Do You Know What Defines A Narcissistic Person?

The personality of the human being can be described from a series of traits or characteristics When these characteristics form a certain pattern that ends up being dysfunctional or maladaptive, we can talk about a personality disorder.

One of the most relevant elements of this type of disorder is that the pattern is rigid and persistent and leaves its mark on the different areas in which the person operates. And another of the most fundamental aspects is that, almost always, people who suffer from it are not aware of it or do not believe that their thoughts and behaviors may be inappropriate.

Normally, these types of disorders are diagnosed at the beginning of adulthood, which is when the personality has been established more definitively. There are different personality disorders depending on the type of cognitive, emotional and behavioral pattern. One of them is narcissistic disorder

    Characteristics of pathological narcissism

    Narcissistic personality disorder affects around 2% of the population, and it is mostly men and not women who manifest it.

    In the case of this personality disorder, there are a series of aspects that can help us understand its internal functioning

    1. Guilt and responsibility

    People with narcissistic personality disorder are not able to assess their own failure or responsibility when the circumstances are not desired. On the other hand, They think it’s the rest’s fault, and that it is others who make mistakes, and do not do things correctly. Thus they exempt themselves from any responsibility and make it impossible to improve or grow.

      2. Competitiveness

      They tend to be highly competitive people who quickly start comparing themselves and trying to win and to do so, they also tend to exaggerate and magnify their abilities (something they do not pretend, since they truly think they are better).

        3. Individualism

        At a social level, they are perceived as uncooperative, with a strong tendency towards individualism.

        Narcissistic personality

        4. Security and external validation

        They constantly need external validation to reaffirm their position and on many occasions they lie, manipulate or distort the truth, in order to exalt their qualities.

        However, we have to understand that what this attitude of magnificence contains is a terrible fear of rejection by others, and the fear of failure.

          5. Vision of themselves

          As we have mentioned, they have a very high view of themselves, which leads them to consider yourself above others something that leads them to be rejected in many environments.

            6. Emotional management

            It is characteristic of these people that they have a low capacity for introspection.

            7. Communication style

            They have a communication style in which understanding or agreement with the interlocutor does not exist, since they focus again on themselves with the intention of demonstrating their own worth or posture, so they do not usually listen to others and tend to take a fighting attitude. In this area, we can also see how they reject and react very negatively to the criticisms that are raised against them.

            • You may be interested: “The 28 types of communication and their characteristics”

            8. Relationship with others

            Another of the most striking characteristics is their lack of empathy and how they are people who stay focused on themselves, so They often try to manipulate other people to achieve their goals

            However, behind these behaviors we can find that these people are highly influenced by a series of variables that they are having a hard time managing, such as:

            • Fear to fail
            • Perfectionism

            • Deficits in social skills
            • Need for acceptance
            • Low self-esteem

            • Emotional dependence

            Personality traits and social context

            As we have previously mentioned, we are talking about a personality disorder, that is, a pattern of stable characteristics over time that produce problems in the lives of people or those around them.

            However, Many people may have some personality traits that appear in certain circumstances but do not interfere with their lives becoming functional, so they do not have a personality disorder. That is, there may be people with personality traits that in some ways resemble narcissism.

            In this sense, if we look at our society today, we can find that There is a tendency towards social valuation, which makes it easier for these narcissistic traits to develop due to the need to stand out and obtain recognition from the environment in different areas of life.

            We could say in some way that behaviors related to standing out above others, to being successful are encouraged and rewarded (sometimes without looking at how it is achieved).

            However, as we have seen throughout this article, in order to talk about narcissism, there must be a series of difficulties that are of greater imbalance and therefore seriousness, so appropriately addressing the emotions and needs of each person will help us. It will help develop a personality style and an adjusted and healthy coping with reality.