DSM-V to Ignore Narcissists – Part 2 April 21, 2011
Posted by alwaysjan in Narcissistic Personality Disorder.Tags: Changes to the DSM -V, Diagnosing Personality Disorders, DSM-IV, Dual Diagnosis, Narcissism, Narcissist, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, NPD, Personality Disorders, Psychopathy, Relationships, Statistical Clustering, Statistical Dimension Reduction
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“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
Mark Twain
Since writing DSM-V to Ignore Narcissists?, I came across an interesting article, The Mathematics of Narcissism , on Slate. It offers a statistical rationale for eliminating Narcissistic Personality Disorder from the DSM-V due out in 2013.
I should mention that when I took a statistics class for my master’s degree two summers ago, I woke up every morning weeping. My poor husband hadn’t seen me like that since the first year we were married! I don’t mind looking at bar graphs, line plots, and pie charts. I just didn’t want to fall into the abyss of Excel spreadsheets. I survived the course and even earned an A, but it was like pulling teeth- slowly and one at a time. Even so, I was able to follow this article, though it would have helped if there were pie charts in color.
The changes proposed for the DSM-V have been years in the making. They address the fact that many of the current ten personality disorders overlap, so instead of “clustering” personality disorders, the DSM-V is going with “dimension reduction.” Oh dear, I’m having statistical PTSD as I type this! If it’s any consolation to those who’ve had a close encounter with a narcissist, the proposed changes are extremely controversial and seem to please no one, least of all psychiatrists.
Personality disorders are being scrapped and replaced with six axes of personality traits, though no single one will be designated as the Axis of Evil. The axes are:
1) negative emotionality
2) introversion
3) antagonism
4) disinhibition
5) compulsivity
6) schizotypy
So, come 2013, there will still be narcissism, but no narcissists. Those formerly diagnosed with NPD will score high on four facets of antagonism; callousness, manipulativeness, narcissism, and histrionism. So how will this help those who’ve had a close encounter with a narcissist? It won’t. But read the article and see what you think.
If it’s any consolation, psychopathy, which was eliminated from the DSM-IV, is back. Dexter, take note!
planetjan 
I love quiet evenings spent home alone with a nice glass of wine and curled up under a blankie with the DSM-IV. It’s a real page turner. After all, who among us doesn’t love reading their very own autobiography?
That’s the best representation of The Universe I’ve ever seen.
Shout,
Yes, an evening with Me, Myself, and I is as good as it gets! As for the map of the Universe, I believe “Others” has been downgraded like Pluto to a lowly dwarf star. Jan
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I bet that really hurt Pluto’s self-esteem.
Shout,
Pluto wasn’t close to the “in crowd” of planets to begin with, so this is the cosmic version of being “defriended.” Jan
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Gaaaaah! Statistics! Don’t remind me. Hope the nightmares don’t return.
That said, I plan to continue to use the term NPD. I’ll blog about it to keep the name alive and I’m sure you’re all with me on that idea.
I do like the word schizotypy though. Sounds like a good name for a goldfish.
Happy Easter!
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If you don’t mind, I will continue to call a spade a spade.
Elisse,
That’s why you’re nobody’s fool! Jan
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I tried to read your post but since my name was not mentioned in the first sentence my attention wandered….(joke of course, no really).
“My poor husband hadn’t seen me like that since the first year we were married!”
ohhh there’s a story there all right. That had my full on curiosity there.
So…mabey a narcissism gum then I mean all the kids are doing it.
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I tried to read your post but since my name was not mentioned in the first sentence my attention wandered….(joke of course, no really).
“My poor husband hadn’t seen me like that since the first year we were married!”
ohhh there’s a story there all right. That had my full on curiosity there.
So…mabey a narcissism gum then I mean all the kids are doing it.
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No matter what the psychologists call a Narcissist, we can smell ’em a mile off! As Elisse says, we’ll continue to call a spade what it is!
While the professional headshrinkers dance around what to call these dangerous jerks, they are neglecting to get out the word to alert the blissfully ignorant masses who are continuing to be suckered by these vampires! I’m glad you keep posting about NPD!
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Catherine: I once heard a therapist say “Oh I don’t like to ‘label’ people…psychopath is a very strong word”….You think? Needless to say, I found much better therapy with books and fellow survivors.
ES
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Well the latest is that NPD is back in DSM%: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevision/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=19
probably the most important PD of them all….
Yes, I wrote a post in July, “DSM 5 to Keep Narcissism Alive.” Is that a collective sign of relief I hear? Jan
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