The Psychology of Serial and Mass Killers - Pathological Narcissism Overview

Written by Sam Vaknin

Jung regards introversion as a useful tool in the service of the endless psychic quest for adaptation strategies (narcissism being one such strategy). The Jungian adaptation repertoire does not discriminate against narcissism. To Jung it is as legitimate a choice as any. But even Jung acknowledged that the very need to look for a new adaptation strategy means that adaptation has failed. In other words, the search itself is indicative of a pathological state of affairs. It does seem that introversion per se is not pathological (because no psychological mechanism is pathological per se). Only its uses might be pathological.

One would tend to agree with Freud, though, that when introversion becomes a permanent feature of the psychic landscape of a person - it facilitates pathological narcissism. Jung distinguished introverts (those who habitually concentrate on their selves rather than on outside objects) from extroverts (the converse predilection). Not only is introversion a totally normal and natural function in childhood, it remains normal and natural even if it predominates the adult's mental life.

Still, the habitual and predominant focusing of attention upon one's self, to the exclusion of others, is the definition of pathological narcissism. What differentiates the pathological from the normal is degree. Pathological narcissism is exclusive and all-pervasive. Other forms of narcissism are not.

So, although there is no completely healthy state of habitual, predominant introversion, it remains a question of form and degree of introversion. Often a healthy, adaptive mechanism goes awry. When it does, as Jung himself recognized, neuroses form. Freud regards Narcissism as a point while Jung regards it as a continuum (from health to sickness).

In a way, Heinz Kohut took Jung a step further. He said that pathological narcissism is not the result of excessive narcissism, libido or aggression. It is the result of defective, deformed or incomplete narcissistic (self) structures. Kohut postulated the existence of core constructs which he named: the Grandiose Exhibitionistic Self and the Idealized Parent Imago (see below).

Children entertain notions of greatness (primitive or naive grandiosity) mingled with magical thinking, feelings of omnipotence and omniscience and a belief in their immunity to the consequences of their actions. These elements and the child's feelings regarding its parents (which are also depicted as omnipotent and grandiose) - coagulate and form the aforementioned constructs.

The child's feelings towards its parents are his reactions to their responses (affirmation, buffering, modulation or disapproval, punishment, even abuse). These responses help maintain the self-structures. Without the appropriate responses, infantile grandiosity, for instance, cannot be transformed into adult ambitions and ideals.

To Kohut, grandiosity and idealization were positive childhood development mechanisms. Even their reappearance in transference should not be considered a pathological narcissistic regression.

In his "Chicago Lectures 1972-1976" he says:

"You see, the actual issue is really a simple one . . . a simple change in classical [Freudian] theory, which states that auto-erotism develops into narcissism and that narcissism develops into object love ... There is a contrast and opposition between narcissism and object love. The [forward] movement toward maturation was toward object love.

The movement from object love toward narcissism is a [backward] regressive movement toward a fixation point. To my mind [this] viewpoint is a theory built into a nonscientific value judgment ... That has nothing to do with developmental psychology." [pp.277-278]

Kohut's contention is nothing less than revolutionary. He says that narcissism (subject-love) and object-love coexist and interact throughout life. True, they assume different guises with age and maturation - but they always cohabitate. Kohut: "It is not that the self-experiences are given up and replaced by... a more mature or developmentally more advanced experience of objects."

This dichotomy inevitably leads to a dichotomy of disorders. Kohut agreed with Freud that neuroses are conglomerates of defense mechanisms, formations, symptoms, and unconscious conflicts. He did not object to identifying unresolved Oedipal conflicts (ungratified unconscious wishes and their objects) as the root of neuroses. But he identified a whole new class of disorders: the self-disorders. These are the result of the perturbed development of narcissism.

It was not a cosmetic or superficial distinction. Self disorders are the outcomes of childhood traumas very much different to Freud's Oedipal, castration and other conflicts and fears. These are the traumas of the child either not being "seen" - when the child's existence and presence are not affirmed by objects, especially the Primary Objects, the parents. These are the traumas of being regarded as an object for gratification, or abuse. Such children develop to become adults who are not sure that they do exist (lack a sense of self-continuity) or that they worth existing (unregulated sense of self-worth, or lack of self-esteem). They suffer depressions, as neurotics do.

But the source of these depressions is existential (a gnawing sensation of emptiness) as opposed to the "guilty-conscience" depressions of neurotics. Such depressions:

"... Are interrupted by rages because things are not going their way, because responses are not forthcoming in the way they expected and needed. Some of them may even search for conflict to relieve the pain and intense suffering of the poorly established self, the pain of the discontinuous, fragmenting, undercathected self of the child not seen or responded to as a unit of its own, not recognized as an independent self who wants to feel like somebody, who wants to go its own way ...

They are individuals whose disorders can be understood and treated only by taking into consideration the formative experiences in childhood of the total body-mind-self and its self-object environment - for instance, the experiences of joy of the total self feeling confirmed, which leads to pride, self-esteem, zest, and initiative; or the experiences of shame, loss of vitality, deadness, and depression of the self who does not have the feeling of being included, welcomed, and enjoyed."

(From: The Preface to the "Chicago Lectures 1972-1976 of H. Kohut, by: Paul and Marian Tolpin)