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Narcissistic Spectrum Disorders

Course description. This course takes you well past the media caricatures into a serious understanding of narcissistic spectrum disorders. Across seven richly documented modules you will see how pathological narcissism sits on a continuum running from grandiose to vulnerable, and how the major theoretical models account for it — and treat it.

Narcissism is not simple arrogance: it is a complex psychic organization built on identity failures, relational difficulty and dysregulated self-esteem. The course opens with an essential clarification — healthy versus pathological narcissism — teaching you to recognize the adaptive side of narcissism, indispensable to confidence and ambition, as distinct from the pathology that rigidifies and lays waste to relationships.

You will study Kernberg’s foundational model of narcissistic personality disorder: identity pathology, the pathological grandiose self, unconscious envy and the underlying borderline organization — and understand why narcissistic personalities feel no guilt and resort to destructive projective mechanisms.

Kohut’s self psychology supplies the complementary view: the fundamental narcissistic needs (mirroring, idealization, twinship), selfobject transferences and optimal empathic ruptures. A dedicated module on vulnerable narcissism (Pincus, Lukowitsky) uncovers the lesser-known profile: hypersensitivity to criticism, chronic shame, social withdrawal and the grandiose–vulnerable alternation.

The therapeutic work forms the heart of the course: the traps of narcissistic transference, the intricate countertransference reactions, and the contrast between Kernberg’s progressive confrontation and Kohut’s empathic provision of the selfobject. The course closes with a critical dismantling of Racamier’s “narcissistic pervert”, drawing the line between pathological narcissism, sadistic traits and true perversion.

Essential viewing for psychologists in private practice, institutions or clinical services who meet these disorders regularly — in the general population, in families and in couples.

Duration: 1 h 40 | Asynchronous | Certificate of participation

Training objectives

1. Separate healthy from pathological narcissism and recognize adaptive versus rigid narcissistic functioning in clinical assessment.
2. Put Kernberg’s and Kohut’s models to work in analysing identity failures, selfobject needs and the unconscious mechanics of narcissistic personality disorder.
3. Recognize vulnerable narcissism (hypersensitivity, shame, withdrawal) and fit your alliance strategy to the presentation — grandiose or vulnerable.
4. Tailor the therapeutic approach (Kernberg, Kohut, integrative) to the challenges of narcissistic transference, and regulate countertransference to protect the alliance.

Course outline

1. Introduction and fundamentals — healthy versus pathological narcissism
2. Epidemiology and diagnostic criteria of narcissistic personality disorder
3. The Kernberg perspective — grandiose self, unconscious envy, projective identification
4. The Kohut perspective and self psychology — selfobject needs and transferences
5. Vulnerable narcissism — hypersensitivity, shame and social withdrawal
6. The therapeutic work — narcissistic transference; Kernberg versus Kohut
7. The “narcissistic pervert” and conclusions — a critical deconstruction of Racamier’s concept

Training materials. The course includes seven slide-illustrated video modules, a 20-question quiz and a final exam.

The trainer: Christophe Herbert