Antagonistic Narcissism in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder Assessed by Direct and Indirect Measures

Antagonistic narcissism (AN), involving devaluation, aggression, and impulsivity, is a key feature of narcissism and overlaps with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study compared explicit (self-reported) and implicit (indirectly measured) AN in women with BPD and a matched clinical control (CC) group and examined associations with aggression, interpersonal problems, and emotion dysregulation. Fifty-one women with BPD and 51 CC participants completed the AN Implicit Association Test (AN-IAT), the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ), and clinical assessments. Group differences were analyzed using Welch's t tests with Bonferroni-Holm correction; associations were examined using Spearman's correlations. BPD participants showed higher AN-IAT scores, but no group differences on NARQ Rivalry. AN-IAT correlated weakly with emotion dysregulation; NARQ Rivalry correlated moderately with aggression and interpersonal agency. Findings suggest that implicit, but not explicit, AN distinguishes women with BPD from CCs, highlighting the role of automatic antagonistic processes in BPD.