Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1982

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Leonard Handler

Abstract

Kohut (1971) views the narcissistic personality as having an underdeveloped "self" which is in constant need of external bolstering, the most reliable indicator of which is the self-oriented quality of the patient-to-therapist relationship. Drawing from Kohut' s formulations, narcissistic personality was understood for this study to mean an individual who relates to others predominately in the "narcissistic mode," the prototype for this mode being the child's self-oriented attachments to others during normal early development. The self-enhancing "narcissistic mode" may be contrasted to the "object loving mode'' in which others are recognized as separate from self. The literature on narcissistic personalities tends to focus primarily on males, and on individuals whose behavior is overtly arrogant. The objectives of this study were to examine the overt interpersonal styles of highly narcissistic individuals, to compare the styles of narcissistic women to those of narcissistic men, and to validate the notion that narcissistic individuals can be distinguished from nonnarcissistic individuals by the relative underlying predominance of the narcissistic mode. It was hypothesized that narcissistic individuals would display an array of overt styles, that the styles of narcissistic women would differ from those of narcissistic men, and that underlying features of narcissistic individuals would differ from those of nonnarcissistic individuals. With the aid of a criteria list, therapists identified 20 high narcissism and 20 low narcissism patients, and described patients' overt behavior on the Interpersonal Check List. They also provided information about patients' underlying features in an interview, which was then rated for Leary interpersonal themes. Although some variation in overt interpersonal styles of high narcissism patients was found, most had "traditional," overtly arrogant styles. No significant differences were found between narcissistic men and narcissistic women. Underlying differences were found, however, between high narcissism and low narcissism patients, differences which supported the narcissistic mode versus object loving mode distinction. Possible reasons for the limited range of styles among high narcissism patients, and for the absence of differences between narcissistic men and narcissistic women, were discussed.

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