Toward an integrative study of narcissism

Comments on the article by Miller and Campbell (see record 2010-17135-004). The expression of narcissism spans the continuum from normal to pathological and has meaningful correlates in clinical and nonclinical populations. There is growing speculation that narcissism also contributes to major societal concerns (e.g., terrorism and corporate malfeasance). Improving our understanding of the psychological, interpersonal, and social expressions of narcissism should be one of the most important areas in behavioral science research. Unfortunately, the study of narcissism is fragmented and underpursued. Pathological narcissism (PN), primarily narcissistic personality disorder (NPD; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), has been studied mainly through clinical case reports and psychodynamic theory (Ronningstam, 2005), whereas the study of trait narcissism has utilized more empirical methods. Miller and Campbell contend that the current understanding of PN is speculative and empirically lacking. His proposed remedy is for psychiatric and clinical researchers to incorporate the strategies and tools used to study trait narcissism. Although research on PN should be more empirically based, the uncritical adoption of the trait narcissism paradigm seems ill advised. Rather, an integrative research perspective incorporating knowledge and methodologies across disciplines would seem more promising.