Videos

Der US-amerikanische Psychologe und Autor des Buches Unmasking Narcissism – A guide to understanding the narcissist in your life, Dr. Mark Ettensohn, betreibt einen Youtube-Kanal mit hervorragenden Informationen zum Thema. Anders als nahezu alle, der inzwischen in großer Zahl verfügbaren Kanäle, welche regelmäßig eine dämonisierende Haltung einnehmen, ist Ettensohn bemüht, Narzissmus als die schwere psychische Störung darzustellen, die er ist und zu betonen, was zu oft überhaupt nicht gesagt wird: Auch Narzissten leiden! Sie wollen keine Narzissten sein und haben sich ihre kognitiv-emotionalen Einschränkungen und Barrieren nicht ausgesucht. Es wird empfohlen, mit den ersten, also frühesten Videos im Kanal zu beginnen und sich dann schrittweise neueren zu widmen.

This video marks the beginning of a new educational series from Heal NPD, featuring Dr. Mark Ettensohn and his associates: Deanna Young, Psy.D. and Danté Spencer, MA. This series offers a rare window into clinical reasoning and supervision, bringing viewers inside real discussions about theory, diagnosis, and treatment of personality pathology. In this first seminar, the group examines an influential paper by Pincus & Lukowitsky (2010) and explores one of the central challenges in the field: how to define pathological narcissism. The conversation addresses the criterion problem surrounding narcissism. That is, the lack of a unified construct definition. It traces how this has led to conflicting models and measures of narcissism. Topics include the distinction between pathological narcissism and NPD, the interplay of grandiosity and vulnerability, the overlap with depression and trauma, and emerging dimensional approaches to understanding personality. This series is designed for clinicians, students, and anyone interested in a deeper and more integrative understanding of narcissism, personality, and self-regulation. To learn more about our work, visit www.HealNPD.org Citation for the article discussed: Pincus, A. L., & Lukowitsky, M. R. (2010). Pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 421–446. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.121208.131215
Didactic Seminar 1: Defining Pathological Narcissism – The Criterion Problem
In this video, Dr. Ettensohn responds to a viewer’s question about why psychologists who publically discuss narcissism, such as Dr. Ramani, Dr. Peter Salerno, and himself, often disagree. He explains how much of this division stems from the way narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is defined in the DSM, which reduces the construct to a single factor: grandiosity. While this makes for an easily recognizable description, it strips the diagnosis of its internal coherence and excludes the vulnerable side of narcissism. Drawing on over a century of psychoanalytic and clinical literature, Dr. Ettensohn shows that narcissism has always been described as a dialectic between grandiosity and vulnerability. He contrasts trait-based DSM models with more comprehensive approaches that include both sides of this dynamic, emphasizing the real-world consequences of oversimplification for patients, clinicians, and cultural discourse. This video continues Dr. Ettensohn’s clinically grounded reframing of pathological narcissism, clarifying why experts disagree, what is at stake in the definitions, and how a fuller understanding opens up the possibility of treatment and empathy. Purchase Unmasking Narcissism: A Guide to Understanding the Narcissist in Your Life here: https://amzn.to/3nG9FgH SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://rb.gy/kbhusf LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/cklpum LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/fotpca LISTEN ON AMAZON MUSIC: https://rb.gy/g4yzh8 VISIT THE WEBSITE: https://www.healnpd.org BECOME A MEMBER: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeT5kujD1JqHRAi-x8xD-w/join
Why Experts Disagree on Narcissism
In this video, Dr. Ettensohn examines the film A Real Pain and explores why it offers such a striking contrast between borderline and narcissistic personality dynamics. Dr. Ramani has described Kieran Culkin’s character as “the most beautifully nuanced portrayal of vulnerable narcissism.” But as Dr. Ettensohn shows, this is a misidentification. The character who most struggles with vulnerable narcissism is Jesse Eisenberg’s. Overlooking him reveals how fragile our cultural framework for understanding narcissism really is. Citing moments from the film and providing analysis of character motivations grounded in both theory and psychodynamic diagnostic frameworks, Dr. Ettensohn emphasizes the importance of theory over superficial traits or qualities like volatility, charm, or shame-sensitivity. He underscores that narcissism is a disorder of self-image and self-esteem, always involving both grandiosity and vulnerability. He explains why Eisenberg’s character provides a solid example of a vulnerable narcissistic presentation, while Culkin’s is more consistent with borderline dynamics. This video continues Dr. Ettensohn’s careful, clinically grounded reframing of pathological narcissism, offering psychological depth without jargon and compassion without minimization. Purchase Unmasking Narcissism: A Guide to Understanding the Narcissist in Your Life here: https://amzn.to/3nG9FgH SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://rb.gy/kbhusf LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/cklpum LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/fotpca LISTEN ON AMAZON MUSIC: https://rb.gy/g4yzh8 VISIT THE WEBSITE: https://www.healnpd.org BECOME A MEMBER: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeT5kujD1JqHRAi-x8xD-w/join
The Real Narcissist in A Real Pain: And Why Dr. Ramani Missed Him
In this Weekly Insight, Dr. Ettensohn reflects on the recent loss of his father. Drawing on both clinical theory and personal experience, he explores how children internalize idealized images of caregivers as a source of safety and reassurance during times of vulnerability. The video examines how these idealizations can provide stability but also carry developmental costs if they are never gradually tempered by ordinary disappointments and the recognition of parental imperfection. Dr. Ettensohn situates this dynamic within the broader context of self-psychology, showing how therapy can become a place where idealized projections are worked through and reclaimed in more realistic form. With psychological nuance and openness, he shares how this process unfolded in his own relationship with his father, moving from idealization toward a fuller recognition of imperfection, accountability, and authentic connection. The goal, as he frames it, is not to reject or diminish the idealized parent, but to integrate those images into a more grounded sense of self and relationship. 🎥 Become a Channel Member to access this and other exclusive videos: https://youtube.com/channel/UCHeT5kujD1JqHRAi-x8xD-w/join Purchase Unmasking Narcissism: A Guide to Understanding the Narcissist in Your Life here: https://amzn.to/3nG9FgH SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://rb.gy/kbhusf LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/cklpum LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/fotpca LISTEN ON AMAZON MUSIC: https://rb.gy/g4yzh8 VISIT THE WEBSITE: https://www.healnpd.org
Weekly Insight #30: From Ideal…to Real: Lessons From My Father
In this video, Dr. Ettensohn expands on his recent video exploring splitting as a dissociative process. Drawing from clinical experience and developmental theory, he addresses a common question: What’s the difference between splitting, identity diffusion, and Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)? Rather than viewing these as separate diagnostic constructs, Dr. Ettensohn presents them as points along a continuum of dissociation. They represent defensive adaptations to overwhelming early experience. He explains why the traditional boundaries between “personality disorders” and “dissociative disorders” may be more fluid than we think. This video continues Dr. Ettensohn’s unique, trauma-informed reframing of narcissistic personality dynamics, offering psychological depth without jargon and compassion without minimization. Purchase Unmasking Narcissism: A Guide to Understanding the Narcissist in Your Life here: https://amzn.to/3nG9FgH SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://rb.gy/kbhusf LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/cklpum LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/fotpca LISTEN ON AMAZON MUSIC: https://rb.gy/g4yzh8 VISIT THE WEBSITE: https://www.healnpd.org BECOME A MEMBER: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeT5kujD1JqHRAi-x8xD-w/join
Dissociation is Key: Linking Splitting, DID, BPD, and NPD
Video describing the Heal NPD Companion membership tier: https://youtu.be/L1CN4hcU-8k What if splitting is dissociation? In this video, Dr. Mark Ettensohn offers a groundbreaking perspective on one of the most misunderstood features of pathological narcissism: splitting. Drawing from the work of Philip Bromberg and his own clinical practice, Dr. Ettensohn reframes splitting not as black-and-white thinking, but as a dissociative process rooted in early relational trauma. Rather than treating splitting as a rigid symptom, this video explores how dissociated self-states form when conflicting emotional truths, such as shame, longing, idealization, and rage, cannot safely coexist. What looks like instability or contradiction is actually a protective adaptation. Dr. Ettensohn shows how these self-states develop as compartmentalized responses to unmanageable experience, and how they survive into adulthood, shaping identity, memory, and relationships. Through clear explanation and compassionate framing, he illustrates how healing involves standing in the spaces between self-states, without collapsing into any one of them. Whether you live with these experiences yourself or work with people who do, this video offers a radically humanizing and clinically grounded way to understand dissociation, narcissism, and the divided self. References: Bromberg, P. M. (1996). Standing in the spaces: The multiplicity of self and the psychoanalytic relationship. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 32(4), 509–535. Purchase Unmasking Narcissism: A Guide to Understanding the Narcissist in Your Life here: https://amzn.to/3nG9FgH SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://rb.gy/kbhusf LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/cklpum LISTEN ON GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://rb.gy/fotpca LISTEN ON AMAZON MUSIC: https://rb.gy/g4yzh8 VISIT THE WEBSITE: https://www.healnpd.org BECOME A MEMBER: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHeT5kujD1JqHRAi-x8xD-w/join
What If Splitting Is Dissociation? A New Way to Understand Narcissism
The burden of a false self causes deep isolation. “The self isn't really loved,” as internal realities diverge from external expectations. This creates an existential void, impacting patients far beyond emotional levels. Discover paths toward authenticity. From: https://youtu.be/S_Bpp8FiqaY #authenticity #selflove #mentalhealth #identity #emotionalwellbeing
False Self Isolation #shorts
Is constant exhaustion a sign of false self experience? Discover possible signs, like relentless self-monitoring and the fatigue from maintaining an unnatural persona. Some find clues emerge when they reflect—'trying to get everything just right.' From: https://youtu.be/S_Bpp8FiqaY #FalseSelf #SelfDiscovery #MentalHealth #Therapy #Authenticity #SelfAwareness
False Self: Signs You're Living a Performance #shorts
A person recalls the intense pressure to perform piety in church as a child. 'The expectation wasn't just that they would behave a certain way,' but embody a specific feeling for their parents. From: https://youtu.be/S_Bpp8FiqaY #childhood #church #expectations #familypressure #falseself
Development of the False Self #shorts
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