Narcissism: Groundwork for Sectarian Misdemeanors

In DSM-5, the sector of ‘Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention’, has discussed about cults. The said section covers all conditions and problems that are a focus of clinical attention or that may otherwise affect the diagnosis, course, prognosis, or treatment of a patient's mental disorder. While cults are usually led by charismatic leaders, who offer acceptance and guidance to troubled followers, cult followers are strongly controlled and forced to dissolve commitment to family and others to serve the cult leader's directives and personal needs. On the other hand, there were many cult leaders, who have been convicted of violent or non-violent crimes, as a commander or committer, before, during or after their period as a cult leader. While many bio-psycho-social factors involve in the grouping and formation of sects or cults, numerous dynamics, too, may prepare the group’s state of mind for perpetrating crime. Among a number of conceivable historical, cultural, or radical causes, while psychopathy, at all times, have had a firm position in forensic psychiatry, narcissism, whether as a primary trait or as a misleadingly stirred quality, have been generally over looked. Interrelationship between narcissism and psychopathy, from one hand, and the scarce set of circumstances, on the other hand, may create a situation, full of mix-ups, which can be continued melancholically and hazardously. In the present article, the likely role of narcissism, among numerous mechanisms that may involve in establishment of sectarian misbehavior, will be discussed in more detail. Keywords: Cult; Sect; Narcissism; Psychopathy; Crime