Personality,Temperament,and Attachment Style Among Offspring of World War II Victims: An integration of descriptive and structural features of personality
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online June, 2003
Personality,Temperament,and Attachment Style Among Offspring of World War II Victims: An integration of descriptive and structural features of personality
Studied the association between features of DSM-IV personality disorders, temperament, character and attachment styles among 109 second-generation offspring of victims of World War II. The majority of these patients, all born after 1945, have been insecurely attached. An dynamic integration of descriptive and structural data, taken from a combination of personality features and drawn from an object relation perspective points to the presence of narcissistic personality pathology in this population. It is concluded that the main focus in any psychotherapeutic treatment of these patients should be their fragile sense of self. However, although self-pathology seems to be the central issue in these patients, they cannot be considered a homogeneous group. In accordance with what is known about narcissistic pathology, two types of narcissistic patients are identified: the oblivious and the hypervigilant. Implications for treatment are discussed.
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