Looking ahead through a fragile lens: Vulnerable narcissism and the future self

Kealy, David; Sandhu, Sharan; Ogrodniczuk, John S.

doi:10.1002/pmh.1384

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Fourth, we found that vulnerable narcissism was associated with a negative view of the future. These results are consistent with Kealy et al's (2017) observation that vulnerably narcissistic individuals hold a negative view of the future, with significantly lower optimism as well as reduced expectations of recovery and career satisfaction. A negative view of the future may be effectively addressed within a CBT model of therapy, wherein distorted future views are confronted and subjected to cognitive reframing.…”

Section: Implications For Clinical Interventionsupporting

confidence: 90%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Clinical Correlates of Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissism: A Personality Perspective

Kaufman

Weiss

Miller

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality Disorders

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is broad consensus that there are at least two different dimensions of narcissism: vulnerable and grandiose. In this study, the authors use a new trifurcated, three-factor model of narcissism to examine relations between aspects of narcissism and an array of clinically relevant criteria related to psychopathology, the self, authenticity, and well-being. Neurotic and antagonistic aspects of narcissism emerged as the most clinically relevant dimensions of narcissism, bearing relations with outcomes relating to interpersonal guilt, insecure attachment styles, cognitive distortions, maladaptive defense mechanisms, experiential avoidance, impostor syndrome, weak sense of self, inauthenticity, low self-esteem, and reduced psychological well-being. Grandiose narcissism was not correlated with most forms of psychopathology and was even positively associated with life satisfaction. Nevertheless, a surprising link was found between grandiose narcissism and multiple indicators of inauthenticity. Implications for the appropriate conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of pathological narcissism are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Implications For Clinical Interventionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…suggest that vulnerable narcissism is associated not only with negative views of the self, but also with a pessimistic future outlook, a potential target for interventions that address the optimism of the future self, not just evaluations of the current self (Kealy, Sandhu, & Ogrodniczuk, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical Correlates of Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissism: A Personality Perspective

Kaufman

Weiss

Miller

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality Disorders

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other narcissism-related processes may also explain the finding on self-hostility. For example, results may mirror a general tendency in vulnerable narcissism to perceive the self in a pessimistic and negatively valenced way (e.g., Kealy, Sandhu, et al, 2017;Rohmann et al, 2019). Also, presenting the self as hostile may mirror motivationbased processes that serve as an alternative route to self-enhancement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Interpersonal perceptions in treatment sessions: Pathological narcissism predicts self‐rater discrepancies

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective Evidence suggests that pathological narcissism impacts psychotherapy process and outcome. This study investigates whether traits of pathological narcissism account for distinctiveness (construal) of patients' interpersonal perceptions in treatment settings. Methods Patients enrolled in psychological/psychotherapeutic treatment (N = 150) described a segment of a session in a written format and subsequently assessed both self‐ and clinician's behavior on the dimensions of dominance and hostility (patient‐reported ratings), along with their pathological narcissistic traits. Three independent raters also assessed interpersonal behaviors (observer‐reported ratings) based on the written session descriptions. Indices of construal were defined by the residuals of self‐reported (net of observer‐reported) ratings and were regressed onto pathological narcissistic traits. Results No association emerged between pathological narcissism and construal in patients' perceptions of their clinicians. However, grandiose traits of pathological narcissism were related to distinctively perceiving oneself as more dominant, while vulnerable traits were related to distinctively perceiving oneself as more hostile. The former association (but not the latter) also held after incorporating additional observer ratings to investigate the robustness of the results. Conclusion Findings are discussed in light of treatment‐related self‐enhancement and self‐concealment processes.

show abstract

“…In line with past theory, research provides evidence for the difficulties PN poses in therapy. Specifically, higher PN has been associated with perceiving oneself as more dominant and hostile during psychotherapy sessions (Di Sarno et al, 2023), having lower commitment to personal growth and diminished expectations for resolving one's own mental health difficulties (Kealy, Sandhu, & Ogrodniczuk, 2017) as well as increased likelihood of early treatment termination (e.g., Ellison et al, 2013;Ogrodniczuk et al, 2009). Furthermore, research has found that individuals high in PN tend to evoke more negative countertransference responses in their therapists, including feelings of being criticized/devalued, feelings of hostility/ anger, helplessness/inadequacy, and disengagement, as well as less positive countertransference reactions (Tanzilli et al, 2017).…”

Section: Pathological Narcissism In Psychotherapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathological narcissism’s impact on psychodynamic group therapy for perfectionism.

Ge,

Hewitt,

Mikail

et al. 2024

Psychotherapy

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several decades of theory suggest that pathological narcissism (PN) may limit psychotherapy success, but empirical evidence for such theories is limited and mixed. In addition, it has been proposed that individuals with high levels of PN may benefit more from supportive compared to interpretive psychodynamic therapies, but no studies thus far have investigated this question empirically. As such, our study aimed to extend past research by investigating (a) whether higher levels of pretreatment PN predict poorer treatment outcome and (b) whether the type of psychodynamic therapy (supportive or interpretive therapy) moderates these findings, in a sample of patients undergoing group psychodynamic psychotherapy for perfectionism. The sample was drawn from the University of British Columbia Perfectionism Treatment Study II (Hewitt et al., 2023) and consisted of 80 treatment-seeking adults with elevated perfectionism. Contrary to expectations, multilevel and multiple regression analyses showed that pretreatment PN did not significantly predict posttreatment changes in symptom severity, life satisfaction, or work and social impairment. We also did not find that either grandiose or vulnerable narcissism predicted likelihood of patient dropout. Finally, treatment type did not moderate the relationship between pretreatment PN and treatment outcome, suggesting that, contrary to our hypotheses, PN does not impact treatment outcome regardless of the interpretive nature of the psychodynamic group therapy. These results, taken together with past findings, suggest that PN may not be associated with poorer psychotherapy outcomes in certain contexts, such as in the case of supportive or interpretive psychodynamic group psychotherapy for perfectionism.

show abstract

Looking ahead through a fragile lens: Vulnerable narcissism and the future self

Cited by 13 publications

References 38 publications

Clinical Correlates of Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissism: A Personality Perspective

Clinical Correlates of Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissism: A Personality Perspective

Interpersonal perceptions in treatment sessions: Pathological narcissism predicts self‐rater discrepancies

Pathological narcissism’s impact on psychodynamic group therapy for perfectionism.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About