What is Sexual Narcissism?

This video answers the question: What is sexual narcissism? Support Dr. Grande on Patreon:   / drgrande  
The construct of narcissism is a personality trait that tends to be stable over time. Most of the time we think of narcissism as normal and adaptive. When the levels become elevated, they can become problematic (pathological narcissism). Narcissism is also associated with being low on the agreeableness trait in the five-factor model, so being disagreeable. There are two types of narcissism: grandiose narcissism (overt) and vulnerable narcissism (covert). Grandiose narcissism has characteristics like being dominant, having a sense of entitlement, being extroverted (so high on extraversion in the five-factor model), callousness, a sense of superiority, and a tendency to exploit other individuals (manipulative). Vulnerable narcissism has characteristics like being insecure, fearful, being sad, being introverted (low on extraversion in the five-factor model), having what's referred to as shame-proneness (tending to experience shame), being hypersensitive, angry, and aggressive. Sometimes when we talk about these two types of narcissism, the term narcissistic personality disorder gets mentioned, but narcissistic personality is different than grandiose or vulnerable narcissism. It's more similar to grandiose narcissism, but it's an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), so someone could be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, but could not be diagnosed with grandiose or vulnerable narcissism. Those are simply constructs measured on a continuum. Narcissistic personality disorder is a Cluster B personality disorder, so it's in the same cluster as antisocial, borderline, and histrionic. Sexual narcissism has a close relationship to narcissistic personality disorder and to grandiose narcissism in general. Sexual narcissism is a pattern of egocentric sexual interaction. Some of the characteristics we see associated with sexual narcissism would include a preoccupation with sex, placing a lot of importance on sexual activity, having sexual compulsivity (hypersexuality), having a casual attitude or orientation towards sexual interactions, having a sense of entitlement directly related to sexual activity, sexual manipulation, promiscuity, and an inflated sense of sexual skill or ability.



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