A controlled study of trait narcissism in anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

INTRODUCTION

Many theories attribute anorexia and bulimia nervosa to "pathological narcissism," but this conception has not been adequately evaluated.

METHOD: We compared the scores of 90 eating disorder (ED) sufferers (23 anorexic restricters, 14 anorexic bingers, and 53 bulimics) with those of 36 psychiatric-control (PC) and 54 normal-control (NC) females on validated self-report scales measuring Narcissism, Affective Instability, Stimulus Seeking, Compulsivity, and Restricted Expression.

RESULTS

Narcissism scores of ED patients (whether restricters or bingers/purgers) consistently exceeded those of the PC and NC cases, suggesting that Narcissism does indeed load more heavily in the EDs than in other psychiatric disturbances. Conversely, Affective Instability was characteristic of all clinical cases (i.e., of EDs and PCs), Restricted Expression and Compulsivity were characteristic of restricters, and Stimulus Seeking was characteristic of bingers/purgers.

DISCUSSION: Results are consistent with the notion that different ED variants may reflect subtype-specific temperaments and/or adaptive styles acting-upon shared underlying narcissistic disturbances.