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What is the prevalence of narcissistic injury among trainee counselling psychologists?
Author(s) -
Halewood Andrea,
Tribe Rachel
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 1476-0835
DOI - 10.1348/14760830260569274
Subject(s) - narcissism , psychology , feeling , burnout , likert scale , clinical psychology , scale (ratio) , social psychology , developmental psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
The purpose of this study was to ascertain the level of narcissistic injury among trainee counselling psychologists using the Narcissistic Injury Scale (Slyter, 1991). This 38‐item Likert scale is based on Miller's (1981) definition of narcissistic injury; a specific type of psychological damage which focuses on feelings about the self and past relationships related to self‐development. Theorists suggest that if untreated, narcissistic issues can interfere with client work and lead to a number of problems for trainees, influencing drop‐out rates and increasing burnout. The results of the study indicate that a high degree of narcissistic injury may be prevalent among trainee counselling psychologists and furthermore, that narcissistic injury does seem to be related to the quality of the perceived parent‐child relationship. Consequently, the study suggests that therapeutic work could be affected in those trainees who fail to address their own narcissism. The study provides some tentative support for the utility of the Narcissistic Injury Scale.