Misdiagnosing narcissism - Asperger's disorder

MisdiagnosingNarcissism - Asperger's Disorder

Asperger's disorder isquite often confused for NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder),despite the fact that Asperger's is crystal evident already at theage of 3, whilst pathological narcissism diagnosis is hard tonail down for certain anytime before early adolescence.

Some of the of reasons tothis confusion are some of the shared symptoms of the two verydifferent disorders:

the patient is self-centered and has a narrow array of interests and activities

interpersonal communication is harsh and conversational skills appear to be underdeveloped and left at a fairly primitive stage

they share a similar eye-to-eye gaze, body stance as well as facial expressions

there is a notable lack of non-verbal cues in both cases, as well as a there is a lack of their interpretation of the same other people's.

The Narcissist...

has a voluntary abilityto switch between two contrasting modes: social agility and socialimpairment. Because the narcissist is not the slightest bitinterested in cultivating verbal and other forms of interpersonalcommunication with "inferior and unworthy others", he orshe will remain as such.... until a source of narcissistic supplyprovided – when he or she will easily and almost immediately regain his or her social skills and charm.

Despite the saidimpairments, many narcissists are people who rise to high rankswithin their social and professional circles, even though a blowupdue to a lack of a narcissistic supply may put a full stop to theircareers.

Whereas TheAsperger's...

is not at all anti-socialin such a fashion. The Asperger's wants: social acceptance, friends,marriage, a sex life and children; but is completely clueless of howto go about those things and consequentially, for fear of rejection,may seem as urban hermits and may even choose a solitary lifestyle(in a very different fashion, and for different reasons from whySchizoids do similarly). They will dive with full intensity into asingle topic, hobby or personal relationship, and they will do so forreasons of hurt-control and pain management.

The Difference is...

Apathological narcissist will exclude people, devaluate and discardthem in order to avoid pain, while on the other hand the Asperger'swill have a withdrawn stance and limit his activities and incorporatean extremely narrow social circle into his social life – again toavoid pain.

Boththe narcissist and the Asperger's are prone to reacting withdepression and, but the Asperger's is at far greater risk when itcomes to self-injury.

TheNarcissist is highly verbal, he uses language as a tool to obtain hissupply and weapon anti-social means and to discard theunworthy – unlikethe Asperger's;even though he may be equally verbal at times. He is, on the otherhand, highly unlikely to obey the rules of conversation, for example:allowing others to speak in turn; but would rather interrupt them atwhim. He is also completely unable to read, nor emit non-verballanguage as he is unable to recognize his own misbehavior. That isvery different from the narcissist's style of misbehavior, becausehe or she is simply inconsiderate towards those who may not serve anarcissistic supply.