Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
8: 7984 (2014)
Published online 19 January 2014 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/pmh.1253
Complex Case
Narcissistic biographiesthird age selftranscendence abilities
AUREL NIRESTEAN, EMESE LUKACS, DANA CIMPAN AND TUDOR NIRESTEAN, Psychiatric
Clinic II, Tirgu-Mures, UMF Tg. Mures, Targu Mures, Romania
ABSTRACT
Narcissistic traits interfere in the process of self-determination and the individual motivational strategies of
human beings. The grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic personality subtypes have difculties in their
education, interpersonal relationships and quality of life. The latter is also affected by ageing, whose attributes
inuence, above all, ones self-esteem, especially in women. Though very fearful of suffering and death,
narcissists have a powerful desire to overcome them by cultivating their grandiosity, especially through the
mystical and paranormal experiences they relate. The spiritual means of transcending ones self, including the
components of magical thinking, can prevent the destruction of self-esteem in narcissists in their third-age.
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Narcissism is a term originated in ancient Greek
legends in which the Narcissus myth pleaded
simultaneously for human beings superiority
and vulnerability. Psychoanalysis reconrms
the signicance of this concept by describing
the primary and secondary narcissism of childhood, and the immaturity of the relationships
with the outer object in adulthood (Kohut,
1966, 1971).
Furthermore, the narcissistic state of balance in
which the selfs abilities correspond to the requirements of the super-self, represents an ideal of maturity for human beings. Thus, we may consider
that narcissistic traits always interfere in the
self-determination process and in the individual motivational strategies. As components of egocentrism,
they may have a signicant adaptive rolethe
healthy narcissism which means cohesion, strength
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Disease history
The Patient, has no psychiatric antecedents, and
has been admitted for the rst time at the beginning of 2011 after an extended period of weight
loss, lack of appetite, sleeplessness and nightmares
in the contxt of an anxious-depressive episode.
The symptomatology appeared insidiously due to
existential frustrations related mainly to ageing.
Besides, changes in health and physical appearance,
the patient has been suffering from loneliness,
rinactivity and tensions derived from her interpersonal relationships. During admission, she has
been treated with Escitalopram, Alprazolam and
Nicergolina, supportive psychotherapy, therapeutic alliance being good only when the teams
attitude was permissive and compliant with her
various demands. She is envious of persons with
certain qualities or more important roles,
projecting on them her own feelings by repeatedly
evoking an inevitable and fatal ending. Evolution
has been favourable with partial remission due to
the persistence of onset factors and narcissistic
personality traits.
Comparative observations. We consider relevant
the description of these two patients with narcissistic traits and several similarities in their biographical
data. In both cases, there is no emphasis of clinical
phenomena of cognitive decline.
Their Narcissistic destiny was pregured since
childhood, each patient being more valued than
other children and/or spared from daily chores.
The father gure is described as passive or less
signicant, especially at patient H. Starting
from these patterns, in both cases, we observe
exaggerated demands on the opposite sex and
at the same time the conviction of their own
superiority in relation to the latter.
Egocentrism and affective superciality explain
the attitude towards children. Neither had
children but both worked with them in the educational system. In the professional role, all their
accomplishments and successes are related to their
own image and evolution in the professional
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DOI: 10.1002/pmh
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