Rorschach’s Inkblot Test
The Rorschach Ink Blots Test is a diagnostic tool developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. The test uses ambiguous ink blots to provoke free associations in the test subject, and the diagnostician records the patient’s responses as well as the ink blots’ spatial position and orientation. The test is highly subjective and depends on the skills and training of the diagnostician and his interpretative abilities. It cannot be used to reliably diagnose patients, but it can draw attention to the patient’s defenses and personal style.
Coping with Stalkers: Psychopaths, Narcissists, Paranoids, Erotomaniacs
Stalkers come in different types, including erotomaniac, narcissistic, paranoid, and anti-social or psychopathic. Coping techniques suited to one type of stalker may backfire or prove to be futile with another. The best coping strategy is to first identify the type of abuser you are faced with. It is essential to avoid all contact with your stalker, but being evaded only inflames the stalker’s wrath and enhances his frustration.
Narcissist: Stable Life or Roller Coaster?
Narcissists are dependent on and addicted to fluctuating narcissistic supply, leading to volatility in their lives and moods. Classic narcissists maintain an island of stability in their lives, while the other dimensions of their existence wallow in chaos and unpredictability. Borderline narcissists react to instability in one area of their life by introducing chaos into all other dimensions of their existence. Narcissists of all kinds hate routine and avoid it as part of their emotional involvement prevention mechanisms, which prevent them from getting emotionally involved, bonding, attaching, and subsequently being hurt.
Narcissist Re-idealizes Discarded Sources of Narcissistic Supply
Narcissists keep discarded sources of supply in reserve and seek them out when they have no other supply source. They frantically try to recycle their old sources and re-idealize them without admitting to having been mistaken in the first place. To preserve their grandiosity, they come up with a narrative that accommodates both the devaluing content and the re-idealized image of the source. If you are an old source of narcissistic supply, simply ignore the narcissist as indifference is what they cannot stand.
Meet the Narcissist: Issues in Narcissism
Narcissistic personality disorder is difficult to treat due to the pervasiveness of autological narcissism in every aspect of the personality. The narcissist’s resistance to authority figures such as therapists makes treatment almost unattainable. Narcissism is often comorbid with other disorders such as depression, substance abuse, and reckless behavior patterns. While some of these problems can be treated with medication and talk therapy, the core defense mechanisms of the narcissist are untouchable. Narcissism is a vicious circle.
Narcissist Grooms Sources of Narcissistic Supply: Exploits Tragedy, Crisis, and Misfortune
Narcissists are callous and ruthless enough to exploit the tragedy of others. They are obsessed with the maintenance of their delicate inner balance through the ever-increasing consumption of narcissistic supply. The narcissist regards and treats his sources of narcissistic supply as full-fledged human beings, but only as long as they can provide him with what he needs. The narcissist always evaluates the victims of tragedies to see if they can become sources of supply or can be used as props in the theater of his life.
Psychosis, Delusions, and Personality Disorders
Psychosis is a result of severely impaired reality tests, where the patient cannot tell inner fantasy from outside reality. Psychotic micro-episodes are common in certain personality disorders, most notably in borderline and schizotypal personality disorders, but also in narcissistic personality disorders. Delusions are entrenched and very hard to eradicate, while hallucinations are merely a sensory perception that has a compelling sense of reality of a true perception but that occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organs. Hallucinations are common in schizophrenia, affective disorders and mental health disorders with organic origins.
Bullying as Art, Abuse as Craftsmanship
Abuse is about control and is often a primitive and immature reaction to life’s circumstances. The abuser’s primary colors include unpredictability, disproportionality of reaction, dehumanization, objectification, and abuse by proxy. The abuser engineers situations in which he is solely needed and generates his own indispensability in the victim’s life. The abuser fosters an atmosphere of fear, intimidation, instability, unpredictability, and irritation, which erodes the victim’s sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
Narcissism: Blessing or Dysfunction?
Pathological narcissism is an addictive behavior that involves an impaired, dysfunctional, and immature true self coupled with a compensatory piece of fiction known as the false self. Narcissists are obsessed with delusions of fantastic grandeur and superiority, and they are very competitive. They are driven, relentless, tireless, and often ruthless. However, three traits conspire to render the narcissist a failure and a loser: his sense of entitlement, his haughtiness and innate conviction of his own superiority, and his aversion to routine.
Loving Gaze, Adulating Gaze: False vs. True Self
In the film, The Beaver, the protagonist’s false self is represented by a puppet in the shape of a beaver. The beaver is everything the protagonist is not, and the true self is derided by the beaver as a dysfunctional wreck. The false self relies on adulation and attention for maintenance, while the true self needs a loving gaze to sustain itself. The false self is concocted by the narcissist to fend off and ameliorate hurt and pain, and the narcissist is emotionally invested in the false self.