Description
Objectives:
At the end of the session, participants will:
1. Define narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as a psychiatric illness.
2. Differentiate pathological narcissism from healthy or adaptive forms of narcissism.
3. Understand the psychodynamic mechanisms underlying NPD, including problems in the individual’s sense of self and other.
4. Identify key defence mechanisms in NPD, such as denial, projection, and splitting.
5. Understand how these mechanisms play out in interpersonal relationships, including the treatment relationship.
6. Provide strategies for the theoretically-informed and compassionate treatment of patients with NPD.
Description:
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is characterized by a persistent pattern of grandiosity, fantasies of unlimited power or importance, and the need for admiration or special treatment. Core cognitive, affective, interpersonal, and behavioural features include impulsivity, volatility, attention-seeking and low self-esteem. This typically results in a pervasive pattern of interpersonal and occupational problems; and significant psychosocial distress in themselves and others.
Returning to assist us in understanding and giving insights into the psychodynamics of NPD is Mark L. Ruffalo, MSW, DPsa. In addition to the above, in this webinar Dr. Ruffalo will discuss how NPD plays out in interpersonal relationships including the therapeutic relationship; and will provide strategies for the theoretically-informed and compassionate treatment of NPD clients.
Who Should Attend?:
• Nurses, Physicians, Psychologists, Mental Health Nurses, Therapists in all settings
• Primary Care Nurses and Physicians; MH Staff in Community Settings
• Social Workers & Allied Professional Staff in Mental Health and Addictions Settings settings
• Intake & Front-line Staff; Mental Health Managers and Educators
• Mental Health Nurses and Staff in Adolescent, Correctional & Forensic Settings
Mark L. Ruffalo, MSW, DPsa
Mark L. Ruffalo, M.S.W., D.Psa., is a psychotherapist in private practice in Tampa, FL, and serves as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. He has experience in the psychodynamic treatment of a range of psychiatric conditions with particular interest in the psychotherapy of schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder.
During his training at the University of Pittsburgh, Mark had the opportunity to work with severely ill patients in long-term psychotherapy, an area in which he has developed recognized expertise. He has published previously in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, and the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. He currently serves as Co-Director of the Psychotherapy Track at the UCF/HCA Orlando psychiatry residency program and is Founding Editor of The Carlat Psychotherapy Report.
His current research interests include the object relations theory of borderline personality disorder; communication dilemmas, paradoxes, and double binds in personality pathology; and deficits in logical reasoning in psychotic and borderline states. He has advanced the hypothesis that borderline personality disorder is fundamentally a disorder of paradox or self-contradiction.
