Meet Sam Vaknin:
Sam Vaknin started it all in April 1997, when he uploaded to the Web a free Internet edition of his book "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited", written in 1995. It is still available here: http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com.
It generated an outpouring of anguish and relief from both narcissists and victims of abuse, who now could put a label to their misery and suffering. Thus, he followed up with the first print edition of the book in 1999.
At the time, with the exception of a handful of scholars, no one had even heard of pathological narcissism. Sam had to come up with a whole new vocabulary to describe the pernicious disorder and its insidious effects. He coined phrases such as Somatic and Cerebral Narcissist, narcissistic abuse, No Contact, devalued and discarded, cold empathy, and dozens of others. Sometimes, he had to imbue moribund phrases from the 1930s and 1970s with new meaning: Narcissistic Supply and False Self are two examples of many.
20 years later, narcissism is a cultural meme, a buzzword, and a leading topic of study in academe. Yet, it is precisely this popularity that threatens to obscure the true nature of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In the past 7 years, Sam has been developing a new treatment modality (psychotherapy) - dubbed "Cold Therapy" - for Narcissistic Personality Disorder and for major depressive episodes. Sam is Visiting Professor of Psychology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia and Professor of Finance and Psychology in CIAPS (Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies).
It generated an outpouring of anguish and relief from both narcissists and victims of abuse, who now could put a label to their misery and suffering. Thus, he followed up with the first print edition of the book in 1999.
At the time, with the exception of a handful of scholars, no one had even heard of pathological narcissism. Sam had to come up with a whole new vocabulary to describe the pernicious disorder and its insidious effects. He coined phrases such as Somatic and Cerebral Narcissist, narcissistic abuse, No Contact, devalued and discarded, cold empathy, and dozens of others. Sometimes, he had to imbue moribund phrases from the 1930s and 1970s with new meaning: Narcissistic Supply and False Self are two examples of many.
20 years later, narcissism is a cultural meme, a buzzword, and a leading topic of study in academe. Yet, it is precisely this popularity that threatens to obscure the true nature of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In the past 7 years, Sam has been developing a new treatment modality (psychotherapy) - dubbed "Cold Therapy" - for Narcissistic Personality Disorder and for major depressive episodes. Sam is Visiting Professor of Psychology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia and Professor of Finance and Psychology in CIAPS (Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies).