Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)

A name for a group of coping strategies that began as a childhood adaptation to developmental trauma that left the person with unstable self-esteem, the inability to regulate their self-esteem without external validation, and low empathy. This is a Cluster B personality disorder characterized by the following impairments: overreliance on others for self-definition; overreliance on others for regulation of self-esteem; lack of empathy; exploitative of others; grandiose delusions; exaggerated entitlement; excessive attention-seeking; and excessive admiration seeking. People with NPD also lack Whole Object Relations and Object Constancy.