Narcissism and Self-Actualization of Personality

The article is devoted to the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of narcissism, the characteristics of its types and manifestations, and the empirical study of the connection between narcissism and personal characteristics and self-actualization of the individual. It is noted that, despite the huge amount of scientific literature concerning the most diverse manifestations of narcissism in various contexts and the characteristics of its types, meaningful definitions of narcissism are extremely rare in it, more often assuming the descriptive nature of its definition. It is proposed to distinguish between the main causes of manifestation and consequences of this phenomenon, focusing on its essential causes when defining narcissism. That is, a narcissist, initially convinced of her own perfection, insists on his magical uniqueness and superiority, demanding to confirm it objectively. The research used the following methods: "Narcissistic personality inventory (NPI)", "The Maladaptive Covern Narcissism Scale (MCNS)", self-actualization test (SAT), "Das Freiburger Persoenlichkeitsinventar FPI-R (Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI))" and UCLA Loneliness Scale. It is stated that the results of the empirical study prove that both types of narcissism affect the manifestation of relevant personal characteristics and the desire for self-actualization (grandiose narcissism), or, accordingly, the absence of such a desire (covert narcissism). It was concluded that grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism are different personal constructs, since the revealed correlation between them is negative. The results of the one-way ANOVA, demonstrating that low levels of manifestation of one type of narcissism provoke the manifestation of another type of narcissism, indicate that grandiose and covert narcissism are markers of the same continuum of narcissism. So, we can assume that the narcissism is a basic quality (meta-quality) of individual, which, being revealed in a person, doesn`t disappear, but under the condition of lesser manifestation, it transforms into the opposite type of narcissism.