Set the record straight

Narcissistic personality disorder
#1

Just to set the record straight:

My book - Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited (now in its eighth, revised, impression) and the content of my Web site:

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com

are based on correspondence since 1996 with hundreds of people suffering from the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (narcissists)and with thousands of their family members, friends, therapists, and colleagues.

I, myself, have been diagnosed with the disorder (twice) and spent time in therapy and almost a decade discussing it in depth (mainly through correspondence) with mental health professionals the world over.

My online mailing lists alone sport well over 6000 members - of which 1000 are therapists, social workers, psychiatrists and psychologists - for example here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narcissisticabuse/

Everything I write is backed by extensive bibliographies. You can download some of them here:

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/NPDBibliography.zip
That NPD is incurable is the view of virtually all major scholars in the field - not only mine.

My Web site contains over 1100 pages of content - a total of 15,000 print pages, full text online, free of charge.

Out of 30 books I wrote, I offer 24 here for free download (hardly a commercial practice):

http://samvak.tripod.com/freebooks.html

I never claimed to be a mental health professional. The disclaimer on my Web site is unequivocal:

http://samvak.tripod.com/disclaimer.html

But I am certified by Brainbench in Counselling Techniques (with a very high mark):
http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/transcript/public/transcript_testdetails.xml?back=1&pid=781937&testid=6149637

Brainbench are an online certification agency. Anyone and everyone can access their Web site and take their tests. BUT, the tests are very difficult, time limited, and you still have to PASS the tests to get a certificate! And they have a very impressive roster of clients:

http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/business/aboutus/aboutus.xml

"By partnering with Brainbench, 6 million members have advanced their skills and their careers, and over 4,000 businesses have found better ways to screen and select candidates, track and develop employee skills, and differentiate employees to current and prospective clients.

Corporate clients include numerous members of the Fortune 500, various U.S. Government agencies, and several universities and colleges.

Brainbench is ISO 9001:2000 certified! We are the first online testing company to obtain this accomplishment for its test development process."

As I said, I am the author of “Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited”. The media and many mental health professionals seem to think that my work makes me an authority on narcissism. See this random selection I Googled:

What mental health professionals say about my work:

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com/thebook.html

Sunday Times

Channel 4 (UK) Documentary Egomania

http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/0-9/4health/mind/wwr_manic.html
WebMD

New York Times

The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/09/AR106.html

USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20041130/d_bottomstrip30.art.htm

New York Post

http://www.nypress.com/16/7/news&columns/feature.cfm

“Sam Vaknin is the world’s leading expert on narcissism.”

Tim Hall, New York Press, Volume 16, Issue 7 - February 12, 2003

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s1158704.htm

“Vaknin’s a respected expert on malignant narcissists … He set about to know everything there is about the psychopathic narcissist.”

Ian Walker, ABC Radio National Background Briefing, July 18, 2004

The Infinite Mind radio program

http://www.lcmedia.com/mind333.htm

United Press International (UPI)

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=2059-4113r

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=2012-2299r

Cal Thomas column

Toronto Sun

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Lifestyle/2004/08/30/608650.html

CanWest News service and Newspapers Network

http://www.canada.com/technology/story.html?id=f785f0a1-b8ec-4b00-87ff-7cf173ee2b53

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=f1b3a271-b187-4325-8322-2b9eb3a152ff

Santa Cruz Sentinel

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/April/24/style/stories/06style.htm

Sam

#2

I dont get it.

It doesnt seem like the same thing at all Sam.

#3

Narcissism is a SUBJECTIVE experience.

Leukemia is an OBJECTIVE disease.

You know what “subjective” and “objective” mean, “Sue”?

I really must stop responding to people like you. Unselfconscious dimwits
are such a waste of time.

----- Original Message -----
From: “susiejo” npd-cpt6475@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: [npd] Set the record straight

#4

Hear, hear. I second this motion wholeheartedly.

Sam

----- Original Message -----
From: “bup” npd-cpt6475@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 8:30 PM
Subject: Re: [npd] Set the record straight

#5

I think that about says it all Susie,

The silly thing is, if he HAD written a book on personal experience instead, at that time - when it was “cool” to be a vampiric “anti-hero”, like Hannibal Lecter, Spike (from Buffy), Ripley, or whatever…Sam probably would have wound up rich and famous by now, with remarkably little effort.

…and with no real harm to innocent people.

There would be no toxic mini cult, no flooding out the internet with misinformation, no sadistic, scruple-free “handmaidens” to enforce his “will”…

Instead just A list talk shows, at least an TV movie offer for the story of his life maybe the odd, highly paid, stint on reality TV is he felt like it…

But he didn’t want it that way…so the innocent people had to suffer…

GD

#6

Sam,

That’s all just meaningless hype…and you know it.

Real “Mental Health Professionals” won’t even discuss the weather with the likes of you…and if ever one DID you would have it SPAMMED all over the internet…weekly…

You only “correspond” with people who tell you anything you want to hear, and not many of those. Hardly an informative or balanced sampling…

You have no way of knowing the professions of the members of your mailing lists, and, after you subtract the fake addies and the dead or bouncing addies, and the sockpuppet addies set to “read from web” and forgotten for years, divide by you capacity for exaggeration, the most generous figure you are left with for active recipients of your mailing lists is more like 500, if that.

Your writing is not “backed” by “extensive bibliographies”, it is just accompanied by them. The text only very rarely accords accurately with the references, if it ever does at all.

Your webpages and free books consist almost exclusively in duplications of self promotional and self indulgent waffle, that is often appallingly badly written, misinformative and totally unpublishable in any other way.

The “Mental Health Professionals” who give “testimonials” about your work, seem to consist entirely of self appointed and self published “online pseudopsychology experts” with questionable credentials, not unlike yourself, people who cannot be traced at all, and your own “handmaidens”.

“Egomania” and “The Times” made no qualitive evaluation of your “work” at all, they just presented you as an example of extreme NPD (in Egomania they also clearly stated that anyone who, as you claim, fulfilled all 9 criteria was probably a very dangerous person who should rightly be incarcerated).

GD

#7

Wow Sam, what a cirriculum vitae!!! Being diagnosed twice no less is some kind of credential? So it leaves you unemployed and lots of time to spend on the internet right?

I’m curious. Did you include references and bibliography in your dissertation in the same manner you present them here?

#8

Sam,

Do YOU have the first idea what “subjective” and “objective” mean?

Or how to apply them?

I don’t think so.

GD

#9

Hi, “Sue”/“Kim”/“Steve”,

Unemployed???

Read my CV:

http://samvak.tripod.com/cv.html

You have stated twice at least that you have NOT bought or read my book. How
would you know what’s in it?

Actually, how would you know what’s in any of my NINE books about
personality disorders if you haven’t bought or read them? Clairvoyance? Are
you are a psychic?

And for your edification (I am cognizant of your intellectual limitations
and am doing my best to accommodate them. After all, it’s not your
fault…):

When someone writes a first-hand account of narcissism, it helps to be
diagnosed with the disorder. It then constitutes a credential.

If anything is unclear (as it is bound to be in your case), please don’t
hesitate to write to me.

Sam

----- Original Message -----
From: “susiejo” npd-cpt6475@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 7:12 PM
Subject: Re: [npd] Set the record straight

#10

Sam,

Every word in any edition of your book is posted for free on the internet and hyped through SPAM by you on a daily basis…

It REALLY isn’t hard to spot that it, like your webpages duplicates self promotional and self indulgent waffle, that is often appallingly badly written, misinformative and totally unpublishable in any other way.

I would NEVER, of course, presume to critique your untranslated Hebrew stories…however, they are hardly relevant to your constant, tantrum laden demands to be recognised as a “genius” and “expert on psychology”

GD

PS Isn’t it awfully “avante garde” to incorporate QUITE so many maggots, and so much necrotic flesh into erotic poetry? Unless, of course you have a habit of falling in love with dead people…VERY dead people…barfing

#11

Oh poor Sam, internet degrees do fail to teach much. I hope you did not pay much for it. Having a problem does not constitute credentials to anything.

For example, lets say I have leukemia. Does that make me an expert on leukemia? Hardly. Does that mean I would know causes, cures, even anything about diagnosing it? Not hardly and neither does yours. Even if I read a ton on the subject, I still would not have “credentials” to write on it. Writing a book on personal experience would be appropriate. But presenting yourself as an expert on the subject is another when that is all you really have.

#12

I HAVE TO SAY, THIS IS GETTING REALLY BORING…SAM, SUE,
KIM, STEVE…JUST STOP
WITH THE BANTER. THIS IS CAREPLACE, NOT WHO KNOWS MORE ABOUT
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
THAN WHO…WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SUPPORTING EACH OTHER AND
VALUING EACH OTHER’S CRAZY EXPERIENCES…SOME PEOPLE ARE ALL F’D
UP… WE NEED TO VENT ABOUT
IT. CAN’T YOU LEAVE US ALONE?
On Oct 24, 2007, at 1:18 PM, samvaknin wrote:

#13

Sue informs us of her intellectual limitations:

"Even if I read a ton on the subject, I still would not have “credentials"
to write on it.”

Sam:

For a change I agree wholeheartedly. YOU definitely won’t. However, most
people will.

What do you think they do in psychology classes at the university?

They:

  1. Read books and articles

  2. Listen to lectures

  3. Compare notes and experiences.

OFTEN

  1. They write to me for additional insight and advice.

WHY?

Because I have:

  1. Spent the last 11 years reading about narcissism, which they don’t have
    the time to do

  2. Corresponded with hundreds of mental health professionals, hundreds of
    narcissists and TENS of thousands of victims

  3. Written extensively about the disorder, assimilating and collating all
    the knowledge I have amassed.

Hope this helps, “Sue”.

Sam

#14

“Sue” advises:

“Writing a book on personal experience would be appropriate.”

Sam:

Thank you, “Sue”.

BUT

Your advice is circa 8 years late.

http://www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/npd (my journal)

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/journal1.html

My diary (journal) is available as a book - click here to purchase it:

http://www.ccnow.com/cgi-local/cart.cgi?vaksam_JOURNAL

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/sipurim.html (short fiction)

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/contents.html (poetry)

Click on this link to download some other books I have written:

http://samvak.tripod.com/freebooks.html

And don’t forget to use that dictionary!

(Shaking head)

#15

First I’d like to say that I’m thankful to Sam for giving a lot of personal insight on the inner workings of the narcissistic mind, and it has helped me tremendously in figuring out how narcissists tick.

Having said that this thread looks like narcissistic abuse to me. I especially like the part where Sam tries to imply that one of the posters doesn’t understand the difference between “objective” and “subjective”.

Entertaining!

#16

Psych students also conduct experiments, play with statistics, interview subjects and all kinds of hands on stuff that makes things more fun and understandable than mewre passive learning of lectures and research.

#17

Sam,

You diary/journal began as melodramatic online whinging for attention and ended as just unalloyed online whinging…

I am QUITE sure that is not what Susie meant, and so are you.

Nobody in a REAL psychology class at a real University is EVER going to write to a dodgey, self-published “financial consultant” like you for anything…playing “Virtual Faculty” with all the other online wannabes is NOT the same thing…

Over the years you have corresponded with, at most a few dozen people who were prepared to flatter you and oil your ego.

You haven’t had TIME to actually read anything worthwhile about Narcissism, you have been WAY too busy imposing yourself through SPAM, building a sick little mini cult, intriguing with other online wannabes, and arranging for anyone who challenged or opposed you to be harassed into silence…or worse…

I know because I had a ringside seat (often whether I wanted it or not) since (internet) day one in October 1998…and you can lie about that to anybody you like and maybe you will convince some, or even most of them, but there are two people I am certain you will never convince.

One is me, and the other one is yourself.

GD

#18

The Internet has opened new vistas, hitherto available only in physical
campuses (of which I have had my share since I was 9 years old).

One can:

Conduct experiments

Play with statistics

AND

Interview subjects (though admittedly not face to face)

Through the Internet.

Sam

----- Original Message -----
From: “thephoenix101” npd-cpt6475@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:08 PM
Subject: Re: [npd] Set the record straight

#19

Narcissistic abuse can and is often meted out by victims of narcissistic
abuse. Narcissistic abuse is contagious:

http://samvak.tripod.com/faq42.html

“Sue” abused me first and multiply (search the archives). I am only
responding to her abuse.

----- Original Message -----
From: “confused99” npd-cpt6475@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [npd] Set the record straight

#20

Hey good think Sam is a cerebral and not a somatic narcissist 'cause he sure is UGLY.

All in good fun Sam.