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Narcissistic Personality Disorder

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Synonyms

Narcissism; Pathological narcissism

Definition

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Diagnostic criteria include a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited power, success, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love, a belief that he/she is “special” or unique, a sense of entitlement, interpersonal exploitativeness, and envy.

Introduction

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a mental disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, a deep need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others that often leads to impairment in functioning in many areas of life, such as work, school, and relationships. Individuals diagnosed with NPD actively seek out self-enhancement experiences from their social environment, are highly sensitive to criticism, and often respond with anger or retaliatory behaviors when they do not receive the admiration or special treatment they believe...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Nicole M. Cain & Ayelet Boussi

Authors
  1. Nicole M. Cain
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  2. Ayelet Boussi
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Correspondence to Nicole M. Cain .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychology, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    Kevin Meehan

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Cain, N.M., Boussi, A. (2017). Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_604-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_604-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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