1.

Gone with the Wind depicts the life of Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of a Southern

plantation owner, during the Civil War and the Reconstruction period. It portrays

Scarlett’s personal development and relationships as they are affected by the War and her

own decisions as well. Throughout the film, Scarlett appears to display several traits that

are indicative of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

2. According to the DSM-V, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a psychological disorder

characterized by a habitual display of “grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of

empathy” that typically manifests by early adulthood and appears “in a variety of

contexts” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The diagnostic criteria required for

an individual to be diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder include exhibiting

five or more of the symptoms associated with the disorder (American Psychiatric

Association, 2013). According to the American Psychiatric Association (2013), these

symptoms include an inflated sense of self-importance, a need for abundant praise and

admiration, a feeling of entitlement, envy of others, an inability to empathize with others,

arrogance and haughtiness, a tendency to exploit others, and preoccupation with fantasies

including those of wealth and ideal love.

3. Scarlett O’ Hara displays almost all of the symptoms associated with Narcissistic

Personality Disorder. She constantly needs the admiration of those around her, often

flirting with many men that she is not interested in order to gain their attention and

affection. She fantasizes that Ashley, a Confederate soldier, loves her and wants to be

with her even after he refused her several times and marries another woman. Throughout

the movie, Scarlett is envious of Melanie because she is married to Ashley, who Scarlett

had admired. She exploits and manipulates many people without remorse, especially
 when she married Charles, Melanie’s brother, to make Ashley jealous. She treats other

women, especially her sister, with a sense of haughtiness and superiority, as she believes

they are all envious of her beauty. Scarlett also feels entitled to an easy and luxurious life

and becomes frustrated and petulant when that is not the case, including when she

constantly complained because she had to help around the house after the War.

4. The average lifetime prevalence of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is about 6% within

the general population of the United States but can reach up to 20% in specific population

within the US (Ronningstam, 2011). According to Ronningstam (2011), Narcissistic

Personality Disorder can often co-occur with other psychological disorders including but

not limited to bipolar disorder, substance abuse, various forms of eating disorders, and

depression. Men were also found to be much more likely to be diagnosed with this

disorder than women were, with men averaging a lifetime prevalence of 7.7% and

women with 4.8% (Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010).

5. Scarlett O’Hara depicts Narcissistic Personality disorder accurately throughout the

entirety of Gone with the Wind. During the barbecue scene at her neighbor’s plantation,

she is shown flirting many men she encounters in order to gain their admiration, even

when she states that is not interested in them and would never consider being in a

relationship with them. During the same scene, she lets the men argue over who going to

do a favor for her, reveling in the attention she is receiving. When she sees Ashley talking

to his soon-to-be wife Melanie, she begins to ignore all the men she had just been

receiving the attention of and is clearly envious and spiteful towards her. She married her

first husband Charles to spite Ashley and Melanie because Charles was Melanie’s

brother. When Charles dies in battle, she does not cry for him but rather because she has
 to wear black in order to mourn him instead of her colorful clothing, lamenting the fact

that she will be “unattractive”. She forces Melanie and her newborn to come with her on

journey she knows to be dangerous for the mother and her baby because she is sick of

taking care of Melanie and wants to visit her family. She also tricked her sister’s long-

time love interest into believing she had cheated on him in order to marry him herself so

that she can access his money and business. Once she has set up her business, she uses

Melanie to manipulate Ashley into working at her business instead of pursuing the work

that he wants to. Scarlett O’ Hara exhibits behaviors that are concurrent with almost all

the known symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. However, one behavior that

Scarlett consistently exhibits and is inaccurate in terms of behaviors associated with

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is her extensive relationships with the slaves on her

family’s plantations. The DSM-5 lists that individuals that have Narcissistic Personality

Disorder have the belief that they can only be “understood by, or should associate with,

other special or high-status people” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However,

almost all of her social interaction and friendly, loyal, and caring relationships are with

the slaves Mammy, Pork, and Big Sam, and she does not pursue any extensive

friendships with other “high-status” people despite being of a wealthy family.

6. Narcissistic personality disorder is mainly shown to interfere with Scarlett’s social

relationships and reputation. Due to her constant seeking of attention from men, pursuing

Ashley relentlessly even when he is married, and marrying men solely for her personal

gain, she is often ostracized by other people in her community and is isolated largely

from other people around her. Her manipulative behavior has also affected her
 relationship with her family, especially her sister and her husband, with them both cutting

ties with her by the end of the movie.

7. Scarlett O’ Hara very accurately portrays Narcissistic Personality Disorder throughout the

movie, with almost all her scenes exhibiting at least one symptom of the disorder.

However, her portrayal of Narcissistic Personality Disorder could have been more

comprehensive if it was shown how the disorder affects her work. The effects of the

disorder on her personal relationships are extensively shown, but there almost no scenes

of her professional interactions with her employees or co-owners. Such scenes could give

more of an insight on how Narcissistic Personality Disorder can affect this sphere of life

and possibly portray more symptoms of the disorder more extensively such as lack of

empathy, arrogant attitude, and being interpersonally exploitive.

8. One possible treatment approach for Narcissistic Personality Disorder is functional

analytic psychotherapy, in which in-session client behavior is observed and used to

identify the specific issues in interpersonal behavior that are affecting the client in their

everyday life (Callaghan et.al., 2003). According to Callaghan et. al. (2003), the

therapist’s role is not to directly give insight about the problematic behaviors observed,

but instead to respond to the behaviors as they happen in order to help shape healthier and

more effective interpersonal behavior in the client. Another possible treatment for

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), which

aims to address inaccurate internal perceptions of self as well as others that can lead to

the development of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (Kealy et. al., 2017).

9. Scarlett did not receive any for treatment for Narcissistic Personality Disorder within the

movie. In fact, it was not directly addressed by anyone, with most people in the film
reacting to her individual behaviors than her consistent patterns of displaying Narcissistic

Personality Disorder. She still shows behavior characteristic of Narcissistic Personality

Disorder in the closing scene of the movie in which she lacks empathy when confronting

Rhett about leaving her and still believes that she will get him back despite him

adamantly refuting that idea.

 References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental

disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Callaghan, G. M., Summers, C. J., & Weidman, M. (2003). The Treatment of Histrionic and

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Behaviors: A Single-Subject Demonstration of Clinical

Improvement Using Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. Journal of Contemporary

Psychotherapy,33(4), 321-339. doi:10.1023/b:jocp.0000004502.55597.81

Kealy, D., Goodman, G., Rasmussen, B., Weideman, R., & Ogrodniczuk, J. S. (2017).

Therapists’ perspectives on optimal treatment for pathological narcissism. Personality

Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 8(1), 35–45.

https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000164

Pincus, A. L., & Lukowitsky, M. R. (2010). Pathological Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality

Disorder. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6(1), 421-446.

doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.121208.131215

Ronningstam, E. (2011). Narcissistic Personality Disorder in DSM-V—In Support of Retaining a

Significant Diagnosis. Journal of Personality Disorders, 25(2), 248-259.

doi:10.1521/pedi.2011.25.2.248