Another group of patients for whom hospitalization is indicated, provided long-term residential treatment is available, are those who have poor motivation for outpatient treatment, fragile object relationships, chronic destructive acting out, and chaotic life-styles. An inpatient program can offer an intensive milieu which includes individual psychotherapy, family involvement, and a specialized residential environment. The structure is physically and emotionally secure enough to sustain the patient with severe ego weakness throughout the course of expressive, conflict-solving psychotherapy.
Small staff-patient groups within the wards, as well as large community meetings, at which feelings are shared and patients' comments taken seriously by staff, and constructive work assignments, recreational activities, and opportunities to sublimate painfully conflictual impulses make the hospital a "holding" environment rather than merely a containing one. The ultimate goals are of effecting a better integrated internal world, more cohesive and modulated self-object representation, and a self-concept less vulnerable to narcissistic injury.
The histrionic patient's idealization of the physician stands in contrast to the narcissistic patient's frequent contemptuous disregard for the physician, who is denigrated in a defensive effort to maintain a sense of superiority and mastery over illness. Only the most senior physician in a prestigious institution is deemed worthy of respect as the frightened patient seeks an external reflection of his or her own fragile grandeur in the doctor. More junior members of the health care team may be the targets of derision as the patient seeks to establish hierarchical dominance in order to counter the shame and fear triggered by illness.
Health care professionals must convey a feeling of respect and acknowledge the patient's sense of self-importance so that the patient can reestablish a coherent sense of self, but they must at the same time avoid reinforcing either pathologic grandiosity (which may contribute to denial of illness) or weakness (which frightens the patient). An initial approach of support followed by step-by-step confrontation of the patient's vulnerabilities may enable the patient to deal with the implications of illness with feelings of greater subjective strength. The increased self-confidence may reduce the patient's need to attack the health care team in a misguided effort at psychologic self-preservation and eases the pressure to provide perfect care, since the patient's antagonistic feeling of entitlement (defined by DSM-III as an "expectation of special favors without assuming reciprocal responsibilities") is reduced.
Many of the treatment principles and approaches discussed for this disorder apply as well to Borderline Personality Disorder.
The individual with narcissistic and related personality disorders is likely to present with Axis I symptoms and disorders at various times in his or her life. These should be treated as described elsewhere. Caution should be observed, however, not to overdiagnose psychotic decompensation as Schizophrenia unless all DSM-III criteria are apparent. The same caveat applies to the pharmacologic treatment of depressive symptoms in the absence of clinical signs of Major Affective Disorder. When treating presenting symptoms and Axis I disorders in patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and other similar conditions, attention should be paid to the consequences of removing symptoms in a patient whose underlying character is primitive and or fragile.
Some clinicians, suggest that the grandiosity and tendency to idealize and devalue should be interpreted as defensive maneuvers when aspects of early conflictual relationships are played out in adult life. Other clinicians, posit that the emergence of the patient's grandiosity and tendency to idealize the therapist should initially be viewed supportively. To help the individual develop stronger self-esteem regulation, the therapist then gradually points out the realistic limitations of patient and therapist alike while also offering an empathic ambience to cushion patients in their efforts to accept and integrate these experiences. Unfortunately, much research will be required to validate the description and course of narcissistic personality disorder before further research can answer which techniques bring about a better response to treatment.
Those patients who do not terminate treatment after symptom relief has been obtained may wish help for some of the problems related to their personality disorder, such as interpersonal difficulties or depression. The therapist must have a good understanding of the principles of the narcissistic personality style, both for interpretation to the patient and for use in combating countertransference. Goals for ordinary psychotherapy should not be too great, since the source of these patients' difficulties lies deep in pathological development.
Outpatient analytic-expressive group therapy requires a concomitant individual relationship for most patients, which should be somewhat supportive. The need for this additional support, the likelihood of the patient's leaving the group at the first sign of psychic insult, and proneness to disorganized thinking are all found more often in the Borderline patient. The patient with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder does not appear so vulnerable to separation anxieties as the Borderline patient, but is instead involved in issues centered around maintaining a sense of self-worth
联系客服