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58 © 2005 Gestalt Intl Study Center The Narcissistic Tightrope W alk: Using Gestalt Therapy Field Theory to Stabilize the Narcissistic Client ELINOR GREENBERG, PH.D. ABSTRACT One of the difculties of working with highly narcissistic indi- viduals is their extreme sensitivity to even the mildest negative feedback. Helpful suggestions can be experienced as such devas- tating criticisms that the clients either fall into self-hating depres- sions or angrily defend themselves by devaluing the therapist. Greenberg attributes this sensitivity to the inherent instability of narcissistic self-esteem, one of the themes touched on by Bent- ley in his article, “Working with Narcissism in Organizations.” Using Gestalt therapy eld theory, Greenberg redenes narcis- sism as two alternating and mutually contradictory ways of or- ganizing the organism/environment eld that narrowly focus on self-esteem issues: The inated organization makes gural only those cues that enhance the person’s sense of being special and perfect, and the deated organization makes gural only those cues that conrm the person’s sense of being inherently worth- less and inadequate. She explains three ways a therapist can use Gestalt therapy eld theory to help narcissistic clients stabilize their mood and form a realistic and integrated sense of their own worth. Elinor Greenberg, Ph.D., is a training member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy and a former faculty member of the Masterson Institute for the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Borderline, Narcissistic and Schizoid Disorders of the Self. Gestalt Review , 9 (1): 58-68, 2005

The Narcissistic Tightrope Walk

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