What triggers 'spontaneous healing' of a narcissist?

Answer 1

Not sure about "spontaneous" healing, but this seems to be one of the very few articles on NPD out there with valuable information.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4087/is_200301/ai_n9197353/pg_1

AnswerThere are gradations and shades of Narcissism. The difference between two narcissists can be great. The existence of grandiosity and empathy or lack thereof are not minor variations. They are serious predictors of future dynamics. The prognosis is much better if they do exist.

There are cases of spontaneous healing and of "short-term NPD" [see Gunderson's and Ronningstam's work, 1996].

The prognosis for a classical NPD case (grandiosity, lack of empathy and all) is decidedly not good as far as long-term, lasting, and complete healing.

The narcissist is chronically depressed and anhedonic (finds no pleasure in life). Unable to love and in the long run (as a result) unloved - the narcissist is ever in the pursuit of excitement and drama intended to alleviate his all-pervasive boredom and melancholy.

The grandiose fantasies of the narcissist inevitably and invariably clash with his drab, routine, and mundane reality. We call this constant dissonance the "grandiosity gap". Sometimes the gap is so yawning that even the narcissist - however dimly - recognizes its existence. Still, this insight into his real situation fails to alter his behaviour. The narcissist knows that his grandiose fantasies are incommensurate with his accomplishments, knowledge, status, actual wealth (or lack thereof), physical constitution, or sex appeal - yet, he keeps behaving as though this were untrue.

His permanent existence in fantasyland - intended to shield him from his self-destructive urges - paradoxically only enhances them. This state of things makes him feel sad, enraged at his helplessness in the face of his disorder, and at the discrepancy between his delusions of grandeur and reality. It is the engine of his growing disappointment and disillusionment, his anhedonia and impotence, his degeneration and ultimate ugly decadence. The narcissist ages disgracefully, ungraciously. He is not a becoming sight as his defenses crumble and harsh reality intrudes: the reality of his self-imposed mediocrity and waste of life. His psyche is permeated by these flickers of sanity, these reminders of his downhill path. The more fiercely he combats these invaders of realistic appraisal - the more ubiquitous they become. Infiltrated by the Trojan Horses of his intelligence and consciousness - the narcissistic defenses are bound to be overwhelmed. When they are - either spontaneous healing or a breakdown follow.

AnswerA lie. In other words, people with NPD don't experience actual "spontaneous healing", but they very often claim to have been healed spontaneously. This claim, of course, is just another narcissistic ploy.