Why Aren't We Talking About Narcissism?

Clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula is today’s authority on the hot-button issue of narcissism. Her books, “Don’t You Know Who I Am?”: How to Stay Sane in the Era of Narcissism, Entitlement and Incivility and Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Surviving a Relationship With a Narcissist, have enlightened readers to the ways in which high-conflict and antagonistic personality styles impact both individual psychologies and society at large. In addition to her private practice, she was a professor at California State University, LA for 22 years, where she was named Outstanding Professor in 2012 and received the American Association of University Women Emerging Scholar Award. Her TEDx Talk has been viewed nearly a million times and her work highlighted on TV shows such as The Today Show and networks such as Oxygen and Investigation Discovery.

Unafraid to challenge the field’s reticence to confront narcissism directly, Durvasula contends that it’s a contemporary clinician’s responsibility to integrate an understanding of this personality style into clinical practice. She reminds us that narcissists do not exist in a vacuum: their antagonistic characteristics negatively impact the people, places, and communities with whom they have regular contact. Bettering our comprehension of narcissism, she says, will in turn inform and improve our conceptions of domestic abuse, substance use, organizational behaviour, public health, violence and aggression, parenting, and trauma.

In this keynote recording, she’ll tackle the confusion that’s come to surround the label of “narcissist” as clients use it more and more—and therapists less and less. She’ll explore when this high-conflict personality style becomes not just a cultural but clinical issue and how to treat those affected by narcissistic abuse in relationships, families, workplaces, and beyond.