Sam Vaknin

Sam Vaknin
Born Shmuel Ben David Vaknin
April 21, 1961
Qiryat-Yam, Israel
Residence Skopje, Macedonia
Occupation Writer
Known for Self-help material on narcissistic personality disorder. Work on chronons.
Spouse(s) Lidija Rangelovska
Website samvak.tripod.com

Shmuel Ben David "Sam" Vaknin (born April 21, 1961) is an Israeli writer.[1] He is the author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited (2001), has been the editor-in-chief of the former website Global Politician, and runs a private website about narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).[2] He has also postulated a theory on chronons and time asymmetry.

Background

Vaknin was born in Qiryat-Yam, Israel, the eldest of five children, to a Turkish mother whom Vaknin believes may have been a narcissist and a father who was a construction worker from Morocco. He describes a difficult childhood, in which he writes that his parents "were ill-equipped to deal with normal children, let alone the gifted". Vaknin reports that he has an IQ of 180.[3]

He left home to serve in the Israel Defense Forces from 1979 to 1982 in training and education units. Between 1980 and 1983 he founded a chain of computerized information kiosks in Tel-Aviv, and in 1982 worked for the Nessim D. Gaon Group in Geneva, Paris, and New York. From 1986 to 1987 he was the general manager of IPE Ltd. in London. It was in the mid-1980s that he became aware of difficulties in his relationship with his fiancée, and that he had mood swings. In 1985 he sought help from a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Vaknin did not accept the diagnosis at the time. He moved back to Israel, where he became director of an Israeli investment firm, Mikbatz Teshua.[2] He was also president of the Israeli chapter of the Unification Church's Professors for World Peace Academy.[1]

In Israel in 1995 he was found guilty on three counts of stock fraud, along with two other men. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and fined 50,000 shekels (about $14,000), while the company was fined 100,000 shekels.[4] In 1996, as a condition of parole, he agreed to a mental health evaluation, which noted various personality disorders. According to Vaknin, "I was borderline schizoid, but the most dominant was NPD," and on this occasion he accepted the diagnosis, because, he wrote, "it was a relief to know what I had."[5]

Vaknin moved to Skopje, Macedonia, where he married Macedonian Lidija Rangelovska. They set up Narcissus Publications in 1997, which publishes Vaknin's work.[6] Between 2001 and 2003, Vaknin was a Senior Business Correspondent for United Press International.[1][7] He has also written for Central Europe Review about political issues in the Balkans,[8] as well as for the Middle East Times.[1][9] Until a few weeks before the September 2002 Macedonian election, he served as an adviser to Macedonia's Ministry of Finance. He writes regularly for other publications, such as the International Analyst Network,[10] and the online American Chronicle.[11]

Writing and interviews

Work on chronons and time asymmetry

A model of quantised time was proposed by Vaknin in his 1982 Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Time Asymmetry Revisited". The dissertation was published by California Miramar University. He postulates the existence of a particle (chronon). In the proposed theory, time is the result of the interaction of chronons, very much as other forces in nature are the result of other particle interactions. Vaknin postulates the existence of various time quarks (up, down, colors, etc.) whose properties cancel each other and thus the arrow of time is derived (time asymmetry). The postulated particle (chronon) is not only an ideal clock, but also mediates time itself (analogous to the relationship between the Higgs boson and mass). In other words, what we call "time" is the interaction between chronons in a field. Chronons exchange between them a particle and thereby exert a force. "Events" are perturbations in the Time Field and they are distinct from chronon interactions. Chronon interactions (particle exchanges) in the Time Field generate "time" and "time asymmetry" as we observe them.[12][13]

Views on narcissism

Vaknin has a prolific online presence, writing on narcissism and psychopathy.[14] His views have been solicited by the media.[3][15]

In his view, narcissists have lost their "true self", the core of their personality, which has been replaced by delusions of grandeur, a "false self". Therefore, he believes, they cannot be healed, because they do not exist as real persons, only as reflections: "The False Self replaces the narcissist's True Self and is intended to shield him from hurt and narcissistic injury by self-imputing omnipotence ... The narcissist pretends that his False Self is real and demands that others affirm this confabulation,"[16] meanwhile keeping his real-life imperfect true self under wraps.[17] Vaknin extends the concept of narcissistic supply, and introduces concepts such as primary and secondary narcissistic supply.[18] He distinguishes between cerebral and somatic narcissists; the former generate their narcissistic supply by applying their minds, the latter their bodies. He considers himself a cerebral narcissist.[19] He calls narcissistic co-dependents "inverted narcissists."[20] "[They] provide the narcissist with an obsequious, unthreatening audience...the perfect backdrop."[21] He believes that disproportionate numbers of pathological narcissists are at work in the most influential reaches of society, such as medicine, finance and politics.[5]

He acknowledges that his theories on narcissism are not accepted by academics in the field, for instance his theory that narcissism is akin to a form of artificial intelligence.[5]

Film appearances

In 2007, Vaknin appeared in the episode "Egomania" of the British Channel 4 documentary series Mania. In 2009, he was the subject of an Australian documentary film, I, Psychopath, directed by Ian Walker. In the film, Vaknin underwent a psychological evaluation in which he met the criteria for psychopathy according to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, but did not meet the criteria for narcissism.[22][23]

In 2016, Vaknin appeared in the video "How Narcissists Took Over the World" produced by Vice Media.[24]

Selected publications

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Vaknin, Sam. "Interview with a Narcissist", samvak.tripod.com, accessed October 30, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Race, Tim. "New Economy; Like Narcissus, executives are smitten, and undone, by their own images", The New York Times, July 29, 2002, p. 2.
    • For his position with the GP website, see "GP Editors", Global Politicians, accessed February 6, 2011.
    • For Vakin's website, see here.
  3. 1 2 Roberts, Yvonne. "The monster in the mirror", The Sunday Times, September 16, 2007.
  4. ↑ Rosenfeld, Jose. "Business Briefs", The Jerusalem Post, July 27, 1995.
  5. 1 2 3 Tempany, Adrian. "When narcissism becomes pathological", Financial Times, September 4, 2010.
  6. ↑ Vaknin, Sam. "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited", samvak.tripod.com, accessed October 30, 2010.
  7. ↑ Vaknin, Sam UPI: Commentary: The morality of Child labor, Accessed October 30, 2010
  8. ↑ Central Europe Review. Author Archive: Sam Vaknin. Accessed October 30, 2010
  9. ↑ Vaknin, Sam, Middle East Times: The axis of oil, Accessed October 30, 2010.
  10. ↑ International Analyst Network
  11. ↑ American Chronicle
  12. ↑ California Miramar University, available on Microfiche in UMI and from the Library of Congress http://lccn.loc.gov/85133690
  13. ↑ Vaknin S Time Asymmetry Re-Visited
  14. ↑ Sam Vaknin website
  15. ↑ Lisa Respers France (February 2, 2011). "Reality bites after the lights go out". CNN. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  16. ↑ Vaknin S The Dual Role of the Narcissist's False Self
  17. ↑ http://samvak.tripod.com/faq48.html
  18. ↑ Vaknin, Sam Narcissists, Narcissistic Supply and Sources of Supply
  19. ↑ Vaknin, Sam The Cerebral vs. the Somatic Narcissist
  20. ↑ Vaknin, Sam The Inverted Narcissist
  21. ↑ Crompton, Simon. All About Me: Loving a Narcissist. HarperCollins, 2007) p. 31.
  22. ↑ Woolaston, Sam "Last night's TV", The Guardian, February 6, 2007.
  23. ↑ Walters, Conrad (March 25, 2010). "Brain scan". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  24. ↑ How Narcissists Took Over the World Vice Media 12 Sep 2016
  25. ↑ http://lccn.loc.gov/97826249
  26. ↑ Project Gutenberg - books by Sam Vaknin
  27. ↑ Central Europe Review Accessed October 30, 2010
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