This episode 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

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.

This episode 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.

Purchase Unmasking Narcissism: A Guide to Understanding the Narcissist in Your Life here: https://amzn.to/3nG9FgH

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Dr. Ettensohn expands on his recent episode 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 episode 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

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