Optimism, pessimism, and the complexity of narcissism

Surprisingly, the Leadership/Authority, Superiority/Arrogance, and Self-Absorption/Self-Admiration factors of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) can predict adjustment. In the present project, these apparently healthier forms of narcissism correlated directly with optimism and inversely with pessimism; and for more clearly pathological measures of narcissism like the NPI Exploitativeness/ Entitlement factor and the OʹBrien (Psychological Reports, 61, 499–510, 1987) Multiphasic Narcissism Inventory, these relationships were reversed. These data therefore revealed that the apparently more adaptive aspects of narcissism may be related to optimistic ‘illusions’ about the self which social cognitivists have linked with mental health. They also suggested that narcissistic phenomena may be relevant to the claim that there is an ‘optimal margin of illusion’ beyond which problematic psychological consequences may begin to appear.