Narcissism and ayahuasca. Can plant medicines cure the most incurable personality disorder?

“Narcissism is the public health crisis of our time,” according to clinical psychologist and expert in Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), Doctor Ramani Durvasula (2020a). Additionally, humanity faces the dual threats of a global climate emergency and pandemic that require people to put aside their self-interest to survive. Narcissism seems to be on the rise as a personality disorder simultaneously as the need for selflessness is at its highest. Some people believe that the only thing capable of creating the shift in consciousness required to save the day is an Amazonian plant medicine called ayahuasca (McKenna, 2016). Conversely, some point to the likes of Charles Manson and Jim Jones as examples of how psychedelics can lead narcissists to become even more dangerous. This essay will look at what makes a narcissist and how they behave. We will also distinguish between overt and covert narcissists and find out why the covert narcissist is considered more dangerous by psychologists (Briscoe, 2021). We will also analyze if ayahuasca is worthy of the hype it receives in the media as the savior of Western mental health. Or if Western culture is too inherently narcissistic to benefit in the same way as the community-focused tribes of the Amazon do.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic plant brew that has been used in the Amazon jungle for several centuries as a healing tool. In recent years it has received a great deal of attention and research showing immense promise for healing mental health issues such as treatment-resistant depression, addiction, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Nielson & Megler, 2014; Osório et al., 2015). Ayahuasca’s ability to heal PTSD may have critical implications in the search for a treatment of narcissism.

Narcissism’s definition has evolved from Greek mythological roots to becoming a fully-fledged personality disorder listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5). The original story comes from the Greek myth of the man who was so good-looking that he fell in love with his reflection in a pond, which leads him to fall in and drown.

The most common understanding of narcissism comes from the psychoanalysis Robert Walder. He described a narcissistic individual as a person who was “arrogant, self-obsessed, indifferent to others and fond of sex but not intimacy” (Walder, 1925). It wasn’t until 1939 that Karen Horney identified it as a defense mechanism against vulnerability.

A defining characteristic of narcissism is the inability to tolerate ambiguity (Curran, 2016). For the narcissist, this manifests as thinking they are all good, successful, and better than others. Or, they are all bad, a failure, and worse than others. This type of binary thinking is also prevalent in people with PTSD (Austern, 2017). Annie Reich (1953) would support this link to PTSD as she was the first to suggest that narcissism developed due to childhood trauma caused by parents. The child’s message was that their authentic self was not acceptable, so they had to create a false self as a protective but shiny outer shell. As the narcissist believes this shell is their authentic self, any attempt to reveal the truth to them is met with immense resistance as they think they will be annihilated (Briscoe, 2021).

In 1938, Henry Murray developed the idea that there are two types of narcissists, the overt and the covert narcissist. The overt narcissist is the one we all know well, as they are the ones who seek public attention and fame. However, the covert narcissist is more insidious to those around them.. The covert narcissist is not brash or loud but very vulnerable and sensitive, especially to criticism. According to Psychotherapist Lorna Slade, in the covert narcissist, “a sense of victimhood appears to be primary, in which the narcissist will persecute from the victim position, often denigrating themselves and thereby fishing for reassurance” (Briscoe, 2021). They can be generous, but this is only to place others in their debt. They can be caring, but this is only to receive admiration.

Both types of narcissists share the same sense of entitlement and belief that their needs matter more than others. Both types of narcissists have a complete absorption in the self, but instead of thinking how great they are, the covert narcissist gets lost in ideas of persecution. They believe that the world is against them and engender the attitude of ‘why always me?’ (Curran, 2016).

In 1990 Paul Wink reclassified the overt/covert type to the ‘grandiose/exhibitionist’ and the ‘vulnerable/sensitive/entitled and bitter’ types. This bitterness commonly manifests as the narcissist falling out with people, holding grudges, and cutting people out of their lives when the other does not play the required role (Curran, 2016; Durvasula, 2020a).

Narcissism used to be associated only with men. This misnomer arose because Narcissus was a man and because of the work of Annie’s husband, Wilhelm Reich, who believed that the disorder could only occur in men. In reality, experts estimate that around 80% of narcissists are men, and 20% are women (Durvasula, 2020a). While the overt narcissistic man tends to garner more attention, covert narcissistic mothers can do more harm to their children (Durvasula, 2020a). This more significant risk comes from the fact that mothers tend to have more direct contact with their children than their fathers, and therefore have more time to harm their children. It is common for the children of narcissistic parents to suffer from mysterious illnesses like depression, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ME, and other chronic conditions, especially intense feelings of insecurity.

No one knows how prevalent narcissism is because people usually lookout for the overt narcissist and do not think about the covert narcissist. One estimate suggests that there are 200,000 narcissists in the USA at present (Curran, 2016). This number suggests that it is a rare disorder. However, this is only counting people who have received a diagnosis of NPD. It does not account for covert narcissists, those who have not sought treatment or are just below a clinical diagnosis on the narcissistic spectrum.

A central tenet of narcissism that helps to identify them is gas-lighting. This technique is a way of manipulating and altering another’s reality. A classic example of this would be the narcissist saying something offensive to someone, the other person feeling offended, and then the narcissist blaming the other person for being too sensitive. Or they may say something like, “I just can’t say anything to you.” The other person is then left questioning their reality. They leave the conversation wondering if they are too sensitive when the truth is that the narcissist has been offensive. The narcissist can avoid any feelings of wrongdoing for their comment, and the other person takes on the dual burden of being offended and thinking it is their fault (Durvasala, 2020b).

A narcissistic society will not come together to solve our collective issues. In practical terms, this fight may mean we must take fewer flights, use fewer fossil fuels, or cut water usage at the individual level. At the collective level, it means electing individuals who will put aside GDP growth during their four-year term for the planet’s long-term health. Sacrificing individual desires for the collective is the fundamental idea. Given that we know the narcissist believes their needs are more important than others, this sacrifice is not likely to be forthcoming unless we help the narcissist heal.

Whether or not narcissism is on the rise or just coming into our awareness more frequently is unclear. What does cause problems is that when we promote narcissists to prominent positions of power, it sends a signal to the rest of the population that this kind of behavior is acceptable. Is it an unfortunate coincidence that narcissism is on the rise when the planet faces global crises that require less selfishness? Or, is this trait coming into the public consciousness so we can heal it at the collective level? The dreamer in me would undoubtedly prefer it to be the latter.

One of the biggest hurdles to treating a narcissist is that most do not want to change. Having their protective shell is an effective way to get through life. They don’t have to feel the pain of their mistakes and can blame others for their problems. This issue means that even if we developed the perfect treatment for NPD, the most challenging part would be to convince someone with NPD that they needed it.

Another major problem with narcissism is how difficult it is for them to change or heal from the disorder when they enter therapy. Research by Kacel et al. (2017) shows that some of the core features of the condition are “poor prognosis in therapy, slow progress to behavioral change, premature patient-initiated termination, and negative therapeutic alliance.” Dr. Dursulva (2020c) suggests that narcissists are 60% more likely to drop out of therapy than other clients. These studies were done utilizing traditional talk therapy. What this may be demonstrating is not that narcissists are unable to change, but that talk-therapy is not suitable for narcissists. This failure of talk therapy is why alternative treatment methods such as ayahuasca need further research to assess their suitability for the treatment of NPD.

We do not know precisely what causes narcissism. Yes, we know that trauma is involved, but why does one traumatized person develop PTSD and the next person develop into a narcissist? Although we do not have a clear etiology, researchers have made progress on locating the condition in the brain.

The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain associated with feelings of empathy. A German study (Ropke, 2013) that used an fMRI to map the brains of 34 patients with NPD found they had significantly thinner cerebral cortexes than normal. Whether or not this difference in the brain is the cause of NPD or an adaptation caused by lifestyle factors is unclear. However, it shows us that helping the narcissists feel more empathy should be part of their treatment.

Freud believed that all children go through a necessary phase of narcissism. The problems only arise when that child does not grow out of the narcissistic phase (Freud, 1914). Perhaps a Freudian view would be that it is the timing of the trauma that leads to narcissism. If a child experiences trauma amid their narcissistic phase, this may halt their growth, and they can remain stuck in that phase.

Dr. Paul Saladino’s (2020) ‘Plinko Theory’ of chronic illnesses may also apply to mental illness. Saladino uses the analogy of the game from The Price Is Right, called Plinko. A chip is dropped from the top of the board and bounces off pegs located down the game. The chip finally pops out in a random slot at the bottom. Saladino believes that chronic inflammation is the chip in the game and chronic illnesses arise as symptoms at random. E.g., three people have excessive amounts of chronic inflammation in the body, one person develops Irritable Bowel Syndrome, one person develops Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and the other develops Diabetes. If we applied this analogy to mental health, trauma would be the chip inserted into the game. For one person, their trauma would lead them to develop depression, the next person would develop a drug addiction, and the third person develops NPD. This is a simplistic analogy, as a person can develop all three of these problems simultaneously, but it helps highlight the role of trauma in mental health.

One may question why rates of trauma are so high and whether or not trauma is to blame for so many people’s problems. Research shows that recovery from trauma is most dependent on the victim’s social support after the event. US veterans returning from the Iraq War had twice the rate of PTSD than UK veterans. Sebastian Junger (2016, loc 906), a war reporter and PTSD expert, shares that, “In humans, lack of social support has been found to be twice as reliable at predicting PTSD as the severity of the trauma itself.” It does not seem surprising that the USA, the country known to be the most individualistic in the world with the weakest family ties, has the highest rates of PTSD in the world. Therefore, the increased number of traumatized people would not be due to more traumatic events; in fact, it is happening because society has devolved to a point where people no longer have the support necessary to process highly emotional events.

We will now look at how Ayahuasca can make narcissism worse. Adam Arnovich (2021, 6:27) is a Ph.D. candidate researching ayahuasca in Peru. He shares that “there are certain aspects of psychedelic experience that can predispose someone to a messianic attitude or ego inflation.” Dr. Stanisolv Grof coined the phrase that psychedelics are “non-specific amplifiers” (Arnovich, 2021). In some cases, ayahuasca reveals some latent narcissistic traits that the person then starts to express, or the ayahuasca amplifies narcissistic tendencies further. Arnovich (2021) says that in ayahuasca circles, this often manifests as a phase where the drinker believes they are one of the chosen ones who can see through the veil of the matrix. There is also a tendency for them to become caught in a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Arnovich (2021) shares how he had this experience and how difficult and heartbreaking it was for his friends and family to get through to him. They thought they had lost him to conspiratorial and messianic thinking. For Arnovich, thankfully, this was a phase that came to an end.

Perhaps the increased narcissism after an ayahuasca experience is a return to the Freudian childhood narcissistic phase. Is it possible that this occurs in individuals who could not complete their narcissistic process in childhood the first time around? So, perhaps this return to narcissism is a necessary completion of a childhood phase of ego development.

Those people who suggest we need to give ayahuasca to everyone, including our politicians, might want to think again. Charles Manson and Jim Jones were both famous users of psychedelics that lead to horrible atrocities. It is scary to think what a person in a position of power could do if their narcissistic traits were heightened by ayahuasca. It is worth noting that Manson and Jones were not known to have used ayahuasca but rather other psychedelics.

There are many ego traps that we need to be aware of on the path of ayahuasca healing. Martha Allitt (2021) highlights how some mistakenly believe they have experienced ego death when they have just transferred it to something else. A common outcome of ayahuasca experiences is that someone will swap their cliched 1980s style narcissism of driving a Ferrari and owning a big house for bragging about the number of ayahuasca ceremonies they have done, how vegan they are, and how ‘woke’ they are. This bragging, Allit, calls the “spiritual ego.” In this case, the person has not transcended their ego, and their narcissism has just latched on to different criteria to allow themselves to feel better than others.

As well as ego-transfer, ego inflation is another common problem with psychedelics. As Timothy Leary once said, “It is one of the many paradoxes of psychedelics that these drugs can sponsor an ego-dissolving experience that in some people leads to massive ego inflation” (Horgan, 2018). Allit (2021) suggests that this becomes more prominent after an ayahuasca ceremony because there is an elastic-band-like effect. When the ego momentarily dies, it rebounds even stronger to ensure the person’s continued survival. This exaggerated narcissism usually fades away with time, according to Allit. But awareness of this phenomenon is critical to bear in mind when thinking about the treatment of narcissism.

There may be an issue that Ayahuasca and all psychedelic psychotherapies are causing some over-excitement in mental health. The reasons for this over-excitement are firstly, that the trials show excellent results but secondly because it has been so long since there has been a new medical discovery for treating mental illness. The last breakthrough was Prozac in 1988. Hence, this may make people desperate to push through new treatments, exaggerate benefits, and minimize their risks (Davis, 2021).

Another reason why ayahuasca may not be the West’s panacea for mental health issues is how community-focused the Amazonian tribes are and how individualistic Western people are. Ayahuasca has always been used in the jungle as a community healing process because the community takes priority (Arnovich, 2021). Transferring ayahuasca into a Western setting may not work in the same way. The West is a narcissistic society, so what is stopping the use of ayahuasca from amplifying the West’s narcissism?

Research done with people from Israel and Palestine who drank ayahuasca together shows how ayahuasca can be used to foster a sense of connection that may be missing from Western society. In this study, a theme of “Unity-Based Connection” was experienced. The participants had “a feeling of unity and ‘oneness’…whereby participants related to each other based upon a sense of shared humanity, and other social identities seemed to dissolve” (Roseman et al., 2021). If ayahuasca can bring together people from two of the most hostile regions in the world, perhaps it can help narcissists work through the conflicts in their own lives.

The link between narcissism and trauma may give us a clue as to how to help the narcissist. If we can develop therapies that bypass the protective shell and enable the childhood trauma to be healed, perhaps we can make progress. The link between weak social support and PTSD helps us see how ayahuasca may also be uniquely suitable for treating narcissism through its community-building aspect.

A narcissist has spent so long creating the false self that they are terrified of accountability. They cannot own their part because of fears that if they open up to one bit of pain, the flood gates will open, and they will be overwhelmed (Meyers, 2020). Research has shown that psychedelics can help to increase the ability to process traumas by decreasing amygdala reactivity. This finding is critical because patients with PTSD often show heightened amygdala reactivity (Kraehenmann et al., 2015). More research is needed to establish if these findings will transfer over to people with NPD.

We do now have direct research showing the benefit of psychedelics on NPD. Here the authors hypothesized that psychedelic experiences, “through their ability to induce awe and ego-dissolution, may result in a reduction of maladaptive narcissistic personality traits” (van Mulukom et al., 2020). The researchers found that “Feelings of awe, but not ego dissolution, during recent psychedelic experiences were associated with increased feelings of connectedness and empathy, which in turn were associated with decreased levels of maladaptive narcissism” (van Mulukom et al., 2020). These findings are extremely promising, and we deserve to feel excited about them. The one caveat is that this study is limited because it was only a self-reported survey rather than a clinical trial.

Research from the University of Surrey (Hepper et al., 2014) suggests hope for increasing empathy in NPD. In their study, which did not involve any psychedelics, they found that “narcissists can be moved by another’s suffering if they take that person’s perspective.”. The findings demonstrate that “narcissists’ low empathy does not reflect inability, implying the potential for intervention.” Uthaug et al. (2021) have also conducted research showing that ayahuasca increased emotional empathy to negative stimuli in retreat-based ceremonies. The positive outcomes of these studies suggest that ayahuasca will be an essential tool in the therapist’s arsenal for working with NPD.

While the role of integration of psychedelic experiences has controversies, it may be of particular use to someone experiencing narcissism. A skilled and experienced integration therapist may be able to persuade someone that they are amid a narcissistic delusion brought on by the ayahuasca rather than letting them run riot telling people they are Jesus. Integration receives criticism as it is a Western addition to the ayahuasca protocol. However, it may be that integration is unnecessary for South American people as they already have their communities to support their integration. While Western ayahuasca drinkers only have their individualistic and judgemental societies to return to, just like the struggling US war veterans.

What role ayahuasca will play in the healing of Western society is not clear. What is clear is that narcissism is a growing collective problem. We need more research on what is causing narcissism to grow. We need to look at how parents, society, and social media may be contributing to the trauma epidemic and narcissism. It is no good just finding ways to treat narcissism; we also need to stop it at its roots. There are many theories and hyperboles about using ayahuasca to save the world, but most are just theories. Further clinical research is needed to be done directly on narcissists working with ayahuasca. For this to happen, we all need to learn how to spot a narcissist while having compassion for them. No narcissist will put their hand up to be a part of a trial if they believe they will be attacked for their way of being. This may be wishful thinking, but perhaps the work done in an ayahuasca circle can create a shift in a narcissistic person that leads them to feel empathy for other people, heal their trauma, and spend time in awe of this beautiful planet.

References

Allitt, M. (2021). Why We Need To Talk About Psychedelic Harm-Reduction. The Psychedelic Renaissance. https://www.thepsychedelicrenaissance.com/blog/psychedelic-harm-reduction-psycare-zendo

Arnovich, A. (2021). Navigating Psychedelic Narcissism (L. M. Morski Trans.). Plant Medicine Podcast.

Austern, D. (2017). Beyond Binary Thinking: Providing Best Practice Treatment to Veterans with PTSD. Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 13, 154. 10.14713/pcsp.v13i2.2006

Briscoe, J. (2021). Not all narcissists are grandiose — the ‘vulnerable’ type can be just as dangerous. the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/01/not-all-narcissists-are-grandiose-the-vulnerable-type-can-be-just-as-dangerous

Curran, O. (2016). How Narcissism Works. HowStuffWorks. https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/mental-disorders/narcissism.htm

Davis, E. (2021). Finding Meaning In The Weirdness with Erik Davis. Aubrey Marcus Podcast.

Durvasala, R. (2020a). Dr. Ramani Durvasala on Narcissism #292. Zestology.

Durvasula, R. (2020b). Dr. Ramani Durvasula: On the New Normal of Narcissism. CIIS Public Programs.

Durvasula, R. (2020c). Narcissism in a Parent. The Signs You Need to Know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt2n2jE7NvA

Freud, S. (1914). On Narcissism. Psychoanalysis, 6, 1–24.

Horgan, J. (2018). Yes, Make Psychedelics Legally Available, but Don’t Forget the Risks. Scientific American. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/yes-make-psychedelics-legally-available-but-dont-forget-the-risks/

Junger, S. (2016). Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (Kindle Edition ed.). HarperCollins Publishers.

Kraehenmann, R., Preller, K. H., Scheidegger, M., Pokorny, T., Bosch, O., Selfritz, E., & Vollenweider, F. (2015). Psilocybin-induced decrease in amygdala reactivity correlates with enhanced positive mood in healthy volunteers. Biological Psychiatry, (78), 572–581.

McKenna, D. (2016). ‘Ayahuasca is changing global environmental consciousness. the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2016/jul/30/ayahuasca-changing-global-environmental-consciousness

These Are the Signs Someone Was Raised By a Narcissist. Meyers, S. (Director). (2020, June 12).[Video/DVD] Med Circle.

Nielson, J., & Megler, J. (Eds.). (2014). Ayahuasca as a Candidate Therapy for PTSD. Springer.

Osório, F. d. L., Sanches, R. F., Macedo, L. R., dos Santos, R. G., Maia-de-Oliveira, J. P., Wichert-Ana, L., de Araujo, D. B., Riba, J., Crippa, J. A., & Hallak, J. E. (2015). Antidepressant effects of a single dose of ayahuasca in patients with recurrent depression: a preliminary report. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 37, 13–20. 10.1590/1516–4446–2014–1496

Reich, A. (1953). Narcissistic Object Choice in Women. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1(1), 22–44. 10.1177/000306515300100103

Walder, R. (1925). The Psychoses: Their Mechanisms and Accessibility to Influence. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 6(259) https://www.proquest.com/openview/dcdb5fb1d626094b950d07c2dd054345/1?pq-origsite