What Is Narcissistic Personality Disorder?

[Eulenspiegel7646 at aol.com]

What Is Narcissistic Personality Disorder? 
By Brendan I. Koerner 

A recent Associated Press story noted that Christian Longo, who killed his 
wife and three children in 2001, claimed to suffer from narcissistic personality 
disorder during his sentencing hearing. What is NPD, and is it an effective 
criminal defense? 

As the disorder's name suggests, an NPD sufferer believes he or she is the 
greatest thing since sliced bread. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of 
Mental Disorders lists nine telltale signs, including unrealistic fantasies of 
living a more glamorous life, a desperate craving for admiration, and a complete 
lack of empathy for others. Psychiatrists believe that these tendencies are 
often rooted in childhood insecurity. 

Whatever the cause may be, people with NPD basically can't help acting like 
selfish jerks.  They lie incessantly about their accomplishments, treat friends 
and family like peons, and feel entitled to jet-set lifestyles regardless of 
their true talents, wealth, or education.  There are about 1 million Americans 
whose self-centeredness is severe enough to merit a diagnosis of NPD; the 
condition is often exacerbated by depression, substance abuse, or other 
co-existent mental maladies, like paranoid personality disorder or borderline 
personality disorder. 

The most severe cases of NPD can lead to violence, especially when the 
sufferer is rejected or feels his or her fantasy life is threatened. Prosecutors 
argued, for example, that Longo killed his family because he felt they were an 
impediment to the life of privilege that he believed he deserved. People with 
NPD also tend to be excessively impulsive and less able to consider how their 
actions might affect others. 

That doesn't mean, however, that NPD is necessarily a useful defense.  When 
it is mentioned in the courtroom, it's often during the penalty phase, as in 
Longo's case.  The defense hope is that the psychiatric evidence will mitigate 
the crime's circumstances and thus convince a judge to impose a more lenient 
sentence.  There are no national statistics that track the effectiveness of this 
strategy, though anecdotal evidence suggests that NPD rarely, if ever, leads 
to a sentence reduction.  NPD certainly didn't help mitigate Longo's 
punishment; he was condemned to die. 

Nor have lawyers had much luck in using NPD alone to build insanity defenses. 
Even the most hardcore of narcissists knows the difference between right and 
wrong and is in touch with reality.  Last fall, for example, a South Dakota 
man named Kenneth Leon Martin was tried for killing an off-duty police officer. 
Defense lawyers argued that Martin's NPD led him to fantasize that—like a 
superpowerful version of the faith healers he'd seen on television—he could raise 
his victim from the dead.  But Martin was convicted; the jury was convinced by 
a prosecution psychiatrist that the murderer, despite his disorder, was well 
aware that shooting an unarmed man was wrong. 

Next question? 

Sound Like anyone you know?

Elyn Saks of the University of Southern California Law School.
Brendan I. Koerner is a fellow at the New America Foundation.

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