Envy divides the two faces of narcissism

In this article, we test psychodynamic assumptions about envy and narcissism by examining malicious envy in the context of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability. In Study 1, students (N = 192) and community adults (N = 161) completed trait measures of narcissism, envy, and schadenfreude. In Study 2 (N = 121), participants relived an episode of envy, and cognitive‐affective components of envy were examined in the context of both self‐ and informant reports of their envy and narcissism. In Study 3 (N = 69), narcissism was linked to reports of envy covertly induced in the laboratory. Vulnerable narcissism was strongly and consistently related to dispositional envy and schadenfreude (Studies 1–2), as well as to all cognitive‐affective components of envy (Study 2). Furthermore, it facilitated envy and schadenfreude toward a high‐status peer (Study 3). Grandiose narcissism was slightly negatively related to dispositional envy (Studies 1–2), and it did not predict informant reports of envy or cognitive‐affective components of the emotion (Study 2). Finally, it did not exacerbate envy, hostility, or resentment toward a high‐status peer (Study 3). The results suggest envy is a central emotion in the lives of those with narcissistic vulnerability and imply that envy should be reconsidered as a symptom accompanying grandiose features in the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder.     

Two faces of desert

There are two broadly competing pictures of moral responsibility. On the view I favor, to be responsible for some action is to be related to it in such a way that licenses attributing certain properties to the agent, properties like blameworthiness and praiseworthiness. Responsibility is attributability. A different view understands being responsible in terms of our practices of holding each other responsible. Responsibility is accountability, which “involves a social setting in which we demand (require) certain conduct from one another and respond adversely to one another’s failures to comply with these demands” (Watson, Philos Top 24:227–248, 1996). My concern here is the relation between moral responsibility and desert. Plausibly, if someone is morally responsible for something wrong then they deserve blame, and it is on the basis of them being morally responsible and its being wrong that they deserve blame. In this paper, I try to make progress toward understanding why it would follow that being morally responsible for something supports a desert claim. I propose to do this by exploring how the “two faces” of responsibility should proceed. An important upshot is that we gain a new currency by which to evaluate extant theories of responsibility that might favor one or the other conception: do they carry plausible desert commitments? To illustrate this benefit, I argue that accountability theory carries implausible implications for deserved praise.     

Two faces of verbal ability

Although psychologists often think and act as though there were only one global domain of verbal ability, there are actually two—verbal comprehension and verbal fluency. For reasons that are not entirely clear, verbal comprehension has received, by far, the most attention in both the psychometric and information-processing literatures. Both are important, pervasive abilities. For example, whereas reading draws primarily on verbal comprehension ability, writing draws primarily on verbal fluency ability; similarly, whereas listening primarily requires verbal comprehension, speaking depends more heavily on verbal fluency. This article seeks to redress some of the imbalance in the literature on the study of these two broad domains of verbal ability. The article is divided into four main parts. The first parts set the stage by placing the study of verbal abilities in a historical context within the field of psychology. The second part describes some alternative approaches to the study of verbal comprehension, summarizing what we have learned from these approaches. The third part reviews some of the few studies that have examined verbal fluency and then describes our own new information-processing approach to the study of this ability. The fourth part explores the relations between the two faces of verbal ability—comprehension and fluency.     

区分适应性自恋和非适应性自恋:多视角的证据

近40年来, 正常人的自恋得到了越来越多的关注.日益增加的证据显示正常人的自恋可以按照适应功能进一步区分为适应性自恋和非适应性自恋两类.本文对揭示两类自恋差异的证据进行了全面梳理, 包括二者的成分构成,适应功能,人格基础,发展规律和遗传基础.这些结果促进了对自恋复杂性的认识, 加深了对现有研究的理解, 同时也突出了未来区分二者的重要性.将来需要从理论上进一步澄清二者的差异, 编制相应的量表, 探讨二者在其它方面的不同, 特别是二者是否具有不同的神经基础.     

The mythic function of narcissism

The paper makes some critical comments on the use Freud makes of myth and examines some of the inconsistencies and contradictions in his conceptualization of narcissism. Using some of the ideas of Bachelard and Hillman on the role of the imaginary, the authors theorize a function of myth that is independent of and not subordinated to the reality function. They suggest that narcissism must be seen not only in terms of individual history but that it has a mythic function; narcissism facilitates the creation of a relationship between the ego and the Self through the mediation of the imaginal world and through the prospective value of images.     

The deconstruction of primary narcissism

The author examines Winnicott ’s contribution to Freud ’s concept of primary narcissism. In Mourning and melancholia, Freud laid the foundations for this contribution, but it was Winnicott who turned it into a clinically useful concept. There are three of Winnicott’s ideas that can be seen as preliminary stages to his theory of transitional phenomena and illusion. They serve as an introduction to thinking about the analysis of the analysand ’s primary narcissism and the theoretical prerequisites that make the interpretation of primary narcissism possible. Through the exploration of three main points in Winnicott’s writings the author shows how Winnicott’s conceptualizations are both new and a continuation of Freud ’s thinking. His ideas are thus part of the overall theoretical pattern of Freud ’s metapsychology. The three main points are as follows: 1. In bringing maternal care and the presence of the psychic environment into the construction of primary narcissism, Winnicott made it possible to analyse narcissism. His ideas enable us to stand back from the characteristic solipsism of narcissism, which holds that everything comes from the self and only from the self. The latter concept tends to eliminate the role of the object and environment in the construction of the self. At the same time, by deconstructing the way in which the self is infiltrated by a certain number of narcissistic postulates, Winnicott made it possible to interpret the theory of narcissism itself. 2. Between the individual and the sense of self, Winnicott inserted the maternal object and her function as a mirror of affects who acts as a medium for the organization of self-identity. Primary identity is established through the construction and elimination of a narcissistic identification that becomes meaningful in the context of a primary homosexual relationship functioning as a ‘double’. 3. A process of differentiation that governs the discovery of the object is in a dialectical relationship with narcissistic identification. That process can be understood only in terms of the responses made by the primary psychic environment to the baby’s primary aggression.     

Two faces of human happiness: Explicit and implicit life satisfaction

Evidence is provided for implicit aspects of life satisfaction. In study 1 the implicit life satisfaction measure (ILS): (i) showed moderate reliability as well as convergent and incremental validity; (ii) appeared to be affected by temporary mood and social desirability to a lesser extent than explicit measures; and (iii) showed cultural invariance in contrast to explicit measures that revealed cross-cultural differences, as found in previous research. Study 2 showed that the ILS replicated theoretically expected differences between those known to have encountered chronically negative life experiences (North Korean defectors) and those without such experiences (South Koreans). Implications of these findings for explicit and ILS are discussed.     

Three strands of narcissism.

The development of narcissism is usually studied from the standpoint of the drives, or more specifically of the libido. This paper considers narcissism from the standpoint of the ego and seeks to delineate separate developmental lines. From this point of view, a variety of forms may be distinguished which are ordinarily structured during the oedipal period. It is postulated that narcissism cannot be considered as truly separable from the vicissitudes of the love and hate of objects. This formulation makes possible consideration of recent observations concerning the 'narcissistic personality' without requiring major new economic, structural, or dynamic metapsychological constructs.