I have always believed that my profession has a lot to offer to the understanding of politics. One important contribution we can make is to highlight the relationship between narcissism, in particular Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NDP), and politics.

A person has to have only five of the following DSM-IV criteria to be diagnosed with NPD. He or she: (1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance; (2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love; (3) believes that he or she is ‘special’ and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high status people (or institutions); (4) requires excessive admiration; (5) has a sense of entitlement i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations; (6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends; (7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recongise or identify with the feelings and needs of others; (8) is often envious of otherso r believes that others are envious of him or her; (9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM IV. American Psychiatric Association. P.661)

People with NPD are everywhere but can be found in particular in areas where there are visible signs of success, status and power, and where admiration can be obtained relatively easily for example: high level sports, entertainment, all branches of academia, medicine, military and law enforcement, high level corporate and public service jobs and in politics.

The emotional maturity of people with NPD is that of a 3-5 year old child. They generate chaos, confusion and fear around them. They are divisive, and are incredibly harmful (emotionally and otherwise) to anyone under their influence. The closer you are to them, the worse it is.

I have worked with many clients over the years who are children of narcissists. It’s a terrible hidden injury to have to live with. As parents, narcissists are not necessarily violent or abusive in any obvious sense. In fact they are more likely to be seen as ‘perfect’ devoted parents. They would often spend a lot of time with their chosen children pushing them to succeed in an area that they happen to value and so that they can put them on display. They might get involved in the child’s activity in some capacity, to be seen as selfless and helpful and to be admired by others as devoted parents. Ask the child of a narcissist and he or she would tell you that ‘Dad got involved but he did it for himself. It was never about me’.

I said ‘chosen children’ because if narcissists have two or more children, they will often divide them into two groups: the successful versus the unsuccessful, the bright and ‘not so bright’, those who could do well and those who ‘wouldn’t amount to anything’. Many children of narcissists live a miserable life either as sad underachievers or as successful perfectionists who never feel they are good enough. Many end up killing themselves, or living with depression or substance abuse, and no one, least of all them, understands why. When they come to therapy they don’t feel that they have a right to have problems, because their family was not only ‘normal’ but even ‘perfect’. And this is important because image is everything for narcissists, and children (and partners) learn to collude early on with the task of making the family and the narcissistic parent look good. The French film Look at Me shows a good example of a successful author who has NPD and the devastating effect he has on his daughter.

Narcissists vary in the degree of success they achieve. It depends a lot on their particular talents, their time in history, social class and other circumstances. For example, many female narcissists could not have become successful at anything much two hundred years ago, when women’s status in society was so low. Unsuccessful narcissists often spend their entire lives feeling bitter and disappointed about a world that they believe has failed to recognise their ‘specialness’, their beauty or genius. They can get quite depressed and self-tormented, feeling deprived of what they need the most, and believe they deserve: recognition and admiration. Narcissists in general tend to have a victim mentality and an unhealthy sense of entitlement. They are incapable of self-awareness and do not own up or take responsibility for their actions. Everything is always someone else’s fault.

Narcissists, particularly the successful ones, can be extremely well presented. People who are not too close to them tend to admire them but those who are unfortunate enough to live with them or work closely with them know better.

Less successful narcissists are attracted to more successful ones so that they can bask in their reflected glory. Behind the unrestrained admiration of celebrity in all varieites lies narcissism. We even have parasitical industries that feed on it and promote it, such as glossy magazines (complete with paparazzi), and certain television shows whose entire focus is on creating overnight celebrities and feeding them to an audience of narcissists.

The damage narcissists do in the work environment is aptly described by the gifted Australian psychologist John Clarke in his book Working with Monsters. NPD fits well with Clarke’s description of the ‘workplace psychopath’.

But what happens when narcissists run entire countries? What happens when their decisions and actions affect millions of people, especially considering their lack of capacity for empathy or responsibility? Imagine what would happen if you gave a small child all the armies and money they want and enough power to do whatever they want with them, and you get the idea.

Politics, as it has been practiced throughout human history, is a magnet for narcissists because it offers so many advantages: power, money, privilege of all kinds, and most of all status and admiration. Narcissistic dictators are pretty obvious but even in Western democracies, politics includes too many elements, privileges and benefits that are all too attractive to narcissists.

If like me you are infuriated, frustrated and outright worried about policies that are short-sighted, that ignore facts and evidence (e.g. Howard’s response to climate change); policies that promote divisiveness over unity and cooperation, suspicion and mistrust over compassion, and destructiveness over healing and dialogue, look for the narcissist. If you are shocked and disgusted by white collar crime or corruption, look for the narcissist. If you are puzzled by why politics has been practiced with such cynicism and lack of compassion, with such shallowness, dishonesty and nastiness, look for the narcissists.

Big egos, resistance to change, ruthlessness and dishonesty are not just the foibles of high achievers, neither are they the admirable qualities of ‘go getters’. They are the symptom of a serious pathology. It is important for the public to be able to understand and name what it sees rather than feel dismayed and puzzled by it.

Narcissistic leaders can give a whole society a narcissistic ‘flavour’ by promoting and advancing those who are like them. The most obvious signs of a narcissistic society are a strong focus on ‘grandness’, appearances and spectacles, disregard for rules and laws, and an empty confusing rhetoric at the expense of real substance. A narcissistic government would spend a lot of money and effort publicising its achievements, real or imaginary. Under narcissistic rulers reality begins to mix with fiction and real data about what is going on are covered up.

If we want to live in a compassionate, benevolent and rational society, based on dialogue and inclusiveness rather than fear and divisiveness, and if we want to have a long-term view of problem-solving we must ensure that we never again elect narcissistic leaders. A good way to prevent narcissists from being attracted to politics in the first place, is to reform the way politics is done. A humbler political system that only offers to politicians what they really need in order to do their job, that is caring, transparent and truly accountable and that is run in the true spirit of service to the people, is unlikely to attract narcissists because they will not find in it the commodities they so covet.

Page content last modified: 12 Mar 2008