, upon
careful investigation, that fewer children are born out of wedlock
among slaves than in the capitals of two of the most civilized
countries of Europe—Austria and France; in the former, one-half of
the children are thus born; in the latter, more than one-fourth. But
even in this we have deprived the slave of no pre-existing right. We
found the race without any knowledge of or regard for the institution
of marriage, and we are reproached with not having as yet secured to
it that, with all other blessings of civilization. To protect that and
other domestic ties by laws forbidding, under proper regulations, the
separation of families, would be wise, proper, and humane; and
some of the slaveholding states have already adopted partial
legislation for the removal of these evils. But the objection is far
more formidable in theory than in practice. The accidents and
necessities of life, the desire to better one’s condition, produce
infinitely a greater amount of separation in families of the white than
ever happens to the colored race. This is true even in the United
States, where the general condition of the people is prosperous. But
it is still more marked in Europe. The injustice and despotism of
England towards Ireland has produced more separation of Irish
families, and sundered more domestic ties within the last ten years,
than African slavery has effected since its introduction into the
United States. The twenty millions of freemen in the United States
are witnesses of the dispersive injustice of the Old World. The
general happiness, cheerfulness, and contentment of slaves attest
both the mildness and humanity of the system and their natural
adaptation to their condition. They require no standing armies to
enforce their obedience; while the evidence of discontent, and the
appliances of force to repress it, are everywhere visible among the
toiling millions of the earth; even in the northern states of this
Union, strikes and mobs, unions and combinations against
employers, attest at once the misery and discontent of labor among
them. England keeps one hundred thousand soldiers in time of
peace, a large navy, and an innumerable police, to secure obedience
to her social institutions; and physical force is the sole guarantee of
her social order, the only cement of her gigantic empire.
I have briefly traced the condition of the African race through all
ages and all countries, and described it fairly and truly under
American slavery, and I submit that the proposition is fully proven,
that his position in slavery among us is superior to any which he has
ever attained in any age or country. The picture is not without shade
as well as light; evils and imperfections cling to man and all of his
works, and this is not exempt from them.
 Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana,

On Slave Property, in U. S. Senate, March 11, 1858.

Examine your Constitution; are slaves the only species of property
there recognized as requiring peculiar protection? Sir, the inventive
genius of our brethren of the north is a source of vast wealth to them
and vast benefit to the nation. I saw a short time ago in one of the
New York journals, that the estimated value of a few of the patents
now before us in this Capitol for renewal was $40,000,000. I cannot
believe that the entire capital invested in inventions of this character
in the United States can fall short of one hundred and fifty or two
hundred million dollars. On what protection does this vast property
rest? Just upon that same constitutional protection which gives a
remedy to the slave owner when his property is also found outside of
the limits of the state in which he lives.
Without this protection what would be the condition of the
northern inventor? Why, sir, the Vermont inventor protected by his
own law would come to Massachusetts, and there say to the pirate
who had stolen his property, “render me up my property, or pay me
value for its use.” The Senator from Vermont would receive for
answer, if he were the counsel of this Vermont inventor, “Sir, if you
want protection for your property go to your own state; property is
governed by the laws of the state within whose jurisdiction it is
found; you have no property in your invention outside of the limits of
your state; you cannot go an inch beyond it.” Would not this be so?
Does not every man see at once that the right of the inventor to his
discovery, that the right of the poet to his inspiration, depends upon
those principles of eternal justice which God has implanted in the
heart of man, and that wherever he cannot exercise them, it is
because man, faithless to the trust that he has received from God,
denies them the protection to which they are entitled?
 Sir, follow out the illustration which the Senator from Vermont
himself has given; take his very case of the Delaware owner of a
horse riding him across the line into Pennsylvania. The Senator says:
“Now, you see that slaves are not property like other property; if
slaves were property like other property, why have you this special
clause in your constitution to protect a slave? You have no clause to
protect the horse, because horses are recognized as property
everywhere.” Mr. President, the same fallacy lurks at the bottom of
this argument, as of all the rest. Let Pennsylvania exercise her
undoubted jurisdiction over persons and things within her own
boundary; let her do as she has a perfect right to do—declare that
hereafter, within the state of Pennsylvania, there shall be no property
in horses, and that no man shall maintain a suit in her courts for the
recovery of property in a horse; and where will your horse owner be
then? Just where the English poet is now; just where the slaveholder
and the inventor would be if the Constitution, foreseeing a difference
of opinion in relation to rights in these subject-matters, had not
provided the remedy in relation to such property as might easily be
plundered. Slaves, if you please, are not property like other property
in this: that you can easily rob us of them; but as to the right in them,
that man has to overthrow the whole history of the world, he has to
overthrow every treatise on jurisprudence, he has to ignore the
common sentiment of mankind, he has to repudiate the authority of
all that is considered sacred with man, ere he can reach the
conclusion that the person who owns a slave, in a country where
slavery has been established for ages, has no other property in that
slave than the mere title which is given by the statute law of the land
where it is found.
 William Lloyd Garrison Upon the Slavery
Question.

“Tyrants! confident of its overthrow, proclaim not to your vassals,

that the American Union is an experiment of freedom, which, if it
fails, will forever demonstrate the necessity of whips for the backs,
and chains for limbs of people. Know that its subversion is essential
to the triumph of justice, the deliverance of the oppressed, the
vindication of the brotherhood of the race. It was conceived in sin,
and brought forth in iniquity; and its career has been marked by
unparalleled hypocrisy, by high-handed tyranny, by a bold defiance
of the omniscience and omnipotence of God. Freedom indignantly
disowns it, and calls for its extinction; for within its borders are three
millions of slaves, whose blood constitutes its cement, whose flesh
forms a large and flourishing branch of its commerce, and who are
ranked with four-footed beasts and creeping things. To secure the
adoption of the constitution of the United States, first, that the
African slave trade—till that time a feeble, isolated, colonial traffic—
should, for at least twenty years, be prosecuted as a national interest,
under the American flag, and protected by the national arm;
secondly, that slavery holding oligarchy, created by allowing three-
fifths of the slaveholding population to be represented by their
taskmasters, should be allowed a permanent seat in congress;
thirdly, that the slave system should be secured against internal
revolt and external invasion, by the united physical force of the
country; fourthly, that not a foot of national territory should be
granted, on which the panting fugitive from slavery might stand, and
be safe from his pursuers, thus making every citizen a slave-hunter
and slave catcher. To say that this ‘covenant with death’ shall not be
annulled—that this ‘agreement with hell’ shall continue to stand—
that this refuge of lies shall not be swept away—is to hurl defiance at
the eternal throne, and to give the lie to Him that sits thereon. It is
an attempt, alike monstrous and impracticable, to blend the light of
heaven with the darkness of the bottomless pit, to unite the living
with the dead, to associate the Son of God with the Prince of Evil.
Accursed be the American Union, as a stupendous, republican
imposture!”

“I am accused of using hard language. I admit the charge. I have

been unable to find a soft word to describe villainy, or to identify the
perpetrator of it. The man who makes a chattel of his brother—what
is he? The man who keeps back the hire of his laborers by fraud—
what is he? They who prohibit the circulation of the Bible—what are
they? They who compel three millions of men and women to herd
together like brute beasts—what are they? They who sell mothers by
the pound, and children in lots to suit purchasers—what are they? I
care not what terms are applied to them, provided they do apply. If
they are not thieves, if they are not tyrants, if they are not men
stealers, I should like to know what is their true character, and by
what names they may be called. It is as mild an epithet to say that a
thief is a thief, as to say that a spade is a spade. Words are but the
signs of ideas. ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’
Language may be misapplied, and so be absurd or unjust; as for
example, to say that an abolitionist is a fanatic, or that a slaveholder
is an honest man. But to call things by their right names is to use
neither hard nor improper language. Epithets may be rightly applied,
it is true, and yet be uttered in a hard spirit, or with a malicious
design. What then? Shall we discard all terms which are descriptive
of crime, because they are not always used with fairness and
propriety? He who, when he sees oppression, cries out against it—
who, when he beholds his equal brother trodden under foot by the
iron hoof of despotism, rushes to his rescue—who, when he sees the
weak overborne by the strong, takes his side with the former, at the
imminent peril of his own safety—such a man needs no certificate to
the excellence of his temper, or the sincerity of his heart, or the
disinterestedness of his conduct. Or is the apologist of slavery, he
who can see the victim of thieves lying bleeding and helpless on the
cold earth, and yet turn aside, like the callous-hearted priest or
Levite, who needs absolution. Let us call tyrants, tyrants; not to do
so is to misuse language, to deal treacherously with freedom, to
consent to the enslavement of mankind. It is neither amiable nor
virtuous, but a foolish and pernicious thing, not to call things by their
right names. ‘Woe unto them,’ says one of the world’s great prophets,
‘that call evil good, and good evil;’ that put darkness for light, and
light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
 Theodore Parker Against the Fugitive Slave
Law.

His Protest Against the Return of Simms by the U. S. Commissioner

at Boston.
“Come with me, my friends, a moment more, pass over this
golgotha of human history, treading reverent as you go, for our feet
are on our mother’s graves, and our shoes defile our father’s
hallowed bones. Let us not talk of them; go farther on, look and pass
by. Come with me into the inferno of the nations, with such poor
guidance as my lamp can lend. Let us disquiet and bring up the awful
shadows of empires buried long ago, and learn a lesson from the
tomb.” “Come, old Assyria, with the Ninevitish dove upon thy
emerald crown! what laid thee low? ‘I fell by my own injustice.
Thereby Nineveh and Babylon came with me also to the ground.’”
“Oh, queenly Persia, flame of the nations, wherefore art thou so
fallen, who troddest the people under thee, bridgest the Hellespont
with ships, and pouredst thy temple-wasting millions on the world?
Because I trod the people under me, and bridged the Hellespont with
ships, and poured my temple-wasting millions on the western world,
I fell by my own misdeeds.” “Thou muse-like Grecian queen, fairest
of all thy classic sisterhood of states, enchanting yet the world with
thy sweet witchery, speaking in art and most seductive song, why
liest thou there, with beauteous yet dishonored brow, reposing on
thy broken harp? ‘I scorned the law of God; banished and poisoned
wisest, justest men; I loved the loveliness of thought, and treasured
that in more than Parian speech. But the beauty of justice, the
loveliness of love, I trod them down to earth! Lo, therefore have I
become as those barbarian states—as one of them!’” “Oh, manly and
majestic Rome, thy seven-fold mural crown all broken at thy feet,
why art thou here? It was not injustice brought thee low; for thy
great book of law is prefaced with these words—justice is the
unchanged, everlasting will to give each man his right! ‘It was not the
saint’s ideal; it was the hypocrite’s pretense.’ I made iniquity my law.
I trod the nations under me. Their wealth gilded my palaces—where
thou mayest see the fox and hear the owl—it fed my courtiers and my
courtesans. Wicked men were my cabinet counselors, the flatterer
breathed his poison in my ear. Millions of bondsmen wet the soil
with tears and blood. Do you not hear it crying yet to God? Lo, here
have I my recompense, tormented with such downfall as you see! Go
back and tell the new-born child who sitteth on the Alleghanies,
laying his either hand upon a tributary sea, a crown of thirty stars
upon his youthful brow—tell him that there are rights which states
must keep, or they shall suffer wrongs! Tell him there is a God who
keeps the black man and the white, and hurls to earth the loftiest
realm that breaks his just, eternal law! Warn the young empire, that
he come not down dim and dishonored to my shameful tomb! Tell
him that justice is the unchanging, everlasting will to give each man
his right. I knew it, broke it, and am lost. Bid him know it, keep it,
and be safe.”

The same speaker protests against the return of Simms.

“Where shall I find a parallel with men who will do such a deed—
do it in Boston? I will open the tombs and bring up most hideous
tyrants from the dead. Come, brood of monsters, let me bring up
from the deep damnation of the graves wherein your hated memories
continue for all time their never-ending rot. Come, birds of evil
omen! come, ravens, vultures, carrion crows, and see the spectacle!
come, see the meeting of congenial souls! I will disturb, disquiet, and
bring up the greatest monsters of the human race! Tremble not,
women! They cannot harm you now! Fear the living, not the dead!”
Come hither, Herod, the wicked. Thou that didst seek after that
young child’s life, and destroyed the innocents! Let me look on thy
face! No, go! Thou wert a heathen! Go, lie with the innocents thou
hast massacred. Thou art too good for this company! “Come, Nero;
thou awful Roman emperor, come up! No, thou wast drunk with
power! schooled in Roman depravity. Thou hadst, besides, the
example of thy fancied gods. Go, wait another day. I will seek a worse
man.
 “Come hither, St. Dominic! come, Torquemada; fathers of the
Inquisition! merciless monsters, seek your equal here. No; pass by.
You are no companion for such men as these. You were the servants
of the atheistic popes, of cruel kings. Go to, and get you gone.
Another time I may have work for you—now, lie there, and persevere
to rot. You are not yet quite wicked and corrupt enough for this
comparison. Go, get you gone, lest the sun goes back at sight of ye!
“Come up, thou heap of wickedness, George Jeffries! thy hands
deep purple with the blood of thy fellow-men. Ah! I know thee, awful
and accursed shade! Two hundred years after thy death men hate
thee still, not without cause. Look me upon thee! I know thy history.
Pause, and be still, while I tell to these men. * * * Come, shade of
judicial butcher. Two hundred years, thy name has been pillowed in
face of the world, and thy memory gibbeted before mankind. Let us
see how thou wilt compare with those who kidnap men in Boston.
Go, seek companionship with them. Go, claim thy kindred if such
they be. Go, tell them that the memory of the wicked shall rot; that
there is a God; an eternity; ay, and a judgment, too, where the slave
may appeal against him that made him a slave, to Him that made
him a man.
“What! Dost thou shudder? Thou turn back! These not thy
kindred! Why dost thou turn pale, as when the crowd clutched at thy
life in London street? Forgive me, that I should send thee on such an
errand, or bid thee seek companionship with such—with Boston
hunters of the slave! Thou wert not base enough! It was a great bribe
that tempted thee! Again, I say, pardon me for sending thee to keep
company with such men! Thou only struckest at men accused of
crime; not at men accused only of their birth! Thou wouldst not send
a man into bondage for two pounds! I will not rank thee with men
who, in Boston, for ten dollars, would enslave a negro now! Rest still,
Herod! Be quiet, Nero! Sleep, St. Dominic, and sleep, O Torquemada,
in your fiery jail! Sleep, Jeffries, underneath ‘the altar of the church’
which seeks, with Christian charity to hide your hated bones!”
 William H. Seward’s Speech on the Higher
Law.

In the U. S. Senate, March 11, 1850.

“But it is insisted that the admission of California shall be attended
by a COMPROMISE of questions which have arisen out of SLAVERY! I
am opposed to any such compromise in any and all the forms in
which it has been proposed. Because, while admitting the purity
and the patriotism of all from whom it is my misfortune to differ, I
think all legislative compromises radically wrong, and essentially
vicious. They involve the surrender of the exercise of judgment and
the conscience on distinct and separate questions, at distinct and
separate times, with the indispensable advantages it affords for
ascertaining the truth. They involve a relinquishment of the right to
reconsider in future the decision of the present, on questions
prematurely anticipated. And they are a usurpation as to future
questions of the providence of future legislators.
“Sir, it seems to me as if slavery had laid its paralyzing hand upon
myself, and the blood were coursing less freely than its wont through
my veins, when I endeavor to suppose that such a compromise has
been effected, and my utterance forever is arrested upon all the great
questions, social, moral, and political, arising out of a subject so
important, and yet so incomprehensible. What am I to receive in this
compromise? Freedom in California. It is well; it is a noble
acquisition; it is worth a sacrifice. But what am I to give as an
equivalent? A recognition of a claim to perpetuate slavery in the
District of Columbia; forbearance towards more stringent laws
concerning the arrest of persons suspected of being slaves found in
the free States; forbearance from the PROVISO of freedom in the
charter of new territories. None of the plans of compromise offered
demand less than two, and most of them insist on all these
conditions. The equivalent then is, some portion of liberty, some
portion of human rights in one region for liberty in another.”
“It is true indeed that the national domain is ours. It is true it was
acquired by the valor and the wealth of the whole nation. But we
hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it. We hold no arbitrary
power over anything, whether acquired by law or seized by
usurpation. The constitution regulates our stewardship; the
constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to welfare and
to liberty. But there is a higher law than the constitution, which
regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same
noble purpose. The territory is a part, no inconsiderable part of the
common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of
the universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust,
as to secure in the highest attainable degree their happiness. This is a
State, and we are deliberating for it, just as our fathers deliberated in
establishing the institutions we enjoy. Whatever superiority there is
in our condition and hopes over those of any other ‘kingdom’ or
‘estate,’ is due to the fortunate circumstance that our ancestors did
not leave things to ‘take their chances’ but that they ‘added
amplitude and greatness’ to our commonwealth ‘by introducing such
ordinances, constitutions, and customs as were wise.’ We in our turn
have succeeded to the same responsibilities, and we cannot approach
the duty before us wisely or justly, except we raise ourselves to the
great consideration of how we can most certainly ‘sow greatness to
our posterity and successors.’
“And now the simple, bold, and awful question which presents
itself to us is this: shall we, who are founding institutions, social and
political, for countless millions; shall we, who know by experience
the wise and just, and are free to choose them, and to reject the
erroneous and unjust; shall we establish human bondage, or permit
it by our sufferance to be established? Sir, our forefathers would not
have hesitated an hour. They found slavery existing here, and they
left it only because they could not remove it. There is not only no free
State which would now establish it, but there is no slave State which,
if it had had the free alternative, as we now have, would have
founded slavery. Indeed, our revolutionary predecessors had
precisely the same question before them in establishing an organic
law, under which the States of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin,