NPD in 2003

Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, is a grim study of the life of the Laffertys, fundamentalist Mormons who brutally murdered their sister-in-law and her one-year-old child. Krakhauer spends some significant time looking at the state of mind of Dan Lafferty, who defiantly believed in the peculiar righteousness of the what they'd done, behavior they identified as ordained by an old Mormon teaching called "blood atonement." God told them to do what they did.

What needed to be determined in a court of law was soundness of mind--could they be judged as innocent by way of insanity? Experts disagreed, some saying the men were incapable of understanding the judgments of the court; others made directly contrary assessments. 

The prosecution asked Dr. Noel Gardner to assess the two of them, and he quite adamantly claimed that Ron Lafferty was unlike any schizophrenics he'd ever known--for instance, he laughed at a good joke, illustrating that he was entirely capable of hearing and understanding others, laughter being "a shared experience." What's more, Dan Lafferty had stacks of books in his cell, books whose ideas he could talk about in significant detail. Dr. Gardner insisted that while the he wasn't certifiably insane, his actions fit a syndrome then becoming better understood--something he called NPD, Narcissitic Personality Disorder*.

NPD, Gardner said, introducing the syndrome, is "a persuasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy. . . .indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. An exaggerated sense of self-importance.

2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

3. Believes that he or she is "special" and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people.

4. Requires excessive admiration.

5. Selfishly takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends.

6. Has a sense of entitlement

7. Lacks empathy

8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.

9. Shows arrogance, haughty, patronizing or contemptuous behavior or attitudes.

Bear in mind that Under the Banner of Heaven was first published in 2003. 

I just found all of that really interesting.

______________________ 

*pp. 306-307.