Narcissitic Personality Disorder (Essay Sample)

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Professor’s Name Due Date Narcissistic Personality Disorder Client Autobiography I interviewed an individual with narcissistic personality disorder. The interview process was complicated due to the client’s unwillingness to accept any flaws in their behavior or personality. The interviewee, Dickson, is a 23-year-old African-American male who lives in Whisper Lake. Dickson is an all-child to a single mother. The interviewee never knew his father and has been reluctant to engage his mother in that conversation. He believes that his mother did a great job raising him, and he feels like she has the perfect child. Therefore, he appreciates not knowing his father regarding it as his father’s loss. Dickson outlines grandiosity, elevated self-esteem and constantly regards himself as special. During our interaction, he repeatedly referred to himself as a proficient individual in any topic we discussed. At the same time, any failure to know something or any positive criticism was received with embarrassment, or he assumed it. Effect/Period of Disorder Dickson has a high view of himself and his capabilities. During the interaction, he kept talking about himself and praising himself. Sometimes he got out of context and exaggerated some of the things. For instance, we talked about how he handled confrontation, and he argued that he was always on the right and avoided confrontation. He argued that he is physically strong and that if he engages in a confrontation, he is likely to hurt the other person. He told me about a time when he hit a boy and broke his skull during a confrontation. The interviewee feels that he can perform impressively in every field, ranging from sports to education. I tried evaluating his different prowess. However, in every area he fell short, he was quickly defensive. For instance, I asked him about his strength in rugby, and he quickly suggested that he used to be great at rugby but stopped playing due to a lack of proper competition. Throughout the interview process, the interviewee constantly looked for an opening to talk about himself and his extensive achievements. The interviewee talked about himself excessively, mostly bragging about his reputation and how he was destined for greatness. He talked about how people adore him and how his humility is the main reason he dislikes engaging in political endeavors. Irrespective of the constant need to be the centre of attention, Dickson admitted that he has at times felt great loss and shame when he failed to thrive at something. For instance, he recently lost his job due to failure to maintain company standards. During the loss, Dickson felt picked up and judged unfairly. He felt like his leaders were the ones on the wrong. He was ashamed that he could go through such humiliation as being fired when he believed that he was an invaluable member of the company. Medications Dickson admits that he struggles with accepting criticism or failures. He gets depressed when things fail to go his way and often has to rely on antidepressants to relax. Dickson does not feel like he is struggling with narcissistic personality disorder. Therefore, he does not feel the need to concentrate on this condition or to acquire medication or treatment directed at the condition. He believes that he is unbiased in how he views himself and regards his constant need for adoration as an aspect of self-appreciation and acceptance. He constantly feels inferior when tasked with activities he may not be proficient in. He does not admit to failing to know things and barely asks for help when he struggles with something. He is driven by the need to be perfect, and irrespective of how things go, he believes that whatever he does is ideal. Dickson admits that he participates in yoga and meditation exercises whenever he is in a bad mood. However, he believes that his life should be perfect and thus tries to avoid being in a bad mood as much as possible. Effects on Social Lifestyle Dickson has an errored way of seeing things. His condition makes it hard to get along with people. We interacted over different days, and many people tried to avoid him mainly because he tried to make every conversation about himself. Dickson failed to notice that the constant need to be the centre of attention made him dislikable and unapproachable. He believes that many people are intimidated by him. He argues that people know him but are afraid to be close to him because of his popularity. However, many people who know him despise the fact that he feels he is perfect. He tries to turn every conversation to talk about himself. For instance, when talking about soccer, he could constantly start talking about how he was the captain of his soccer...