Dear Gordon,

The term megalomania was actually in use since 1915.

Still, yours is a fascinating point of view. Jung would have gladly shared
it (and, to some extent would have Freud).

You are right, of course, that non-conformist deviants were often labeled as
witches and heretics.

Many current mental health "disorders" are culture-bound, as well - for
instance the Antisocial and Schizotypal Personality Disorders:

http://open-site.org/Health/Conditions_and_Diseases/Psychiatric_Disorders/Person\
ality/Antisocial/

http://open-site.org/Health/Conditions_and_Diseases/Psychiatric_Disorders/Person\
ality/Schizotypal/

See this:

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/mentalillness.html

http://malignantselflove.tripod.com/14.html

Can I post your message to my study list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narcissisticabuse/

If yes, to whom should I attribute the authorship?

Take care.

Sam

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon Jenkins" <ez771@...>
To: "Sam Vaknin Narcissus Publications" <vaksam@...>
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 2:22 AM
Subject: Narcissism in Historical Context - Witchcraft Elaborated


Dear Dr. Vaknin:

There were two Dominican Order Catholic Priests who wrote the Malleus
Malleficarum (or hammer of witches) in the 1600s.

The book was first published in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger.
The book was republished again in 1928, apparently 13 years after the term
megalomania was used in 1915, according to you, and again in 1948, after
WWII but before the DSM 1 in 1952. DSM-II was published in 1968. See this
website for the full text of the Malleus Maleficarum:

http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/mmtoc.html

Of particular interest in comparing the Malleus Maleficarum to the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual series, is The Second Part, TREATING
ON THE METHODS BY WHICH THE WORKS OF WITCHCRAFT ARE WROUGHT AND DIRECTED,
AND HOW THEY MAY BE SUCCESSFULLY ANNULLED AND DISSOLVED.

The idea of comparing the DSM and the Malleus Maleficarum comes from:

http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/Commentary/DSM_Reconsidered.htm

However extreme the views (that I do not share) of that website may be, the
very notion of comparing the two books intrigued me from a positive
historical context, rather than from a negative and cynical point of view.
The Malleus Maleficarum attempted to identify and resolve personality
disorders, as does the DSM series. The Malleus Maleficarum was a very
serious diagnostic work in its time used by churches and governments, as are
the DSM volumes of today used by hospitals and courts. The Maleus
Maleficarum reprinting in 1948, just prior to the DSM 1 in 1952, proves how
important it was to the survivors of WWII to try to understand the minds of
cruel dictators like Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. The fact that we have
progressed in making such cruel personalities accountable is a testament to
the progress that has been made from the Malleus Maleficarum right through
to the DSM-IV-TR, and in identfying dangerous narcissistic dictactors before
they acquire too much power. Narcissists will always do harm, but
minimizing that harm is a noble effort.

They proposed that witches could be identified by certain characteristics.
Today we consider most of those characteristics absurd or impossible, but...
there were personality characteristics described in that book that have
similarities of the characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder of
the DSM-IV-TR. Those characteristics include:

1. Selfishly taking advantage of others to achieve their own objectives.
The exploitive aspect through somatic narcissism. (example: a witch
exploiting her sexuality and knowing who is attracted, to achieve power in
her community).

2.Lacking empathy, or even desiring harm upon others. (Spreading mean gossip
or having no interest in the well being of the village and villagers, for
example in case of infant death-common in that period).

3.Haughty or arrogant attititude, separating themselves from the common
peasants.

4.Requires excessive admiration or attention (being admired or notorious in
the community through behaving mysteriously).

5.Believing they are special (different from the common villagers)in
divining the familiar spirits.

6.Being pre-occupied with power or beauty. (believing they have ability in
casting spells, or mirror-mirror on the wall, who is the most narcissitic
one of all)

7. An exaggerated sense of self importance (being the only one who can cast
spells or tell fortunes or other such things).

Prior to the DSM-IV-TR there was DSM-IV, prior to that DSM-III-R, prior to
that was DSM-III, prior to that there was DSM-II, Prior to that was
DSM-I, prior to that was Carl Jung, prior to that was Freud, Prior to that
was....the Malleus Malleficarum.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder didn't just suddenly appear on earth, it
existed by other names throughout the history of mankind. Was the earliest
name of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, even prior to megalomania, called
witchcraft? Megalomania is also a relatively new name, i.e. since WWII. That
is what I was trying to get at. Is it possible, that today, what we call
Narcissistic Personality Disorder, our ancestors, who had no such DSM-IV-TR,
no Jung, no Freud, would have referred to a woman with such a personality,
as a witch?

Sincerely,


Gordon Jenkins