When the personality is rigid to the point of being unable to change in reaction to changing circumstances - we say that it is disordered. A Personality Disorder is the ultimate misidentification. The individual mistakes his habits for his identity. He identifies himself with his environment, taking behavioral, emotional, and cognitive cues exclusively from it. His inner world is, so to speak, vacated, inhabited, as it were, by the apparition of his True Self. Such a person is incapable of loving and of living. The personality disordered person is incapable of living because life is a struggle TOWARDS, a striving, a drive AT something. In other words: life is change. He who cannot change cannot live. Continue reading...
The book is divided to three parts:
Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited is the core text. The narcissist is an actor enacting a monodrama, yet forced to remain behind the scenes. The scenes take center stage, instead. The Narcissist does not cater at all to his own needs. Contrary to his reputation, the Narcissist does not ""love"" himself in any true sense of this loaded word.
He feeds off other people, who hurl back at him an image that he projects to them. This is their sole function in his world: to reflect, to admire, to applaud, to detest - in a word, to assure him that he exists. Otherwise, they have no right to tax his time, energy, or emotions - so he feels.
Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited"" offers a detailed, first hand account of what it is like to have a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It offers new insights and an organized methodological framework using a new psychodynamic language.
Narcissism is a slippery subject: only with great difficulty can it be captured with words. A new vocabulary had to be invented to account for the myriad of facets and appearances - false and true - of this disease.
The second part of the book comprises 65 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding Narcissism and personality disorders.
The posting of ""Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited on the Web has elicited a flood of excited, sad and heart rending responses, mostly from victims of Narcissists but also from people suffering from the NPD. This is a true picture of the resulting correspondence with them.
Finally, Narcissism is a phenomenon, which affects society and culture in profound ways. The third part contains appendices that deal with various aspects and manifestations of Narcissism. In a way, it represents philosophical, cultural and societal issues as perceived by a person suffering from NPD (that is I). This is why it is entitled: ""The World as Viewed by the Narcissist.
Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Re-Visited was written under extreme conditions of duress. It was composed in jail as I was trying to understand what had hit me. My nine years old marriage dissolved, my finances were in a shocking condition, my family estranged, my reputation ruined, my personal freedom severely curtailed. Slowly, the realization that it was all my fault, that I was sick and needed help penetrated the decades old defenses that I erected around me. This book is the documentation of a road of self-discovery. It was a painful process, which led to nowhere. I am no different - and no healthier - today than I was when I wrote this book. My disorder is here to stay, the prognosis is poor and alarming.
This book is heavy reading. It is not intended to please or to entertain. NPD is a pernicious, vile and tortuous disease, which affects not only the Narcissist. It infects and forever changes people who are in daily contact with the Narcissist. In other words: it is contagious. It is my contention that Narcissism is the mental epidemic of the twentieth century, a plague to be fought by all means.
This book is my contribution to minimizing the damages of this disorder
He is an economic and political columnist in many periodicals in a few
countries and a published and awarded author of short fiction and reference
books in Hebrew, English and Macedonian in Israel, Macedonia and the Czech
Republic.
He has collaborated with Israeli psychologists and criminologists in the
study of personality disorders and is the author of "Malignant Self Love -
Narcissism Revisited" (published 1999 by Narcissus Publications).
He has recently been appointed Economic Advisor to the Government of
Macedonia.
His new book "After the Rain - How the West Lost the East" - an anthology of his political essays and articles was published by Central Europe Review and Narcissus Publications this year (2000).
Full CV is available at:
Web addresses: , ,
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Email address: palma@unet.com.mk or samvak@briefcase.com
