Can we build models to diagnose and treat

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)?

The artificial intelligence inspired by the exponential surge in computing speed and
algorithmic advances in quantitative psychology is evolving to perform specific complex
functions that are performed by the human mind. Putting it differently, ever growing central
processing units (CPUs) are increasingly able to simulate the cognitive processes, which tend
to identify, and objectively solve the intuitive equations of survival. Taking into
consideration the limitations of human physiological constitution such as, anatomical and
biomechanical ceilings and constraints of the human body, possibly within next fifty years
there will be thinking robots which can equal or surpass the human performances in specific
cognitive processing. The discipline that relates psychology and logic to mathematics is
called psychometrics which is extensively used to design intelligence measuring
instruments. For over half a century, many institutions have been working on different
themes in psychonomics which deals with the experiments to understand the cognitive
processes. The R&D units of psychonomics are engaged in multi faceted expertise brought in
by psychologists, physicists, computer scientists, biologists and human factors engineers etc.
Looking at the current progress being made in psychonomics and psychometrics, the future
for diagnosing and treating the cognitive disorders effectively seems quite promising.
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a psychological illness, which is often noticed in
the people with high level of hatred and very low self-respect but outwardly show an
inflated feeling of self importance and loathsome behavior. The personality of a narcissist as
Sigmund Freud described is manipulated by so called superiority complex which is usually
evolved out of anxiety and insecurity not tackled during ones childhood. NPDs are so selfpossessed that they know it all; they are better than everyone around them. Narcissists
expect everyone to accept their views. They become manipulative when someone contradicts
or doesnt accept their views. NPD is lot more complex mental illness than the overview
described in the above sentences. Lots of published literature and theses can be referenced
for understanding the seriousness of the disease. Since 1970s NPD is considered as an illness
that can lead to serious consequences but there is no proper remedy or treatment for the
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patients. Just for the contention, let us assume that a NPD is represented by an algorithm that
conforms to mathematical function (y = f(x)). The notion based on the lineage or heredity,
children are derivatives (chip(s) of the old block) of parents with respect to both parental
physical and emotional traits. The derivative (y=f(x)) of the NPD equation would yield a
mathematical model which according to the above made assumption, would theoretically
represent the cognitive processing of offspring. But it wouldnt necessarily denote that
children are narcissistic. Nevertheless, the parental NPD is contagious and can gradually
deform the personality of children. The derivative model subject to exogenous forces such as
societal variances may curb the childs cognitive processing. Regardless of all assumptions,
the NPD parental effect on the development of a childs psychology would be probabilistic.
Accordingly the algorithm, y= f(x) would be a stochastic and not deterministic model.
NPD is believed to be a socially acquired disease and is not a genetic disorder. If a mother of
five children has NPD, the children who are derivatives of the NPD are not necessarily NPDs
as f(x) is quite different equation from f(x). For example, y= x2+ 4x+ 2, is a vertical parabola
with its vertex at (-2, -2) and focus at (-2, .25) but its first derivative is entirely different curve
which is a straight line (y= 2x + 4) with a slant of 63.5 degrees intercepting Y-axis at 4. Even
though the five children are derivatives of the same NPD, they may emerge with different
infected personalities due to the external environment and circumstantial reasons such as the
order of childs birth, sex, mothers affinity towards the child and childs tolerance to
parental abuse etc. And also the derivative function will be constantly changing for each
growing child separately on its own due to the exposure to varying exogenous forces
(environmental tension). The offspring individually will go through character changes
leading to different cognitive dissonances. Each child will be constrained by different
psychological equations and hence the five children will emerge with five different
personalities. Unknowingly they are programmed to bear the pain of constantly satisfying
the NPD mothers needs and as they grow older some may try to distance from the mother
who are called as the survivors of NPD and still they may have problems arising from
anxiety and depression. However, some give in and gradually imitate the old chip or in
mathematical terms, y = ax + b may go through exponential changes to resemble their mother
(y = ax2 + bx + c) or even transform into an all together opposite or even the inverse function
of that of mothers, (x= ay2 + by + c). Each child genetically acquires certain temperament at
birth but the interaction with the parents and surrounding environment are mainly
responsible in the childs psychological development.
A mathematical representation of NPD consisting of many fuzzy variables would be very
complex to formulate manually. A simple differential equation would be too rudimentary to
denote NPD affected child. In Partial Differential Equation (PDE) consisting of many
independent variables, one variable is differentiated while keeping the other variables as
constants. Since the NPD equation would be so complex with multi variables, the PDE
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would become too complicated to solve manually, especially with the constraint equations
defined by its boundary values. With the current computer programs, PDEs are effectively
solved to illustrate natures complex phenomena such as hurricane, ocean water level,
environmental changes, cancer spread, gene mutation and aging etc. The PDE programs,
even though yield approximate values, provide speedy solutions. The development of
childs psychology is always restrained by the boundary values set by the collective stigma
established by the social order. As the child grows, the variables and the boundary values
with respect to time continually change the equation. The computerized PDE model would
be able to simulate the ongoing development of a childs psyche and speculate the changes in
magnitude and direction of resultant force (pressure) that may affect the behavior of a child.
The development of child psychology is affected by many surrounding or environmental
factors. However, the parental power with which a NPD mother manipulates her children to
admire her distorts their natural growth. She sets all the rules and makes all the decisions for
her children that would mainly benefit her but never understands the harm that she is
inflicting on her children. She takes credit for every good thing that happens to the family
and blames others if things go wrong. She always has one favorite and one hated child. The
favorite child becomes jewel of the family. According to NPD mother the favorite child does
nothing wrong. The favorite child like the mother develops illusory superiority which is
overestimating self ability and also achievements. In case of failure, the child rationalizes by
blaming others or reasons failure with unconnected alibis. The hated child becomes the
scapegoat who is blamed for all kind of problems in the family. The child develops imposter
syndrome which is under estimating self ability and physical looks. NPD mother badmouths
her independent sons/daughters and fails to recognize that her children have matured
beyond her control. She intrudes into childrens privacy and commits childrens possessions
to others without their permission. She thinks that even the adult children are her extension
and should be at her beck and call. Good narcissism at times can be viewed as decent self
esteem. But its very likely that majority of NPD children who are compressed by the
narcissistic forces are wrought into critical narcissistic personalities. The low spirited
environment of NPD household averts the children from the normal mental growth and they
are warped (infected) before reaching adolescences. The children in the process of
maintaining their familys image as projected by the mother become dysfunctional in many
different ways. The children lose their confidence due to the persistently rationalized
parental abuse and have much higher probability of suffering from NPD or some kind of
inner dissonance.
Living in twisted unrealistic environment contaminated by NPD, the children have difficulty
in receiving and processing information; it is also known as learning disability that may
further extend to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or vice versa. They are
so self absorbed to the extent they totally lack empathy which makes them think that their
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needs are the only needs and others dont have needs. Because of the competition with other
siblings for parental attention they become manipulative of their relation with relatives and
friends and even become sociopaths. Compulsive lying and false claims are frequently
observed symptoms. Usually NPD mother weighs heavily on physical appearances and the
children even develop deluded fixations on their own looks. During childhood being a
subject of criticism and insult, as adults they may suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder
(OCD). Some are excessively extravagant and stretch their resources too far to survive. The
children frequently have difficulty developing normal relationships as they suffer from
unusual depression and anxiety.
The social chameleon disorder is one of the facets of narcissism which is caused by the
insecurity rooted in the childhood. A social chameleon becomes totally different person with
different people. Trying to cope up with the unexpected and ever changing demands of NPD
mother, the child often develops abruptly changing or fluctuating personality. In the process,
the sense of self or self esteem transforms into an ever shifting unsecured personality. A
social chameleon frequently changes mask to fit the social environment that is around him at
any given time. Thats why a social chameleon has problem saying no and ends up being
controlled by other people. A social chameleon fits in with anyone or any setting. If and
when the pretense or ever changing mask cracks, the chameleon becomes extremely
disturbed and violent. Even though the description of personality shift of social chameleon
and sociopath closely resemble, they are quite different syndromes in sort. A social
chameleon tries to create mirror image of the people around him for acceptance out of
insecurity where as a sociopath outwardly agrees with the people he comes across for
accomplishing an intended motive by any means including deception. The child who tries to
replicate NPD mothers personality develops sociopathic disorder. If one sibling is sociopath
and the other is social chameleon, the sociopath ends up controlling the chameleon which is
metaphorically similar to the link between a predator and prey. Without a prey a predator
cant survive. The sociopathic child deviously tries to take advantage of his family and even
friends. And also the sociopathic child becomes the favorite of NPD mother as she is the
alpha sociopath of the family.
The process of satisfying the NPD mother becomes a competition between children and the
rivalries among them even transforms into extreme jealousy to the point of wishing ill to the
other siblings. When they start their own families the old problems of emotional dissonance
repeat with their spouses and children. They lack the ability to maintain a meaningful
relation with their spouses. Many NPD children have no interest in their spouses as the
image of narcissistic mother constantly haunts them. Mostly they focus on their children
(grand children of NPD mother) who at times develop grandmothers personality. Over an
extended period of time, the string of many generations may get contaminated from NPD.
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The infected son cannot have an intimate relationship with women and there is a probability
of him becoming a homosexual or suffering from transient impotency. A narcissistic
daughter may hate her husband for no real reason as she tends imitate her NPD mothers
behavior. She always tries to keep relation with her spouse at a superficial level to avoid
revealing her real self.
This text is focused on NPD mother and her children; however, either NPD parent is
contagion and can negatively influence childrens behavior. The children living with NPD
parent are constantly pestered by the erratic narcissistic moods of passion and torture. There
is a school of thinking that associates the ghostly nature of fictional vampire, Dracula with
NPD. However, according to psychologists NPD is a mask that covers the self presumed
incompetence which starts on from the childhood of a person and expands as the person gets
older. One narcissist can infect many people close to him or her and consequently leading to
a chain reaction. A person with too high self esteem can also be ill with NPD and may step
into the world of delusion when the persons self esteem is threatened. Jim Jones, the founder
of Peoples Temple in California severely suffered from NPD. In 1978 when his temple was
threatened by the Federal Government, he in Jones Town, Guiana forced over 900 disciples
of the temple into committing mass suicide by drinking poisoned lemonade. The narcissistic
patients only surround themselves with the people who reinforce their own egos. Narcissists
hate the virtues of their relatives and acquaintances. In particular they detest the people who
relatively distinguish from their own blemish of narcissism. They try to defend by crafting
vicious slanders against the targeted people, including their close friends and relatives. They
usually project their own twisted view on the persons who dont agree with them and also
dislike neutral stance around them. Even innocence becomes gullible to slanderous
accusation of wrong or offensive doing that was never committed. In the case of malignant
narcissism, self-absorbed egotism due to insecurity gradually tends to outrageous criminal
attitude. Both Stalin and Hitler suffered from horrible cases of malignant NPD and in
delusive state of mind reflected their disorder on specific factions of citizenries of Russia and
Germany. They callously ended up killing several millions of innocent people for no other
reason than their own befuddled psyche; Stalin slaughtered Kulaks in Russia and Hitler
mass murdered Jews in Germany.
All along the history, NPD had been one of the factors in inducing wars that led to mass
murders. In this age of intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles, the probability of a
mentally ill person causing an enormous blunder that was never faced before cant be
ignored. It is quite essential that the powerful leaders of the world, especially the state heads
ought to be examined for psychological disorders including NPD. The mental illness among
political leaders is difficult to diagnose while the reputation is on a rise. The problem is only
recognizable as the popularity declines and the status in the society is threatened. In an
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effort to hold on to the power, the illness resorts to oppression endangering the security of
the masses. Is there a method to deal with the madness of treacherous world leaders who
pose threat to the humanity? Is it possible to add a supervisory body that can control the
mentally ill national leaders to the agenda of human rights under the charter of the United
Nations? However the critical question is, How effectively the United Nations can handle
such intangible mental health issues when so far it has repeatedly proven to be very
ineffective in handling many basic international problems? A range of pharmaceuticals and
research institutions are placing so much of importance on exploring methods for early
diagnosis and cure for physical ailments such as cancer. At the same time the prevention and
cure for psychological disorders cant be ignored. There is no blood test or any clear cut
confirmatory methods for diagnosing NPD other than a psychologists deduction, based on
conditional

probability or Bayesian function. Generally NPDs are treated with

psychoanalysis and psychotherapy to strengthen patients poor self image and insecurity.
With all the technological kits currently reachable, varieties of NPD measuring instruments
including the suggestive pitch made in this article can be explored. The collection of data will
be the first roadblock to overcome and will be followed by varieties of hurdles during
analysis and design phases of building a NPD model. The initial data collection can be
started by scoping a well structured effort such that the data can help to establish queries
that can eliminate bias from the future data collection efforts. The queries will function as
filter to reduce noise in the data and also steadily enhance the quality of data. It will be
crucial to collect comprehensive data of sequential stages of life, (infancy, childhood, teenage
and adulthood etc) of presently known NPDs. The next step would be to streamline the
primary causes contributing to attributes of NPD and weighing them by means of the
benchmarking techniques currently used by many industries for improving profitability.
Ironically in this situation, instead of choosing best practices, the most harmful causes and
attributes would be benchmarked. The data collection effort would demand coordination
among large number of research oriented medical institutions in the US and even other
advanced countries. A heuristic method (probing problem-solving technique) is deployed in
solving a complex problem faster than classical mathematical approach when it is too slow
or unable to deliver a solution. The Theory of Optimization is a mathematical discipline that
usually utilizes computer science for finding the best result from all alternative solutions.
The theory of optimization and optimizing algorithms such as linear or nonlinear
programming in conjunction with heuristic can be used to enrich the quality of the NPD
models within the limits of acceptance.
NPD cant be monitored without drawing relationship between cause and effect or causality
of NPD which can only be realized by establishing units of measure for selected attributes
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and their underlying causes. Calibration of a unit of measure is always based on reasoning or
hypothesis which in order to prove requires interpretation and analysis of empirical data. In
Industrial Dynamics, the subject that theorizes flow of sorts, such as materials and
information, the continuous dynamic models are built to simulate, predict, control and
deliver a desirable outcome with an acceptable level of accuracy. Many of these models
include various intangible exogenous factors that may affect the output of dynamic models.
Usually the intangibles are construed using abstract methodologies based on rational
assumptions, such as quantification of utility with virtual units of utility measurement.
Unlike in physics and chemistry, establishing units of measuring magnitude and intensity in
social sciences become a bit obscure. A NPD model needs assumption of many nebulous
aspects such as surrounding environment, family background, status in a society, religion,
income level, intelligence, physical traits and superiority complex etc. Broad varieties of
analytic models based on linear regression were tried to understand various mental
disorders in the past. Using linear regression models for socially acquired mental illnesses
many times had proven to be inadequate and yielded erroneous results. In the case of NPD,
its symptoms are caused by numerous independent variables of divorce forms and as a
result the functions are comprised of non-linear and also discontinuous equations. One of the
methods worth exploring is nonlinear optimization (nonlinear programming model)
consisting of many nonlinear constraint equations rendering social causes of NPD.
Such an effort may demand a large objective or predictive function supported by many
constraint equations with numerous dependent and independent variables for an adequate
representation of NPD. The predicting models may diverge across age groups owing to the
aging process. The estimation parameters or constraint equation coefficients representing
young, middle age, and old people are bound to differ. Apart from age issue, the other
factors of demographics would also sway the coefficients. The complexity of data collection
and analyses would demand an enormous effort for establishing family or group of NPD
functions or models. Even then such an experimental approach may yield surrealistic output
but still can lead to other avenues for evaluating NPD. The creation of new instruments that
are capable of scientifically measuring the magnitude or intensity of NPD or other socially
acquired psychological disorders would advance the medical science a step further.
Facilitating the medical professionals with routine methods to treat NPD would to some
extent cease the disease from spreading to the subsequent generations.

Raj Gaonkar, New Haven, CT