Bipolar disorders and narcissism: Diagnostic concerns, conceptual commonalities and potential antecedents

Summary & key facts

This review looked at research about narcissistic personality disorder and the manic parts of bipolar disorder. Both can show the same kind of big, grand ideas about the self. The authors found evidence that those similarities might be more than surface-deep: narcissism can be linked with unstable mood, and bipolar tendencies can be tied to long-term personality traits. The review suggests both conditions share problems with reward-seeking, avoiding harm, and getting along with others, which could mean our usual way of putting them in separate boxes might miss important overlaps.

Key facts:

• Both narcissistic personality disorder and manic or hypomanic episodes in bipolar disorder often show grandiosity, which means an inflated sense of self-importance.
• Traditionally, narcissism is seen as a stable, long-term trait, while bipolar disorder is seen as a condition of changing episodes of mania and depression.
• Research discussed in the review suggests narcissism can be linked with mood instability, and traits associated with bipolar disorder can appear as long-term personality patterns in some people.
• Using models that view mental health traits on a continuum, the review found evidence of overlap between the two conditions in reward-seeking (how people chase rewards), harm avoidance (how they react to risk), and social functioning (how they behave in relationships).
• Because of these overlaps, the review raises questions about whether keeping narcissistic personality disorder and bipolar disorder in separate diagnostic boxes always fits how the conditions actually appear in people.

Abstract

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and the manic and hypomanic episodes found in the bipolar disorders are characterized by grandiosity. It is possible that this shared grandiosity is a 'homologous structure' or reflects a superficial similarity between two disparate conditions. It is, however, possible that NPD and the bipolar disorders are more closely related than implied by their segregation into the separate superordinate categories of personality disorders and mood disorders. Whereas narcissism is considered to be a life-course, stable trait and the bipolar disorders are characterized by episodes of mania and depression, there is considerable research indicating that narcissism may be linked to mood instability (including depression) and bipolar disorder may have a pervasive personality component (i.e., hypomanic personality). Utilizing dimensional models of psychopathology, the current review examined the evidence linking narcissism and the bipolar disorders and suggests that considerable overlap may exist in the domains associated with reward-seeking, harm avoidance and social functioning.

Topics

Bipolar Disorder and Treatment Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders Personality Disorders and Psychopathology

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Anxiety Bipolar disorder Clinical psychology Grandiosity Mania Mood Mood disorders Narcissism Narcissistic personality disorder Personality Personality disorders Psychiatry Psychology Psychopathology Psychopathy Social psychology Superordinate goals

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Depression Feeling disconnected from others Sadness or low mood