Today it is really great to have W. Keith Campbell on the podcast. Campbell is a professor of Psychology at the University of Georgia as well as the author of The Narcissism Epidemic, When You Love a Man Who Loves Himself, and most recently, The New Science of Narcissism. He also has more than 120 peer reviewed articles and he lives in Athens, Georgia.
Time Stamps
[00:01:41] Defining grandiose and vulnerable narcissism
[00:03:33] Three-factor model of narcissism
[00:07:32] The “recipe for narcissism”
[00:10:00] Primary goals and motives of narcissists
[00:12:56] The role of vanity in narcissism
[00:16:47] Gender differences in narcissistic traits
[00:19:12] Gender differences in narcissism personality disorder diagnoses
[00:22:14] Dark and light triads of personality
[00:26:42] The dark empath and unique personality trait combinations
[00:30:03] How narcissistic traits affect relationship dynamics
[00:35:07] When do relationships start to fall apart?
[00:39:08] Narcissism in today’s leadership
[00:44:26] Narcissism in social media
[00:45:39] Geek culture and the great fantasy migration
[00:52:37] How to reduce narcissism
[00:55:57] How to deal with narcissists
[00:57:55] Psychotherapy for vulnerable narcissism
[01:02:04] Narcissistic personality disorder
[01:05:54] New treatments for narcissistic personality disorder
[01:09:40] Transcending the ego
This episode, although very welcome, was too abstract to be much use. Please can we have some episodes about narcissism that give lots of examples? Especially with regards to how to deal with narcissists? How to spot narcissists? The different kinds of harm they do to those around them and how? Etc. etc, etc.
The end of this episode was so tantalising – telling us that narcissists can actually be easy to manage but without lots of practical examples I still wouldn’t have the confidence, or really know what to do.
Also, I do wonder whether regarding language use in the UK, whether a feeling of superiority is more of a feature of vulnerable narcissists as opposed to grandiosity? Grandiosity in itself seems like it could be harmless whereas a feeling of superiority is not. And to me narcissists relevance comes from the harm that they do to others. My interest is a very practical one. And Psychologists Off the Clock provided a great episode in which they described what makes some people especially likely to be targeted by narcissists. Knowing that is crucial if you are to protect yourself from them. It’s been a revelation to me.
And what about parents who harm their adult children through their narcissistic behaviour? It can be very difficult to get away from your parents – especially if you need one another’s help.
I love your podcast and can’t thank you enough for doing it. Thank you!
Please can my comments about the episode on narcissism and my request for more be published anonymously? My comment at the end regarding parents makes this extremely important.
Interesting that he mentioned dialectic behavioural therapy for vulnerable narcissism, surmising that anything that helps borderline personality disorder is expected to help vulnerable narcissists because of their shared neurotic traits of anxiety and depression. Both BPD and vulnerable narcissists seem to be associated with high scores on the same Big Five traits. I wonder if feeling chronically invalidated as a child leads to an adult whose “invalidated child” shows up during interpersonal stresses. This child re-experiences invalidation and starts to behave with emotional immaturity as they look to others for regulation. It is this aspect of a person with BPD that inadvertently leads to more invalidation, as their emotional immaturity and fixation on their victimhood and invalidation makes it hard for others to connect with them.