title: NARCISSISTIC DEFENSES IN THE DISTORTION OF FREE ASSOCIATION AND THEIR UNDERLYING ANXIETIES.
abstract: This paper examines particular distortions in the process of free association characteristics of patients with narcissistic personality disorders. The author proposes that the dominant narcissistic transference developments typical of the early and middle phases of the analytic treatment of these patients are reflected in these distortions of free association. This paper gathers the various patterns that these defensive distortions present, along with technical interventions geared to deal with them.
authors.affiliation: Director of the Personality Disorders Institute, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Westchester Division; a Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University; and a Training and Supervising Analyst at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.
authors.forename: Otto F
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Kernberg
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003379:Countertransference; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005608:Free Association; D006801:Humans; D009289:Narcissism; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D014167:Transference, Psychology
keywords: Narcissism; Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP); analytic technique; countertransference; defenses; free association; grandiosity; intellectualization; interpretation; omnipotence; personality disorders; “thick-skinned” narcissistic patients