Comment by lll-o-lll
10 hours ago
I mean, it’s literally one of the dark triad. Dark. Not misunderstood.
The DSM basically took all those “traits we think of as evil” and said “we shall make some disorder categories”. People with NPD don’t go and get help, they just run around ruining other peoples lives.
If you’ve never had such a person in your life, good for you! The rest of us don’t care if they can be saved, we just don’t ever want to interact with another one. Ever.
I am a narcissist. I haven't been diagnosed (yet), but I certainly recognize the traits and patterns, and I'm in therapy for it.
> People with NPD don’t go and get help, they just run around ruining other peoples lives.
This is objectively false. There's lots of people in therapy for NPD. And there have been case studies with people who recovered.
Which brings another point
> The DSM basically took all those “traits we think of as evil” and said “we shall make some disorder categories”.
DSM criteria for narcissism are part of the problem. You can have the exact same mental struggle but stop yourself from hurting people (at least to a reasonable degree - "normal" people also hurt others sometimes after all). And you won't be diagnosed as NPD. But you'll still have all the other problems - lack of human connection, vastly higher chance of suicide, autoimmune diseases, relationship problems, etc.
Which is like saying you only have alcoholism if you beat people on the streets. If you define it that way - of course all alcoholics are violent.
But it's not a productive way to define mental health problems. It leaves out people who struggle with it but don't cause harm.
> The rest of us don’t care if they can be saved, we just don’t ever want to interact with another one. Ever.
That's unlikely given that estimated 0.5-5% of the general population have NPD and about 20% have strong narcissistic traits.
In IT it's probably much higher by the way, it's the perfect job (little human contact, high status, well paid).