Sliding meanings: a defense against threat in narcissistic personalities.
Narcissistic defects are often associated with the use of habitual defensive operations in which meanings are shifted in order to protect the self-concept. Such cognitive maneuvers, used as a character style, not only protect against threatening ideas and emotional responses, but also lead to a constellation of traits and patterns of relationship that constitute a narcissistic personality disorder. Reconstruction, with clear designations of a self-as-actor, are useful in the psychotherapy of such persons provided that these reconstructions are done with the utmost tact and concern for maintenance of the therapeutic relationship.
D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D009289:Narcissism; D009769:Object Attachment; D010290:Parents; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014167:Transference, Psychology