Pathological Narcissism: The Pendulum Swing between Echoism and Sovereignism
Chapter 4: Most of my friends with pathological narcissism have more echoist and more sovereign sides. What determines which one takes the stage?Introduction In my article “Narcissism, Echoism, and Sovereignism: A 4-D Model of Personality,” I describe narcissism, echoism, and sovereignism in terms of values that the person tries to perfect like their life depends on it, because that’s what it actually feels like. (The fourth dimension is the severity of the personality pathology based on Kernberg’s levels of personality organization.)Echoism:General values: modesty, service, piety, purity, loyaltyGrandiose values: moral excellence, altruismVulnerable values: selflessness, sacrifice, invisibility, martyrdomNarcissism:General values: dignity, self-sufficiency, selectivityGrandiose values: success, achievement, admiration, status, wealth, beauty, enlightenment, intelligence, excellence, prestige, sophistication, legacy, uniqueness, exceptionalismVulnerable values: insight, reserve, sanctuary, integrity, boundaries, solitude, nonconformitySovereignism:General values: self-control, self-sufficiencyGrandiose values: power, control, dominationVulnerable values: invulnerability (defense against hurt), impregnability (defense against intrusion), sanctuary, stoicismThe key finding of my article is that echoism and narcissism/sovereignism are not opposites but correlated dimensions: The same person can be echoistic in one context and sovereign in another.But what determines which side they show? After all, someone who functions at the level of a personality disorder (the borderline to psychotic levels of personality organization) will have some degree of identity diffusion and won’t simultaneously have access to all their parts.I think this is fundamentally about the attachment style that the particular relationship or situation brings out in the person.Pathological Narcissism and AttachmentMock data for illustration purposes.As I discussed in my interview with Dr. Mark Ettenso