Differentiating ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personalities

This study investigated differences in ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders through examining responses to Rorschach structural and content variables. Reality testing, thought process, affective regulation, impulse control, and the defenses of splitting and grandiosity were examined from Rorschach protocols of 50 borderlines and 26 narcissists. The borderlines produced greater distortion in reality testing, p less than .05; the narcissists produced more insidious thought process disturbance, p less than .05; and higher functioning groups demonstrated greater control of impulses, p less than .05. Borderlines in this sample demonstrated more affective constriction than the narcissists and used more splitting, p less than .05; narcissists used more grandiosity, p less than .05. Implications of this study are (a) ego functions mature inconsistently, (b) affective responsivity influences ego disorganization, and (c) level of functioning and IQ are related to the production of Rorschach variables.     

A protean approach to social influence: Dark Triad personalities and social influence tactics

To avoid detection, those high on Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) may adopt a protean approach to interpersonal influence. We show the Dark Triad traits correlate with a number of unique tactics of influence (Study 1; N = 259). We show this protean approach was insensitive to differences in targets of manipulation (Study 2; N = 296). When forced to choose one tactic to solve different adaptive problems, the Dark Triad traits were correlated with unique tactical choices (Study 3; N = 268). We show these associations are generally robust to controlling for the Big Five and participants’ sex (Study 1 and 2). We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for both life history and cheater-detection theories.     

Object-related vs. narcissistic depression: a theoretical and clinical study.

This paper has focused on the sense of helplessness as an essential component of a depressive reaction. By inference, a sense of mastery and ability to achieve goals seems essential for a sense of well-being. Both patients presented here revealed infantile fantasies that hampered their exercising this mastery, and the path to well-being was the analysis of these fantasies. The treatment plans differed, though, in the locus of the fantasies. In an object-related depression such as Mr. Janson's, the fantasy involved the inhbition of functioning--that is, the inability to express aggression--and the treatment aimed at removing the inhibition. In a narcissistic depression such as Miss Gaynor's, the helplessness was not due to inhibited functioning per se. Rather, her goals were unrealistic, unattainable, and based on unconscious fantasies. Here the aim of treatment was the development of more reality-adapted and attainable objectives and the concommitant internalization of a more realistic sense of her own worth. Thus the common denominator in both depressive reactions was a sense of helplessness, and the path toward increased self-esteem was by way of the development of a sense of mastery and competence.