Overt and Covert Narcissism to TAT
Comparison between two different methods of narratives analysis
Over time the scientific literature results and clinical evidences have highlighted on how the Narcissistic Personality Disorder is marked by two different profiles: the former, called Overt, connotes more aggressive and extroverted subjects, the latter, called Covert, is instead typical of controlling, reserved and hypervigilant ones (Akhtar, 1989; Gabbard, 1989).
The research we present is based on the analysis of TAT narratives of ten subjects to whom it had been previously formulated a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Overt type for five subjects, Covert type for the remaining five.
Through a psychoanalytic narrative analysis of TAT protocols (Shentoub, 1995) it has found out that the Overt profile is marked by strong individual exposure and lability features, which supports the hypothesis that the impressive style of narcissistic personality shares aspects with those of histrionic functioning. The Covert type, instead, was outstanding for a stiffer functioning, similar to the obsessive one, which is expressed through a closed, controlled and doubtful style, marked by the difficulty in constructing narratives.
After these results, we wondered whether through the use of a different method of narratives analysis, based on a systemic-constructionist theoretical approach (Ugazio et al., 2009), the results themselves could overlap, and if the meanings used by the Overt and the Covert profiles could come up with specific peculiarities.
The research allowed to seize interesting connections between the results arising from the two analysis methods of the TAT protocols, giving the opportunity to reach a complex view of the disorder.
