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The systemic-constructionist theory of family semantic polarities is an intersubjective model of personality and its psychopathological developments which has important implications for the psychotherapeutic process. This study analyses the narratives of a clinical group of individuals diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) to investigate whether there is a predominant semantic organization and what the most common themes and meanings are. The narratives of 18 individuals diagnosed with NPD which emerged during the administration of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were analyzed using the Family Semantics Grid (FSG). The quantitative analysis shows that in the narratives of individuals diagnosed with NPD none of the semantic organizations predominates over another. A qualitative analysis revealed the salience of themes related to the “winner-loser” definition of self, others, and relationships (power semantics), relational movement of “approaching-keeping distance” (freedom semantics), emotions such as “despair” and “anger” associated with exclusion (belonging semantics), and the polar meaning of “intransigent versus permissive” and the emotion of guilt (semantics of goodness). From a constructivist and constructionist perspective, narcissistic symptomatology appears as an attempt to achieve recognition of a superior status through admiration while maintaining emotional distance to protect the grandiose self-image. These findings may serve as a pilot for future, larger-scale investigations.
Venera et al. (Mon,) studied this question.