Understanding the Different Types of Narcissism with Dr. Anthony Mazzella, Ph.D.

We just had a great conversation, and let's start with kinda defining what narcissism is, because we throw-

Mm

...

this term around like it's candy.

Yes.

And it's sometimes gotten misused and misunderstood.

Mm-hmm.

So could you tell the audience how you define narcissism?

Sure.

I really appreciate that you said how I define it, because there are so many different ways to define it.

It's such a complicated diagnosis and concept, but the way that I tend to think about it, this is at least what I find most helpful in working with these individuals, is it's an attempt to regulate one's sense of self.

And I say sense of self instead of self-esteem because sense of self does include self-esteem, which they're always trying to regulate, but also how you see yourself, we call this, like, an inner representation, and how you imagine other people see you.

So the goal is always to regulate that.

And there are different types of narcissism or clusters.

You know, they don't all present in the same way.

That's part of what makes it complicated as well.

But again, just to keep this very high level, and we can go into the details as we go along, the cluster or the type, the presentation of narcissism depends on the mode of what I would say is called narcissistic repair.

So in other words, not all individuals repair their sense of self in the same way.

There are many different ways that one can get self-esteem.

Some are more what we call the grandiose narcissist or the overt.

Some people refer to it that way.

That's the most common one that people think of.

You probably know that one yourself, right? That's, like, the loud, obnoxious, attention-seeking, boasting ...

Right.

So that's only-