Will Therapy Help a Narcissist?

According to WebMD, narcissistic personality disorder is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. So, a person with a narcissistic personality disorder will more than likely not seek out therapy or any other treatment because they do not believe that there is anything wrong with them. Chances are that if there is something going on in their life that they are uncomfortable with they will blame it on somebody or something other than themselves. This is part of being a narcissist.

According to the DSM-V, an individual must have one area of their life affected by a disorder to be diagnosed. This can be personal, occupational, or social, but it must be at least one area in their life that is being affected by symptoms that are causing distress. Sends a narcissist will not admit to any distress in their life caused by themselves, they cannot be diagnosed with a narcissistic personality disorder. While the individual may be a narcissist, diagnosing them is a completely different ball game.

Most of the time a narcissist suffers from poor self-esteem that generally starts in childhood. The narcissist may have learned to become a narcissist through constant parental praise or by having a narcissistic parent, which is usually the mother, but not always. Narcissists are not born, they are created, this is important to remember when dealing with a narcissist.

If by wild chance a narcissist were to go to therapy, there is a chance that they could be helped. A therapist can work with an individual to gain positive self-esteem and confidence, which could help break down the hard, narcissistic exterior. Empathy can be taught through therapeutic invention, which would increase the narcissist's EQ. However, the most difficult challenge with treating a narcissist in therapy will be to keep the narcissist in therapy because according to the narcissist, they do not have any problems and therefore do not require intervention. In most cases, therapy cannot help a narcissist because they don't see a need or reason to be in therapy.