It’s important to know the difference between narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). “People can have confidence and narcissistic tendencies," says Khadijah Watkins, MD, now a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, formerly an assistant professor of psychiatry in the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine and an assistant attending psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
However, to be considered NPD, “there is a significant degree of impairment and there’s a pervasive pattern of behaving in this way to the detriment of your personal relationships.” You can sum up NPD as an “inability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” says Dr. Watkins. “You are the only person that matters.” Learn more about personality disorders here.
Dr. Hartstein is the owner of Hartstein Psychological Services, a group psychotherapy practice in New York City.
Dr. Watkins is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she's the Associate Director of The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, and was previously the Associate Training Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program.
Dr. Samuels is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and an assistant attending psychiatrist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
References
Personality Disorders Awareness Network. (n.d.). Narcissistic personality disorder.
Rakovec-Felser Z. (2014). Domestic violence and abuse in intimate relationship from public health perspective. Health Psychology Research;2(3):1821.
U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2022). Narcissistic personality disorder.
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