Measures of the Narcissistic Personality: Complexity of Relationships With Self-Esteem and Empathy

Self-esteem and empathy were correlated with measures of narcissism. As in previous research, narcissism constructs defined both “healthy” and “unhealthy” self-functioning; and the apparent influence of one kind of operationalization became more obvious when partial correlations controlled for its covariance with the other. Specifically, ‘adaptive’ narcissism predicted higher levels of self-esteem and more adjusted forms of interpersonal sensitivity whereas “maladaptive” narcissism displayed an opposite pattern. The existence of “healthy” forms of narcissism, the effects of partialling, and linkages of indices of the narcissistic personality disorder with grandiosity were among the effects conforming with Kohut's psychoanalytic psychology of the self.