April J. LaytonPsychology Branz

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Overview of the study

Narcissistic Personality Disorder, NPD, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders- Fourth Edition describes that the foundation “lack of empathy” in NPD is entirely based on clinical observation and expert consensus. However, a similar apprehension and empirical, or publicly observed, evaluation of the criterion “lack of empathy” in this disorder are inadequate, making the intent in this study was to empirically determine compassion in patients with narcissism according to the DSM-IV. This disorder is a severe mental disorder with popular rates of up to 6% in general population, unrelenting functional impairment, and high suicide rates.
This disorder was established as an individual foundation, criterion 8, in the DSM-III-R (1994), which explains the “inability to recognize and experience how others feel”. It was also affirmed in the DSM-IV and the DSM-IV-TR as criterion seven. More studies that have been based on the DSM-IV also uncovered low diagnostic accuracy of the criterion “lack of empathy”. The hypothesis is: the discrepancy is due to the fact that no theoretical constitute influences the NPD criterion “lack of empathy” in the DSM (1983), and so its assessment may be destitute.

Participants

Recruited were 47 inpatients that had been diagnosed with NPD by the Department of Psychiatry, Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and contributing German hospitals. 53 year-old, gender-assimilated, healthy corresponding vassals were recruited by media advertisements. Former studies of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder have reported abundant diseased condition between the two disorders and found overlap in in the symptoms of affect deregulation, acting without thought, and inconsistent relationships.