Tag: clinical narcissism

Clinical Narcissism is an Institute descriptive term for narcissistic traits or dynamics expressed through the role, authority, expertise, interpretive power, and asymmetry of a clinical relationship. It may appear through entitlement to define reality, difficulty tolerating challenge, image protection, exploitation of therapeutic asymmetry, resistance to accountability, devaluation of survivor knowledge, or use of professional authority to preserve the clinician’s position when rupture or harm is named.

The term does not function as a separate diagnosis or DSM subtype. It recognizes that narcissistic pathology or traits can enter the clinical field and become amplified by professional legitimacy, therapeutic dependency, access to vulnerability, documentation power, diagnostic authority, and institutional protection.

Within the Captivity Lens, the concern is not the label itself but what happens when clinical authority becomes recruited into domination, interpretive capture, failed repair, cost transfer, institutional loyalty, or punishment of differentiation. At that point, the survivor may be harmed not only by narcissistic dynamics, but by the clinical architecture through which those dynamics are exercised.