Narcissism and Emotional Intelligence: An Introduction

How does narcissism fit with the three-dimensional model of emotional intelligence? Today we’ll answer that question, but stay tuned: In future posts, I’ll cover how narcissism relates to leadership, partnership, and parenting. This is a series you’ll want to follow because it’s likely you have had either a boss, a spouse or a parent who is (or was) a narcissist. You may even be a narcissist yourself (although you have likely stopped reading this by now if you are).

The term, “narcissism” comes from the Greek mythological figure, Narcissus, who rejected the advances of the nymph Echo. As his punishment, Narcissus was sentenced to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water—thus imprisoned forever by the endless preoccupation with his own image. This has been the plight of the narcissist ever since.

There are many definitions and diagnostic descriptions of narcissism. Here is a description that I find simple yet very helpful. James Masterson identified what he called the “Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism:”

  1. Shamelessness. Actually, narcissists have enormous amounts of deep-seated shame (not to be confused with guilt). It is so strong that the narcissist cannot process shame in a healthy way, so instead they often simply act without shame.
  2. Magical Thinking. Narcissists see themselves as near perfect. To maintain this belief they must use distortion and illusion—or magical thinking—to hide any imperfections, projecting shame and blame onto others instead.
  3. Arrogance. They are preoccupied with their own grandiose self-importance. They protect their delusional self-view by diminishing and degrading anyone who threatens it.
  4. Envy. As “great” as they imagine they are, narcissists are plagued by envy of what others possess or have achieved. They are constantly competing for the superior position.
  5. Entitlement. They hold an unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment, often holding blatant double standards––what’s not good for the gander is still somehow good for the goose.
  6. Exploitation. They exploit people, places, and things without regard to rules of law or the feelings or needs of others. And of course, people are expendable.
  7. Bad Boundaries. They do not respect others as psychologically separate from themselves but see others (especially those close at hand like spouses, children, employees) as mere extensions of themselves and their needs. When these “boundaries” are offended, the narcissist will often become enraged at the alleged offender(s).

Does this sound like anyone you know, grew up with, worked for, are married to or who run organizations or governments? It’s important to note a few things:

  • There are varying degrees of narcissism (from mild to malignant).
  • It comes in various forms and flavors (e.g. there are “soft narcissists” who disguise their “hard” narcissism by playing the role of the Grand Helper).
  • Most people have some degree of narcissism.

Clinical narcissism, which is what we’ll be discussing, goes beyond the “normal” narcissistic tendencies that most of us possess. This type and degree of narcissism is destructive to everyone: families, communities, organizations, and countries.

Quite a bit has been written about narcissism. The unique angle that I can contribute to the discussion comes from the three-dimensional model of emotional intelligence described in my two books (Follow the Yellow Brick Road and The Three Dimensions of Emotion). The 3 dimensions are:

  • Power (the Lion or Red dimension) is oriented around the “Self.” The positive expression of Red has to do with self-respect, self-regard, setting good boundaries, confidence, and non-destructive candidness. In its negative expression, it demonstrates shamelessness, magical thinking about one’s own importance, arrogance, envy, entitlement, exploitation and poor boundaries (does this list sound familiar?)
  • Heart (the Tin Man or Blue dimension) is oriented around the “Other.” The positive aspects of Blue have to do with love, caring, healthy dependency, vulnerability, and empathy. In its worst expression, it involves self-deprecation, depression, weakness, co-dependency, etc.
  • Mindfulness (the Scarecrow or Yellow dimension) is oriented around “Knowing.” The better more positive aspects of Yellow include wisdom, patience, self-control, differentiation from others. In its worst expression, it comes across as emotional detachment, indifference, and avoidance.

The most useful way to understand (and eventually deal with) a narcissist using the three-dimensional model is actually quite simple: Narcissists live mostly in the power dimension without the corrective balance of mindfulness and heart. Emotionally intelligent people employ the positive aspects of all three dimensions, but narcissists have all the worst attributes of Power without vulnerability, empathy, care or respect for others, or ownership of their own faults (these missing aspects are all Heart attributes). They are also without self-control, and without patience or tolerance for frustration and complexity (attributes of Mindfulness). And when you don’t have the correction of +Blue and +Yellow, your Red will always be out of kilter and negative (shamelessness, magical thinking about one’s own importance, arrogance, envy, entitlement, exploitation and poor boundaries).

Can you think of people in your life who could be described this way? We’ll talk more about how emotional intelligence relates to leaders (and parents and partners) in subsequent articles. So, stay tuned.

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Grit or Emotional Intelligence: The Winner Is?

In her TED talk titled Why Some Students Fail and Other Students Succeed, teacher turned psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth reveals the one factor that determines whether a student will succeed or fail. She suggests that, in general, IQ has been the easiest factor to measure to predict success. And while other factors such as social intelligence, good looks, socio-economic status, physical health and talent are also considered in predicting success, her conclusion from the research suggests that the one factor that stands out more than any other factor is what we call “grit.” But what is grit?

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All You Need Is Love . . . And Power and Mindfulness

In the last two posts we’ve discussed two important ways we “move” or respond in our relationships: power and mindfulness (or knowing).  The ‘power response describes our ability to use our personal agency to take forward action. In the mindfulness response we step away from the situation in order to focus on “knowing” about the situation rather than reacting to it.  There is a third movement or dimension called the heart dimension, or you can think of it as “love.”  In the third response, heart or love, we show respect and regard for the other person involved in a situation. Like power and mindfulness, the heart dimension can operate not only in the positive zone (as described above) but also in the negative zone as well. My recent trip to India illustrates this well.

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Emotional Intelligence: Why There’s Not a Dark Side

In an article published by Scientific American titled “The Dark Side of the Brain: Too Much Emotional Intelligence Is a Bad Thing,” the author suggests that “profound empathy” sometimes comes “at a price.” The suggestion is made that people with too much empathy are likely to be sidelined by stress more than those who do not have as much empathy. The author points to a Frankfurt study where students who were rated as having higher emotional intelligence (as determined by an empathy measure) also had higher levels of stress during an experiment (as measured by the level of cortisol in their saliva). While the study itself may be perfectly valid as far as it goes, there is a notable problem with the magazine article’s conclusion: the author equates emotional intelligence (EI) with empathy. This is a rather common mistake.

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Michelle Obama’s Emotional Intelligence

I am always in search of people who exemplify the convergence, synergy, balance, or integration of Power, Heart and Mindfulness—the three dimensions of emotionally intelligent people. These are the people who bring positive energy and productivity to every relationship they touch, whether the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the janitor at a local high school, your (favorite) uncle—or the First Lady of the United States. As a case in point, Michelle Obama’s emotional intelligence shines through admirably in her public speaking.

While watching the First Lady speak at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, I saw a woman who had the dynamic balance of Power, Heart and Mindfulness. I was not just listening to a good speech, but a good woman as well.  Whether you are Democrat, Independent, or Republican, if you were listening, you had to know this in your gut. You might disagree with her politics, but she represents a minority of people who can find the relational sweet-spot at the intersection of power, heart and mindfulness. Continue reading “Michelle Obama’s Emotional Intelligence”