Ask an Expert: Personality Disorder Professor, Author, Counsellor - Sam Vaknin
What is your profession?
“I am a former professor of psychology, an author of books about personality disorders, and a mental health counsellor (not a therapist).”
What is a lesser-known/unusual aspect of your job that the public/average person wouldn't expect?
“There is a tsunami of mental illness submerging the entire world. The pandemic catalyzed and accelerated this trend. Working in the frontlines of this war, trying to turn back the tide, is very corroding and vicariously traumatizing. It is no different to other medical specialties. It leads to depression, anxiety, and burnout.”
What has been one of the biggest challenges for you, working in your role?
“How to balance the grim and hopeless realities of most mental illness with the hopeful but counterfactual message of healing. The truth is: we suck at helping people. Another truth: most people cannot be helped. But political correctness and the commercial imperatives of the self-help industry inhibit the truth.”
What has been your biggest win in this role?
“I was the first to describe narcissistic abuse in the 1990s. I also coined most of the language in use today in discussions about pathological narcissism and the its deleterious aftermath.”
What is something society/the government/the public should know, or seek to change, regarding your field of work?
“We should adopt a holistic view of health. Body and mind are intertwined in continuous feedback loops. Most mental health issues are relational: they reflect the dysfunctional dynamics of anomic societies and crumbling relationships. We need to heal communities and families, rather than individuals.”
Something you wish you knew before starting on this career path?
“The field is infested with con artists, scammers, self-styled “experts”, mentally ill people who “coach” and “educate” others, and scavenging plagiarists. The extent of misinformation online is staggering. Money has corrupted every niche and participant in this ecosystem of mental health. Had I known that it will come to this, I would have remained in my original field (physics).”
Something you’d tell your younger self?
“Stay away from women. Modern women are undergoing an identity crisis that is rendering them dysregulated, narcissistic, and dangerously psychopathic. And, yes, I feel absolutely comfortable and confident to generalize in this case.”
Why do you do what you do?
“I am active in multiple intellectual fields. I like the attention and the money that I garner (though all my content is freely available online).”
One piece of key insider information?
“People uncritically and indolently believe 90% of what they hear.”
Interview with Sam Vaknin, author of ‘Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited’, former Visiting Professor of Psychology, Faculty Member in CIAPS (Commonwealth for International Advanced Professional Studies).
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/samvaknin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/narcissismwithvaknin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/narcissismwithvaknin
Find and buy most of Sam’s books and ebooks in his Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/60F8EC8A-5812-4007-9F2C-DFA02EA713B3
Are you an expert or a professional with something interesting to share? Then we’d love to hear from you!
At ‘The Room - Psy’, we are reaching out to especially interesting health, psychology/social science, and wellbeing related professionals (or professionals with something else relevant/exciting they do or can offer), who are open to answering some unconventional and thought-provoking questions regarding what it’s really like working in your field; providing insight, advice, information, and perhaps a unique story. The interview will be offered remotely via email and can be published either anonymously or with credit to you (including job title, name, and with something you might wish to promote/contact details). The choice would be yours depending on your preference/comfort. The goal is to learn about what it’s truly like working as a professional in your field, to inspire students, stimulate debate or thought concerning issues or wins in your field.
If you’d like to put yourself forward for this, please email us at theroompsy@outlook.com with a brief highlight of your current/previous job that you would like the interview to focus on.
