Am I the only one who thinks that sometimes things are just as they appear?

[emmaverybo]

119. Rather not argue with you about PDs. I will say that although diagnostically they provide a

framework, they are not hard and fast, written in concrete, nor is the criteria to determine them as set out in the DSM followed to the letter in practice.

The prevalence of sociopathic features in the criminal population has been well studied and, in fact, as I am sure you know, gave rise to the original checklist developed by Hare.

Though you insist that Epstein, at least in so much as we know about his behavior, his history, his thinking, can only have been a pure narcissist, neither you nor I can diagnose him with certainty. He just as easily could be labeled a sociopath, and in any case, there is nothing in the literature to suggest these disorders are mutually exclusive.

As to your “physiology of narcissism,” as with other personality disorders, psychiatry has not determined a particular physiology underlying or linked to it, even on an interdisciplinary basis.

All of this, the area of personality disorders, is still theoretical, based on useful constructs, not even accepted universally as having a scientific basis. No matter, let’s accept your diagnosis.

And let’s discount the fact that psychiatry often fails miserably at predicting behavior. This is especially borne out in forensic psychology studies.

You are simply wrong to state that a person with narcissistic traits never commits suicide. Many propose that narcissism is a cloak for self-hatred, for low self-esteem. Whether or not that is the case in every case, a narcissistic individual placed in a room without mirrors, so to speak, deprived of the means by which to sustain the myth of self, no longer adored, stripped of props, without the means to exert ego, or to feed the incessant need to shine in the eyes of others, loses that defense and that weapon, the mask of narcissism. Aging Lotharios, whose physical appearance has been essential to feeding narcissistic needs, will sometimes suffer such distress, they enter therapy.

With or without entertaining psychological profiling, it is clear Epstein was losing everything. Freedom is crucial to most people. So that alone...

Epstein’s victim stated that his and his partner-in-crime’s lives revolved around their obsession with sex. But sex with young and beautiful people, not a shady cell mate. Gone. Money, status, power related to the ability to exploit others (if nothing else, Epstein was predatory) and to achieve ego satisfaction, all gone.

Epstein, by any measure, had every reason to commit suicide. Whether or not he did though, if he
was enabled, who knows? Neither you nor I do.