1. A set of individual differences that are affected by the development of someone; including values, attitudes, memories, social relationships, habits, and skills.
2. Pleasing or attractive qualities of a person.

An individual whose behavior is characterized by excitability, instability under, and over-reaction to, minor stress; self-dramatization; attention-seeking; and often seductiveness.

Such individuals tend to be immature, undependable in their judgment, self-centered, vain, and dependent on others.

A rare dissociative disorder in which an individual develops two or more separate and distinct personalities; each personality is independent of the other(s) and dominant at different times, and the original personality often has no knowledge of the others or any memory of their experiences.

1. A disposition characterized by behavior and attitudes that indicate an abnormal love of one self.

A person with this disposition is self-centered and self-absorbed, is extremely unrealistic concerning attributes and goals, vacillates between over idealizing and devaluing others, and, in general, assumes that he or she is entitled to more than is reasonable in relationships with others.

2. A personality disorder with the basic characteristics of a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, hypersensitivity, and defective empathy, manifested in the following:

• Grandiosity, with a sense of self-importance.
• The subject views his or her problems as unique and understandable only by other special people.
• A need for constant attention and admiration.
• A sense of entitlement.

A psychiatric diagnosis characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance and uniqueness, an abnormal need for attention and admiration, preoccupation with grandiose fantasies concerning the self, and disturbances in interpersonal relationships, usually involving the exploitation of others and a lack of empathy for anyone else.

The American Psychiatric Association recently announced that it is considering lifting "narcissistic personality disorder"; along with four other personality disorders; from its highly influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The current theory seems to be that narcissism is caused by very early influential deprivation, yet the clinical material tends to describe narcissists as unwilling rather than unable to change, and so the treating of narcissistic behaviors is more a volitional condition; that is, narcissism is termed a personality disorder, but it tends to be considered by some therapists as a character disorder.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is considered to be a severe impairment when a person's self-centered or egotistical behavior results in:

• Staying in bed all day.
• Totally alienating or avoiding friends and family.
• Severe risk of harming oneself or others; such as, failing to maintain personal hygiene; persistent danger of suicide, abuse, or crime.