Abstract
Although theoretically the lack of empathy is a supposed key symptom of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), empirical studies examining empathy in NPD are scarce. In the present study it was examined whether patients with NPD differ from healthy controls and a psychiatric control group in their empathic abilities. In order to examine this question, 20 patients with NPD, 20 patients with a personality disorder in the Cluster C spectrum and 20 healthy control participants were presented with a questionnaire and a facial recognition task designed to measure empathic abilities. It was found that patients with NPD did not differ from the two control groups on a self-report questionnaire indicating that patients regard themselves as sensitive to the feelings of others. On the contrary, it was found NPD patients generally performed worse on a facial emotion recognition task compared to both control groups. In addition to this general deficit in emotion recognition, patients with NPD showed a specific deficit for emotions representing fear and disgust. These results provide the first empirical evidence for impaired emotion recognition in patients with NPD.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.