Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Writing for public consumption is a creative act and not simply attention seeking behavior. Still, on occasion I do feel like SL blogging and photography are pure narcissism. On those days it all feels like "look at me" and I think about deleting this blog forever.

In truth, there is a world of difference between healthy self esteem and Narcissism.

I have someone in my RL who has been diagnosed by a health professional as having Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Let me tell you, it is really, really difficult to deal with people who have NPD. When they are part of your family you can't easily eliminate them from your life.

What is NPD? The definition from the Mayo Clinic's webpage is:

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. They believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

Here are the diagnostic criteria :

• Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
• Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power or beauty
• Believing that you are special and can associate only with equally special people
• Requiring constant admiration
• Having a sense of entitlement
• Taking advantage of others
• Inability to recognize needs and feelings of others
• Being envious of others
• Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner

I bet you have seen people like this in SL. I know I have. Luckily we *can* eliminate them from our second lives.

(oh, yesh...I am crabby. Why do you ask?)