Narcissistic Rage

As an art therapist, I work with a range of diagnoses every day. Some of what I deal with are called Axis II disorders, which includes only Personality Disorders and Mental Retardation--problems that cannot be treated with medication or essentially cured of the disorder. One of these disorders that you may have heard of is Borderline Personality Disorder (think "Fatal Attraction" or "Girl, Interrupted") or Antisocial Personality Disorder. However, one of these personality disorders that you may not be familiar with is Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The criteria include the following:

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

I bring this up, because we have seen a classic example recently in the media. This commentator, Rusty Humphries, also identified this phenomenon in the recent explosion of Bill Clinton on the Fox News Sunday show with Chris Wallace (see video here) in his article of September 25th. When asked a question about what more he could have done to curb terrorism during his term, his charm went away and the narcissistic rage came forth in the defensiveness very common amongst those with narcissistic and borderline personality disorders, both of which have little to no ego strength to answer such a question appropriately without jabbing fingers, raising voices, and blaming others. Humphries' remarks:

Bill Clinton hasn't shown that much passion since Monica Lewinsky snapped her thong at him. This is classic behavior of a narcissist. Wallace's interview could be used by psychology classes the world over as a teaching tool to give students a real life glimpse of a narcissist and how a narcissist responds when their image has been injured. As we all witnessed, a narcissist will fight like a cornered animal when they believe their image has been impacted in a negative way. When a narcissist's all-important image has been tarnished – like when Bill Clinton is faced with history – they will lash out like nothing you've ever seen. This is known as narcissistic rage. ...

Let me share with you some universally accepted information about narcissists. It will help connect the dots (Monica's blue stained dress, ''The Path to 9/11,'' and narcissistic rage):

Narcissism is a pattern of grandiosity, a need for admiration, and lack of empathy. A
narcissistic individual is totally consumed with their image and has a fragile sense of self. A narcissistic individual has a basic sense of inferiority, although if you listen to him talk you would never realize it. A narcissist presents a false self to the world in hopes of creating a self-serving image. In an effort to create a false image, a narcissist exaggerates their achievements and talents. Because a narcissistic individual has a shifting morality – always ready to shift values to gain favor – any interaction with a narcissist is difficult. Lying is an integral part of the narcissist's behavior and all self-reports are unreliable. ...

A narcissist is haunted by criticisms and defeats. When a narcissistic injury occurs, the narcissist begins to feel empty, degraded, and humiliated and is capable of retaliating with narcissistic rage. His reactions constitute disdain or defiant attacks. The narcissistic hurt is different from other types of emotional pain. The fact that this hurt is very vulnerable, and opens up to an emptiness signifying the dissolution of identity, imbues the reactive anger with an intensity and hardness rarely seen in other kinds of anger. As with all other narcissists, there is nothing more important to Bill Clinton than his false public image. ...

It's a real shame Clinton is more angry at Fox News than terrorists. But, if the truth be known, Clinton is madder at himself than anyone or anything else. Unfortunately, he handles it like so many children caught in a lie. They scream, they cry, they blame others. But, eventually, most children grow. They mature. And when they become Clinton's age, they behave like responsible, under control, adults. Not former President Clinton. He will never grow because he has, in my humble opinion, a narcissistic personality disorder. He is consumed with his image. ...

That stained blue dress represents Bill Clinton's legacy. It is a metaphor for Clinton's narcissistic presidency – his focus on himself, rather than a focus on his oath of office – his promise to keep us safe. The stain on his presidency was his failure to take terrorism seriously. And when confronted with those painful truths, we get a narcissist's rage.

I'm glad that Mr. Humphries not only addressed some of the politics of the outburst, but also the psychological ones as well. Unfortunately, although I have experienced patients that have narcissistic personality disordered traits, most people with this disorder I have encountered or known about personally were in leadership/management positions, which is usually crippling to their staff and their organization. However, they are rarely removed from their position of power often because they can manipulate any such attempts quite charismatically, frequently touting their grandiose accomplishments and inherent value to the organization. This should be a lesson to us all to be mindful of who we put into positions of leadership, either by vote or by selection.