Clinician Diagnostic Ratings and Countertransference Reactions Towards Grandiose and Vulnerable Narcissism

Background

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is known to comprise two distinct but connected phenotypes related to ‘grandiosity’ and ‘vulnerability’, respectively. While evidence suggests differing countertransference responses to narcissism subtype expression, no study has examined this using a qualitative methodology and explored associations with ratings of personality disorder severity.

Method

Mental health clinicians (N = 180, 67% female, age = 38.9), completed qualitative clinical reflections and ratings of overall personality disorder severity towards two hypothetical vignettes displaying pathological narcissism (‘grandiose’ and ‘vulnerable’ narcissism respectively), as well as a rating of attitudes towards patients in their routine practice who resemble these vignettes.

Results

Distinct qualitative themes were identified between narcissistic subtype, with grandiose narcissism evoking anger, lack of empathy and hopelessness, compared to sympathy, sadness and discomfort in vulnerable narcissism. In terms of diagnostic category, the grandiose vignette was predominately identified as ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ (97%), whereas the vulnerable vignette was a mixture of ‘depressive disorder’ (29%), ‘narcissistic personality disorder’ (24%), ‘trauma and stressor related disorders’ (21%) and ‘borderline personality disorder’ (21%). Attitude scores differed significantly between subtypes, with more negative attitudes towards narcissistic grandiosity than narcissistic vulnerability. The grandiose vignette was also rated as displaying more overall personality impairment, with an association observed between negative clinician attitude scores and increased ratings of personality disorder severity.

Discussion

Two potential pathways are outlined to interpret these findings. The first is that inordinate stigma towards narcissistic grandiosity negatively biases clinicians when working with these patients due to feelings of anger and frustration. The second is that clinicians are drawn to minimise pathology of vulnerable patients due to their feelings of sadness and empathy. We propose that effective diagnosis and psychotherapy for pathological narcissism rely on clinicians' ability to balance these two dilemmas and resist either extreme.