Narcissistic Rage Research Articles

Revenge: Narcissistic Injury, Rage, and Retaliation. Edited by Salman Akhtar and Henri Parens

Revenge: Narcissistic Injury, Rage, and Retaliation. Edited by Salman Akhtar and Henri Parens

Narcissistic rage revisited.

Narcissists are thought to exhibit "narcissistic rage," an explosive mix of anger and hostility arising from threats to narcissists' fractured sense of self. Building on clinical views of narcissism, we present empirical evidence on the nature and sources of narcissistic rage. Findings from 4 studies reveal narcissistic vulnerability (but not grandiosity) as a powerful driver of rage, hostility, and aggressive behavior, fueled by suspiciousness, dejection, and angry rumination. Consistent with theorizing about narcissistic rage, Study 1 showed that vulnerable (but not grandiose) narcissism predicted more anger internalization and externalization, as well as poorer anger control. Study 2 revealed vulnerable narcissism as a stronger indicator of shame and aggressiveness, especially hostility and anger. Study 3 identified distrust of others and angry rumination as key factors accounting for vulnerable narcissists' reactive and displaced aggression. Study 4 provided behavioral evidence that vulnerable (but not grandiose) narcissism amplifies reactive and displaced aggression in the face of provocation. Taken together, the findings not only establish narcissistic vulnerability as a key source of narcissistic rage but also reveal an important pathway to narcissistic aggression that does not involve competitiveness or exploitativeness. In addition, the results support clinical views of narcissistic aggression and implicate deficient self-esteem as an important driver of aggressive behavior.

The Psychological Origin of the 1300-Year-Old Arab-Israeli War: How History Must Guide Policy Making

This psycho-historical analysis advances the hypothesis that the long-standing hostilities between Israel and her Arab neighbors is fundamentally a religious conflict with a significant psychological co mponent. The origins of the war and standoff between the parties are traced back to the time of the founding of Islam and the encounter between Muhammad and the Jews of what is now Saudi Arabia. When the Jews rejected Muhammad as the Apostle of God, he experienced a severe psychological wound leading to a series of actions that would now be referred to as acts of narcissistic rage. This rage was transcribed into the Qur'an and has become an integral part o f Islamic-Jewish relations since that time. Key h istorical and psychological contexts are provided and serve as the basis for recommended next steps to be taken to promote the peace process, including roles for polit ical and consulting psychologists.

Unveiling the hidden self: Developmental trauma and pathological shame

This article focuses on the role played by developmental trauma in generating impairing feelings of shame as observed in several psychological disorders. An understanding of pathological shame is indeed critical for evaluating the psychic functioning of patients who have experienced parental neglect or abuse. A clinical vignette of a patient who suffered emotional neglect and intense role reversal during his childhood will help elucidate how developmental trauma can dramatically affect the patient's personality and behaviours, and ultimately lead to negative expectations towards interpersonal relationships, disturbing feelings of shame, and a sense of a defective self. Shame experiences deriving from the internalisation of bad or unworthy parents are subsequently linked to some psychopathological manifestations, such as withdrawal from social contacts, narcissistic rage, addiction and perversions.

On revenge

Following Kohut, the psychoanalytic literature has usually discussed revenge in terms of narcissistic rage evoked in response to narcissistic injury. In this paper, I draw on Bion to present an alternative reading of revenge. This interpretation is illustrated through von Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas and Moore and Lloyd's V for Vendetta.

Genocide and the Terror of History

The Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson initiated the Taskforce for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research in 1998 after visiting a Nazi concentration camp and...

A mediating model of relational aggression, narcissistic orientations, guilt feelings, and perceived classroom norms

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation between narcissistic orientations (grandiose sense of self-importance, interpersonal exploitation, and narcissistic rage) and relational aggression (self-satisfactory and punishment type) and the mediating effects of guilt feelings toward and perceived classroom norms against relational aggression. The sample consisted of 240 5th-grade and 6th-grade students (10- to 12-years-old) from two public elementary schools and 307 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-grade students (12- to 15-years-old) from two public middle schools in Japan. Results of structural equation modeling demonstrated that narcissistic rage was positively associated with relational aggression (punishment type). Moreover, interpersonal exploitation was related to more relational aggression (self-satisfactory and punishment type); however, guilt feelings toward and perceived classroom norms against relational aggression mediated this association. Age and gender did not largely affect these effects. Social and developmental processes involving relational aggression, narcissistic orientations, and guilt feelings and perceived classroom norms were discussed.

Sopravvivenza e ripresa: riflessioni psicoanalitiche

- In response to a concern that the impact of the Holocaust will not be recognized by psychotherapists treating survivors, several psychoanalysts who were refugees from Nazi Germany devoted a great deal of time and effort to detailing the psychopathological consequences of the Holocaust trauma. Considering the magnitude of the trauma, it was not difficult to find evidence of psychopathology. However, because of their almost exclusive emphasis on psychopathology, most of these researchers failed to recognize the particular manner in which survivors mourned their enormous losses and made an effort to integrate their painful memories into the rest of their personality. This meant the loss of an opportunity to learn about the process of recovery following severe traumatization. The paper also described a hypothesis regarding the psychological mechanisms involved in adaptations to extreme conditions. From the author's point of view, this constituted a link in the survivors' effort to establish psychic continuity between their pre-Holocaust psychological organization and adaptations to a new life. Unlike her colleagues, the author believes that integration of traumatic memories was possible as long as the survivors encountered an empathic listening perspective and their effort to recover was validated. Survivors of trauma have every reason to expect that their stories will evoke fear, confusion, horror and disbelief and that therapists will protect themselves from these affects by resorting to generalizations or praise for the survivor's heroism or special qualities. Such responses however make it impossible for survivors to proceed, and the affects associated with the traumatic memory may never, or only partially, enter the therapeutic dialogue. Once recovered and articulated, the memories are accompanied by grief and anger, indicating that an increase in self-cohesion, a healing of the vertical split, has allowed the previously feared affects to enter consciousness. From the author's viewpoint, feeling anger is an expectable and healthy response in this context. Justified anger is not to be confused with chronic narcissistic rage, which can constitute the nucleus of severe personality disorders.Key words: Holocaust, trauma, traumatic memories, adaptation, integration, empathic listening.Parole chiave: Olocausto, trauma, ricordi traumatici, adattamento, integrazione, ascolto empatico.

Narcissistic rage: The Achilles’ heel of the patient with chronic physical illness

Based on the psychoanalytic reading of Homer's Iliad whose principal theme is "Achilles' rage" (the semi-mortal hero invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel, hence "Achilles' heel" has come to mean a person's principal weakness), we aimed to assess whether "narcissistic rage" has an impact on several psychosocial variables in patients with severe physical illness across time. In 878 patients with cancer, rheumatological diseases, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and glaucoma, we assessed psychological distress (SCL-90 and GHQ-28), quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), interpersonal difficulties (IIP-40), hostility (HDHQ), and defense styles (DSQ). Narcissistic rage comprised DSQ "omnipotence" and HDHQ "extraverted hostility". Hierarchical multiple regressions analyses were performed. We showed that, in patients with disease duration less than one year, narcissistic rage had a minor impact on psychosocial variables studied, indicating that the rage was rather part of a "normal" mourning process. On the contrary, in patients with longer disease duration, increased rates of narcissistic rage had a great impact on all outcome variables, and the opposite was true for patients with low rates of narcissistic rage, indicating that narcissistic rage constitutes actually an "Achilles' Heel" for patients with long-term physical illness. These findings may have important clinical implications.

Sexuality and Narcissist Injury in Male Patients With Female Therapists

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Letters to the EditorFull AccessSexuality and Narcissist Injury in Male Patients With Female TherapistsEDWARD K. SILBERMAN M.D.,EDWARD K. SILBERMAN M.D.Search for more papers by this author,Published Online:1 May 2009https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.08121887AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail To The Editor: Dr. Hobday (1) is to be commended for her candid description of her struggle to understand her narcissistic patient and to deal with the discomfort of his sexually provocative and demeaning communications. However, I would like to suggest a somewhat different interpretation of the patient’s departure from treatment than what was emphasized in the case report. Although the discussants view “Mr. A” as a patient who did not comprehend the rules of the therapeutic situation, the facts as presented do not support this. The patient did not, after all, try to insist that his therapist see him outside the sessions or engage in sexual activity. His provocative and hostile writings were his attempt to express his thoughts and feelings, as his therapist had instructed, albeit within the limitations of his narcissistic defensive structure, and they demonstrate his acute awareness of the rules of therapy and his concern about the possible consequences of violating them.The therapist’s own understandable anxiety interfered with her ability to respond from a secure empathic position, which would have entailed acknowledging the patient’s rage (and with time, shame) at finding himself sexually aroused by someone who had no intention of reciprocating. His perception of being manipulated by a stimulating but aloof object, rather than his sexual arousal itself, was the transference to be dealt with in therapy. The patient made several attempts to engage around his expectation of rejection, but the therapist let these attempts pass in favor of setting limits. What followed was an enactment in which Mr. A’s growing narcissistic rage and paranoia further alarmed the therapist, who then treated him as a dangerously out-of-control child, undermining his sense of self-worth and adult efficacy still more. After a few vain attempts to salve his self-esteem through blame, devaluation, and reaction formation, he terminated the therapy.This case is a good example of how sexuality can obscure underlying deficits in self-efficacy and self-esteem and make it difficult for therapists to maintain an empathic holding environment in which to understand and repair these deficits.Boston, Mass.The author reports no competing interests.This letter (doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.08121887) was accepted for publication in February 2009.Reference1. Hobday G, Mellman L, Gabbard GO: Complex sexualized transferences when the patient is male and the therapist female. Am J Psychiatry 2008; 165:1525–1530Google Scholar FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 166Issue 5 May, 2009Pages 617-618THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY May 2009 Volume 166 Number 5 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 May 2009 Published in print 1 May 2009

‘Chronic Rage from Underground’: The Treatment of a Patient with a Severe Narcissistic Disorder

CME Educational Objectives 1. Differentiate “aggression” from “self-assertiveness” and appreciate its therapeutic advantages to this distinction. 2. Summarize the clinical usefulness of Kohut's classification of “narcissistic rage” as a whole spectrum as well as a distinct form from within that spectrum. 3. Identify the clinical-practical usefulness of the concept of “narcissistic rage,” as illustrated in the treatment of case.

White Shame

If we should watch a city coming into being in speech, I said, we also see its justice coming into being, and its injustice? Probably, he said. When this has been done, can we hope to see what we're looking for more easily? Far more easily. Is it resolved that we must try to carry this out? I suppose it's no small job, so consider Plato, Republic1 The Problem is under consideration here: the problem of those children of history who created the situation of and therefore bear responsibility for it. Joel Kavel White Racism: A Psychohistory2 Shame is directly about the self. In guilt, however, it is not the self but the act that is the central focus of negative evaluation.3 Discourse about race and in the United States includes a concept of white guilt but no concept of white shame. This reveals much about white moral psychologies and problems of race in America.4 In this essay I argue that whiteness operates with an impoverished concept of responsibility that overemphasizes guilt and underemphasizes moral shame.5 In contrast, I argue for a concept of responsibiUty that values both guilt and shame. I explore some of the impUcations of my analysis for race relations in America. I would like it to be clear from the start that I am not asking white people to feel more shame. Moral shame, in itself, is not especially praiseworthy. However shame can motivate us to try to reconnect, to work for forgiveness and reconciliation. It can arouse justified anger, which works to correct injustices, or to see them corrected. Appropriate moral shame, and a desire to avoid this negative emotion, can therefore motivate us in valuable ways. Typically, it is this motivation and the action it produces that are valuable, not the emotion itself. In other words, we need not waUow in moral shame. But of course shame, even moral shame, can have bad results. It can drive us apart. It can lead to dissociation. It can engender vicious anger. It can evoke narcissistic rage. AU of this is more likely for people with poorly integrated psychologies. I do think that better integrated moral psychologies could lead to better integrated communities, and conversely. But my primary aim in this paper is to advance our understanding of aspects of mainstream white moral psychology, the preoccupation with guUt, and how this bears on race relations in America. Political Philosophy and Moral Psychology Tommie Shelby argues that philosophical analyses of should focus on the political reality. For Shelby, ideology - not individual morality - should be primary in our thinking about racism.6 Lawrence Blum disagrees. According to Blum, in order to preserve the strong condemnatory force of racism we must consider it primarily as a matter of individual immoraUty. Blum defines racism as personal antipathy toward people who are perceived to be of other races. He worries that if we insist on using the term more broadly to refer to an ideology, then racism may devolve into amorally neutral concept of poUtical discourse and lose its meaning as a form of personal immorality.7 Both of these current approaches are flawed. Shelby's view leaves no room for emotion. He conceives of ideology in exclusively cognitive terms, as distortion of belief. As such, his conception of is insensitive to moral psychology. The deficiency in Blum's view is twofold: he makes no room for ideology in his account of and he restricts his account of the role of emotions to the moral psychologies of individual racists - personal antipathy. I explore how ideology and moral psychologies are co-constitutive, and how certain aspects of whiteness are the result. My focus is not on per se, but on aspects of whiteness that reinforce and perpetuate the unsatisfactory state of race in America. I argue that American liberalism and individuaUsm (ideology) form and are formed by moral psychologies that overemphasize guilt, and thus conceive of the responsibility of white people exclusively in terms of their voluntary acts. …

Shame and Narcissistic Rage in Autogynephilic Transsexualism

One of the most important contributions made by Dreger’s article is her description of the extraordinary lengths to which some of Bailey’s male-to-female (MtF) transsexual opponents went in their attempts to discredit him, his book, and his ideas. By Dreger’s account, their campaign against Bailey continued for at least two years after the publication of The Man Who Would Be Queen (TMWWBQ; Bailey, 2003). Examination of the Internet sites maintained by some of Bailey’s principal transsexual opponents suggests that the campaign against him remains ongoing. The attacks, as described by Dreger, went far beyond writing scathing reviews of TMWWBQ. They included orchestration of charges of professional misconduct against Bailey, filed with Northwestern University and the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation; attempts to turn Bailey’s colleagues against him; attacks directed against Bailey’s children; and efforts to discredit or silence nearly anyone who openly supported him. Dreger’s article suggests that many of Bailey’s opponents intended not only to discredit Bailey’s book, but also to destroy its author. The duration, intensity, and sheer savagery of the campaign waged by many of Bailey’s MtF transsexual opponents is astonishing, especially given that Bailey’s book sold only about 4200 copies and probably would have received little attention, in either its print or Internet versions, were it not for the publicity that his opponents themselves created. One could imagine that Kohut (1972) was describing the campaign conducted by some of Bailey’s MtF transsexual opponents when he wrote the following:

“Earth, Speak to Me, Grass, Speak to Me!” Trauma, Tragedy, and the Crash Between Cultures in Medea

In the Euripides tragedy, Medea was the Princess of Colchis. After having helped Jason—who traveled from Greece—to acquire the Golden Fleece, she married him and followed him to Corinth in Greece. They had two children, but Jason soon turned his interest to the daughter of the king of Corinth and married her. Medea in revenge of Jason's betrayal murdered their children. In this paper, I propose an interdisciplinary approach that can help to contextualize the Medea tragedy. I consider Medea as the mythical character that personifies narcissistic rage within the context of cultural crash. I suggest that this tragedy can be used metaphorically to formulate clinical hypotheses on trauma and dissociation in the context of the difference between cultures, a difference that becomes an insurmountable barrier of incomprehension.

Divorce at Childbirth: A Self-Psychological Perspective

Transition to parenthood generates profound disruptions not only in one's sense of self, but also in one's relationship with a partner. As the intersubjective field shifts from dyadic to triadic to include the baby, each partner's preexisting organizing principles may be severely challenged by the new triadic context. For couples entering the developmental stage of parenthood, expanding these organizing principles to encompass a new experience of threeness thus becomes a primary task. When a parent's self-structure fails to accommodate the new triadic situation, narcissistic rage may erupt in an attempt to avoid or repair damage to the self. Sometimes this may lead to the search for another selfobject experience outside the marriage; alternatively, the new parent may turn precipitously against a previously loved partner. In either context, separation and divorce may be experienced as a traumatic event that cannot be grieved. Drawing on her clinical work, as well as her interview with Carol, the author illustrates these ideas and suggests ways that self-psychology may inform the treatment of such patients. Key to this process is the therapist's empathic holding of the patient's “whole” self-a recognition of the either/or organizing principles that previously led to the disavowal of essential aspects of the personality. Finally, a couple's relationship provides important selfobject functions for the child. As important organizing principles are both formed and break down in a triadic context, the author suggests that the notion of the triadic interpersonal field be further explored.

The impulse to infidelity and oedipal splitting

Freud suggested that the child perceives parental intercourse as an act of infi delity by the desired but unfaithful parent. Parental sexual infi delity is felt to be a major narcissistic injury that gives rise to fantasies of revenge. A defensive organization arises to manage this trauma and its attendant revenge fantasies. That organization involves splitting of the desired parent into faithful and unfaithful parts, displacement of hostility on to the rival parent, and identifi cation with the desired but unfaithful parent resulting in the impulse to infi delity. Romantic fantasies of escape and rescue from evil rivals provide guilt free ways of satisfying fantasies of oedipal revenge. In those fantasies the evil rival is turned into an injured third party who gets his or her just deserts as the romantic couple gets to live happily ever after. This defensive organization may embroil patients in complicated love triangles as adults for which they may seek treatment. Analyzing the repudiated narcissistic wound of parental infi delity and the disguised revenge fantasies that defend against that wound may provoke narcissistic rage towards the analyst as a moralistic, possessive, controlling, envious, and spoiling oedipal parent.

A portrait of the artist as a politician: the case of Adolf Hitler

Hitler behaved within the parameters of an artist and a narcissist as mediated by charisma and charismatic leadership. An ex post facto assessment of Hitler's personality type using the principles of Jungian typology reveals that even his most preferred psychological functions were not securely developed and this led him to overlook reality and become insensitive to the suffering of the people during World War II. As a result of his traumas, Hitler experienced “chronic narcissistic rage.” It resulted in destructive thinking and behavior. Hitler was able to relate his rage to that of the people and promise salvation through “national reawakening” and the creation of a new order. When he was no longer able to provide successes, Hitler began losing his charisma and the people ceased to believe in his heroism and providential role. His strong sense of mission and strength of will sustained him to the bitter end. Hitler transformed Germany and much of Europe and beyond.

Ruthless Compassion

Although addiction helps control overwhelming instinctual affective states, it also rises out of the premature need to take responsibility for one’s own existence that results from a deficiency in the containing function of the mother/infant relationship. This case presents a patient who was vulnerable to addiction because of this deficiency. The roles of narcissistic rage and annihilation anxiety are examined. Alcohol was used to avoid human dependency and to restore a sense of power and control these unbearable feelings. Addiction is used to sustain the fantasy that the addict’s internal space can be omnipotently controlled. It is argued that if the goal of therapy is to help the alcoholic better tolerate powerful affective states and attain or regain healthy narcissism, then there is a need to help the addict develop a sense of dignity based on real relationships and accomplishments in place of fleeting feelings of omnipotence supplied by the alcohol.

The Terrorist with Antisocial Personality Disorder

ABSTRACT Some persons with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are terrorists, and some terrorists suffer from ASPD. Many terrorists demonstrate diagnostic features of ASPD without possessing the actual disorder. Individuals with ASPD have some characteristics in common with terrorists such as social alienation, early disturbance of social development process, narcissistic rage and hostility/violence. In this paper, the characteristics of terrorists with ASPD and link between terroristic attitude and ASPD are examined in order to provide a more profound basis for forensic psychiatric assessment and treatment of this subcategory of terrorists. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that it is useful to consider the terrorist with ASPD as a distinctive category. It was concluded that more research is needed into the specific neurobiological and psychosocial correlates of this phenomenon in order to provide adequate treatment and prevention programs.

How Group Analysis Cures: An Exploration of Narcissistic Rage in Group Treatment

This paper addresses the use of group analysis in treating individuals for whom chronic narcissistic rage is a prominent feature of their character. Such individuals are often especially suspicious of participating in group experiences, as their sensitivity to slight and circumscribed empathy for others often leaves them vulnerable to being attacked and ostracized in groups. Their history often reveals experiences in which they were either the scapegoat of the family or of the playground, often both. Such individuals, however, may also long for inclusion and acceptance, and thus participation in a therapeutic group may be a particularly important part of their continued development. An extended clinical vignette illustrates how such work occurs within a therapeutic group using a self-psychological model. Narcissistic rage as manifested within the group-as-a-whole or groupself is also examined.