Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment.

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a mental disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive craving for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathize with other's feelings. Narcissistic personality disorder is one of the eleven sub-types of the broader category known as personality disorders.[1][2]

Personality disorders are a class of mental disorders characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the any culture. These patterns develop early, are inflexible, and are associated with significant distress or disability.[4][5][6]

Criteria for diagnosing personality disorders are listed in the fifth chapter of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive craving for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathize with other's feelings.[1][2] These personality traits are often overcompensation for a fragile ego, an intolerance of criticism, and a weak sense of self.[7]

Narcissistic personality disorder differs from self-confidence which is associated with a strong sense of self.[2][7]

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition(DSM-5, 2013) describes NPD as possessing at least five of the following nine criteria.[2]

A grandiose sense of self-importance
Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
Believing that they are "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
Requiring excessive admiration
A sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)
Being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends)
Lacking empathy (unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others)
Often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them
Showing arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Narcissistic personality disorder usually develops either in youth or in early adulthood.[2] It is common for children and youths to display personality traits that resemble NPD, but such occurrences are usually transient, and register below the clinical criteria for a formal diagnosis of NPD.[7] True symptoms of NPD are pervasive, apparent in varied social situations, and are rigidly consistent over time. Severe symptoms of NPD can significantly impair the person's mental capabilities to develop meaningful human relationships, such as friendship, kinship, and marriage. Generally, the symptoms of NPD also impair the person's psychological abilities to function socially, either at work or at school, or within important societal settings. The DSM-5 indicates that, in order to qualify as symptomatic of NPD, the person's manifested personality traits must substantially differ from social norms.[2]