Sam Vaknin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sam
Vaknin |
|
Sam
Vaknin in 2017. |
|
Born |
Shmuel
Vaknin
|
Residence |
|
Occupation |
Writer |
Known for |
Self-help material on narcissistic
personality disorder. Work on chronons. |
Spouse(s) |
Lidija Rangelovska |
Website |
Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin (born
April 21, 1961) is an Israeli writer.[1] He is the author of Malignant Self
Love: Narcissism Revisited (2001), has been the editor-in-chief of the
former website Global Politician, and runs a private website
about narcissistic personality disorder
(NPD).[2] He has also postulated a theory on chronons and
time asymmetry.
Contents
Background
Vaknin was born in Kiryat Yam,
Israel, the
eldest of five children born to Sephardi
Jewish immigrants. Vaknin's mother, who he claims may have been a
narcissist, was from Turkey, and his father, a construction worker, was from Morocco. He
describes a difficult childhood, in which he writes that his parents "were
ill-equipped to deal with normal children, let alone the gifted".[3]
He left home to serve in the Israel Defense Forces from 1979 to 1982 in
training and education units. Between 1980 and 1983 he founded a chain of
computerized information kiosks in Tel Aviv,
and in 1982 worked for the Nessim D. Gaon Group in Geneva, Paris, and New
York City. It was in the mid-1980s that he became aware of difficulties in
his relationship with his fiancée, and that he had mood swings. In 1985 he
sought help from a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with narcissistic
personality disorder (NPD). Vaknin did not accept the
diagnosis at the time. From 1986 to 1987 he was the general manager of IPE Ltd.
in London. He moved back to Israel, where he became director of an Israeli
investment firm, Mikbatz Teshua.[2] He was also president of the Israeli
chapter of the Unification Church's Professors for World Peace
Academy.[1]
In Israel in 1995 he was found
guilty on three counts of securities
fraud along with two other men, Nissim Avioz and Dov Landau. He was
sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and fined 50,000 shekels (about
$14,000), while the company was fined 100,000 shekels.[4][5] In 1996, as a condition of parole, he
agreed to a mental health evaluation, which noted various personality disorders. According to Vaknin,
"I was borderline schizoid, but the most dominant was NPD," and on this
occasion he accepted the diagnosis, because, he wrote, "it was a relief to
know what I had."[6]
Vaknin moved to Skopje, Macedonia, where he married Macedonian Lidija
Rangelovska. They set up Narcissus Publications in 1997, which publishes
Vaknin's work.[7] Between 2001 and 2003, Vaknin was a
Senior Business Correspondent for United Press International.[1][8] He has also written for Central Europe Review
about political issues in the Balkans,[9] as well as for the Middle
East Times.[1][10] Until a few weeks before the September
2002 Macedonian election, he served as an adviser to Macedonia's Ministry of
Finance. He writes regularly for other publications, such as the International
Analyst Network,[11] and the online American Chronicle.[12]
Vaknin is visiting professor at Southern Federal University in Rostov
Oblast, Russia
in 2017-9 holding a course of lectures there on personality theory in psychology.[13] He is also a professor of finance and a professor of psychology in the
Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS) [14]
Writing
and interviews
Work on chronons and time asymmetry
A model of quantised time was
proposed by Vaknin in his 1982 Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Time Asymmetry
Revisited". The dissertation was published by California Miramar University. He
postulates the existence of a particle (chronon). In the
proposed theory, time is the result of the interaction of chronons, very much
as other forces in nature are the result of other particle interactions. Vaknin
postulates the existence of various time quarks (up, down,
colors, etc.) whose properties cancel each other and thus the arrow of time is
derived (time asymmetry). The postulated particle (chronon) is not only an
ideal clock, but also mediates time itself (analogous to the relationship
between the Higgs boson and mass). In other words, what we call
"time" is the interaction between chronons in a field. Chronons
exchange between them a particle and thereby exert a force. "Events"
are perturbations in the Time Field and they are distinct from chronon
interactions. Chronon interactions (particle exchanges) in the Time Field
generate "time" and "time asymmetry" as we observe them.[15][16]
Views on
narcissism
Vaknin has a prolific online
presence, writing on narcissism and psychopathy.[17] His views have been solicited by the media.[3][18]
In his view, narcissists have
lost their "true self", the core of their personality, which has
been replaced by delusions of grandeur, a "false self".
Therefore, he believes, they cannot be healed, because they do not exist as
real persons, only as reflections: "The False Self replaces the
narcissist's True Self and is intended to shield him from hurt and narcissistic injury by self-imputing omnipotence
... The narcissist pretends that his False Self is real and demands that others
affirm this confabulation,"[19] meanwhile keeping his real-life imperfect
true self under wraps.[20] Vaknin extends the concept of narcissistic supply, and introduces concepts
such as primary and secondary narcissistic supply.[21] He distinguishes between cerebral and somatic narcissists; the former generate
their narcissistic supply by applying their minds, the latter their bodies. He
considers himself a cerebral narcissist.[22] He calls narcissistic co-dependents
"inverted narcissists."[23] "[They] provide the narcissist with
an obsequious, unthreatening audience...the perfect backdrop."[24] He believes that disproportionate numbers of pathological narcissists are
at work in the most influential reaches of society, such as medicine, finance
and politics.[6]
Vaknin developed recently a new
treatment modality for narcissism and depression, Cold Therapy [25]. It is based on recasting pathological narcissism
as a form of CPTSD
(Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) and arrested development which result
in an addictive personality with a dysfunctional attachment
style. The therapy uses re-traumatization and a form of reframing [26] German introduction to Cold Therapy [27]
Film
appearances
In 2007, Vaknin appeared in the
episode "Egomania" of the British Channel
4 documentary series Mania.
In 2009, he was the subject of an
Australian documentary film, I, Psychopath, directed by Ian Walker. In
the film, Vaknin underwent a psychological evaluation in which he met the
criteria for psychopathy according to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, but did not
meet the criteria for narcissism.[28][29]
In 2016, Vaknin appeared in the
documentary "How Narcissists Took Over the
World" produced by Vice Media.[30]
In 2019, Vaknin appeared in the
online documentary "Plugged-in: The True Toxicity of Social Media
Revealed" produced by Richard Grannon.[31]
Selected
publications
- Requesting
my Loved One (Bakasha me-Isha Ahuva) published by Yedioth
Aharonot Miskal, Tel-Aviv, 1997[32]
- (with
Nikola Gruevski) Macedonian Economy on a
Crossroads. Skopje, NIP Noval Literatura, 1998. ISBN 9989-610-01-0[33]
- Malignant
Self Love: Narcissism Revisited. Narcissus Publications, Prague,
1999.
ISBN 978-80-238-3384-3
- After
the Rain: How the West Lost the East.
Narcissus Publications, in association with Central Europe Review/CEENMI,
2000.
ISBN 80-238-5173-X[34]
See also
References
1.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Vaknin, Sam. "Interview with a Narcissist",
samvak.tripod.com, accessed October 30, 2010.
§ "Sam Vaknin—in his own words", CBC, accessed October 30, 2010.
2.
^ Jump up to: a b Race, Tim. "New
Economy; Like Narcissus, executives are smitten, and undone, by their own
images", The New York Times, July 29, 2002, p. 2.
§ For his position with the GP website, see "GP Editors" Archived 2010-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, Global Politicians, accessed February 6, 2011.
§ For Vakin's website, see here.
3.
^ Jump up to: a b Roberts, Yvonne (September 16, 2007). "The
monster in the mirror". The
Sunday Times. London, England: News UK.
Archived from the
original on May 11, 2008.
4.
^ Rosenfeld,
Jose (July 27, 1995). "Business
Briefs". The Jerusalem Post.
5.
^ Gordon,
Evelyn (June 14, 1996). "Supreme
Court rejects appeal of three stock manipulators". The Jerusalem Post.
6.
^ Jump up to: a b Tempany, Adrian. "When
narcissism becomes pathological", Financial Times, September 4,
2010.
7.
^ Vaknin, Sam. "Malignant Self-love:
Narcissism Revisited", samvak.tripod.com, accessed October 30, 2010.
8.
^ Vaknin, Sam UPI:
Commentary: The morality of Child labor, Accessed October 30, 2010
9.
^ Central Europe Review. Author
Archive: Sam Vaknin. Accessed October 30, 2010
10.
^ Vaknin, Sam, Middle
East Times: The axis of oil, Accessed October 30, 2010.
11.
^ International
Analyst Network
12.
^ American Chronicle
13.
^ Southern Federal
University website
14.
^ CIAPS
faculty Sam Vaknin's page
15.
^ California Miramar University, available on Microfiche in
UMI and from the Library of Congress http://lccn.loc.gov/85133690
16.
^ Vaknin S Time
Asymmetry Re-Visited
17.
^ Sam Vaknin
website
18.
^ Lisa
Respers France (February 2, 2011). "Reality
bites after the lights go out". CNN. Retrieved 6
February 2011.
19.
^ Vaknin S The
Dual Role of the Narcissist's False Self
20.
^ http://samvak.tripod.com/faq48.html
21.
^ Vaknin, Sam Narcissists,
Narcissistic Supply and Sources of Supply
22.
^ Vaknin, Sam The Cerebral vs. the
Somatic Narcissist
23.
^ Vaknin, Sam The
Inverted Narcissist
24.
^ Crompton, Simon. All About Me: Loving a Narcissist.
HarperCollins, 2007) p. 31.
25.
^ "Cold
Therapy, Warmly Recommended", condensed and translated from German
26.
^ Narcissism:
Treatment Modalities and Therapies
27.
^ Cold
Therapy: Weil Wir Uhren Verstand brauchen, Nicht Eure Gefuhle
28. ^ Woolaston, Sam "Last
night's TV", The Guardian, February 6, 2007.
§ "I,
Psychopath", CBC, May 25, 2009.
29.
^ Walters,
Conrad (March 25, 2010). "Brain
scan". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23
April 2011.
30.
^ How
Narcissists Took Over the World Vice Media 12 Sep 2016
31.
^ Plugged-in:
The True Toxicity of Social Media Revealed
32.
^ http://lccn.loc.gov/97826249
33.
^ Project Gutenberg - books by Sam Vaknin
34.
^ Central
Europe Review Accessed October 30, 2010