Narcissism Isn’t Rare—It Is Underdiagnosed and Underestimated In Its Impact
According to a researcher.
The following article contains excerpts from an article I first published on other websites in January 2024.
We have gotten used to regurgitating a certain myth: true narcissism is rare. People have not questioned this myth and even some clinicians will spread this myth without looking into the actual research. Where exactly did this definitive idea of rarity come from? Here are the actual numbers we do have. Any incredibly small “rare” statistic you see estimated for narcissistic personality disorder is based on the clinical and research population which is unlikely to represent the true general population since most narcissists will never seek help, volunteer to be evaluated, or engage in impression management when they do, minimizing their traits and behaviors.
The few estimates we do have for general population for NPD ranges up to 6.2% for lifetime prevalence for a 2008 study of 34,653 adults. There are also estimates of up to even 14.73% based on various community samples from older studies, according to Associate Clinical Professor of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Elsa Ronningstam.
For the clinical population, there is also a wide range of 1.3%– 17% prevalence rates when we consider different studies. And it’s not just Narcissistic Personality Disorder as a full-fledged disorder we have to consider: we have to think about the traits of narcissism that may not necessarily meet the full criteria of the disorder too yet still leave an impact. According to a 2021 meta-analysis of 437 studies, the traits of narcissism are associated with multiple forms of aggression, so they can cause harm even when they’re not diagnosed as a disorder.
We don’t have an estimate for how many people have only the subclinical traits of narcissism versus the full-fledged disorder. We also can’t forget that narcissistic people who engage in malignant and maladaptive behaviors tend to target multiple people during their lifetime, increasing the impact of narcissism on society and victims overall.
Next time you hear the myth that narcissism is rare, remember the facts and question the true motives of the person who wants you to believe this. Are they saying this because they have been misinformed and didn’t bother looking into the research? Or do they have an ulterior motive of ensuring people don’t recognize the widespread impact of these traits? If so, realize this is suspect.