OPTIMISM, PESSIMISM, AND THE COMPLEXITY OF NARCISSISM

Surprisingly, the Leadership/Authority, Superiority/Arrogance, and Sel f-Absorption/Self-Admiration factors of the Narcissistic Personality I nventory (NPI) can predict adjustment. In the present project, these a pparently healthier forms of narcissism correlated directly with optim ism and inversely with pessimism; and for more clearly pathological me asures of narcissism like the NPI Exploitativeness/Entitlement factor and the O'Brien (Psychological Reports, 61, 499-510, 1987) Multiphasic Narcissism Inventory, these relationships were reversed. These data t herefore revealed that the apparently more adaptive aspects of narciss ism may be related to optimistic 'illusions' about the self which soci al cognitivists have linked with mental health. They also suggested th at narcissistic phenomena may be relevant to the claim that there is a n 'optimal margin of illusion' beyond which problematic psychological consequences may begin to appear.