Have you ever heard anyone say, “It’s NOT all about you!”? We are all accused of being self-centered at some point in our lives. Narcissism is a healthy and even necessary stage twice in a person’s life. During the toddler and teen years it gives an individual an inflated sense of confidence that enables him or her to leave the security of the parental bond to explore the world with newly acquired abilities. If children receive correct parenting when reality deflates this bubble of omnipotence, they reach the end of their narcissistic explorations with a newly integrated sense of self and awareness of the separateness of other people. If they are traumatized or are insecure in their attachment to primary caregivers at these crucial stages, they never “graduate” from the school of narcissism, and become “toxic people,” viewing others merely as extensions of themselves and therefore without separate needs and feelings. You probably encounter narcissistic people every day without understanding why they are so rude, have an unfounded sense of entitlement, poor boundaries, or seem to be more “special” than other people. Many of us have been raised in families that pass down narcissistic vulnerabilities, leaving us prey to narcissists, who are always on the lookout for people who can be manipulated into supplying external validation of their “specialness,” either by annexing you and your talents to serve them or by deflating you so as to inflate themselves. The current cultural endorsement and social approval of narcissistic traits also prepares us to be victims, even if we are otherwise psychologically healthy.

Wonder how to create boundaries with a narcissistic person in your life or how to raise children who have a sense of self that includes others with empathy? Tune in as I talk to Dr. Judith Pearson about the work of Dr. James Masterson, the “Father of Narcissistic Personality Disorders”.

In 1986 Dr. Judith Pearson graduated from Fordham University with a Ph.D. Psychology, (Magna  Cum. Laude), and then entered a postdoctoral training program that lasted three years under the direction of Dr. James Masterson and has been teaching at The Masterson Institute ever since.

Dr. Masterson, author of 12 books, among them, “The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of our Age,” is the father of the Society of Adolescent Psychiatry. He pioneered the developmental, self and object relations approach to the psychotherapy of the Personality Disorders through clinical research over 40 years. He is the founder and director of the Masterson Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and has won many awards for his groundbreaking work.