The Vicious Cycle of Traumatic Narcissism and Dissociative Depression Among Young Adults: A Trans-Diagnostic Approach.

This study was concerned with associations between narcissism, childhood trauma, dissociation, attachment styles, and depression among young adults. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Relationship Styles Questionnaire, Beck Depression Scale, and the Five-Factor Narcissism Questionnaire were administered to 422 college students. Multivariate analyses revealed that childhood sexual abuse, physical neglect, both fearful and secure attachment styles, dissociation, and male gender predicted grandiose narcissism. Vulnerable narcissism was predicted by preoccupied attachment, depression, and female gender. Dissociative taxon members (n = 133, 31.5%) had elevated scores on all childhood trauma types, fearful attachment, and both vulnerable and grandiose narcissism. While there was a link between bodily childhood maltreatment, dissociation, and grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism was related to loss of perceived security in relationships and depression. Representing ambivalence and an indirect link between childhood trauma and vulnerable narcissism, depression was associated with both emotional neglect and overprotection-overcontrol, and fearful and preoccupied attachment. Depression and grandiose narcissism as co-predictors of pathological dissociation fitted the concept of "dissociative depression", which constituted an interface between two aspects of narcissism. Narcissism may be a trans-generational carrier of trauma as a fertile ground for dissociation. The escalation of dissociation among young adults in Turkey to an almost normative level may also be a consequence of the drastic transformations in the country throughout the period of globalism nurturing post-modern individualism in a conservative society. The trans-diagnostic overlap between two psychopathologies suggested that potential interference of concurrent dissociation needs to be considered in psychotherapy of narcissism and vice versa.

A Revised And Expanded Version Of The Turkish Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-33): Overprotection-Overcontrol As Additional Factor.

This study was concerned with a culture-sensitive revision of the Turkish version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-28) and expansion of the instrument through integration of a dimension assessing overprotection - overcontrol (OP-OC). Participants (n = 783) were 37 dissociative and 78 non-dissociative and non-psychotic psychiatric outpatients, and 668 non-clinical people. They completed the revised and expanded version of the CTQ, Dissociative Experiences Scale, Beck Depression Scale, and Relationship Scales Questionnaire. A test-retest assessment was conducted on 25 non-clinical individuals. Among twenty-one alternative and the twenty-five original statements, the items of subsections were selected by correlations between item and item deleted total scores for each subset of original and alternative statements. The 33-item final version (CTQ-33) included five statements for each subsection including OP-OC and three denial items. The principal component analysis on items of the CTQ-33 with a varimax rotation yielded six factors including OP-OC. The inner consistency and the test-retest reliability were good. OP-OC correlated particularly with emotional abuse and neglect, and other types of trauma. There were significant correlations between CTQ-33 and depression, dissociation, and fearful attachment scores. The CTQ-33 differentiated psychiatric from non-clinical groups. The Turkish CTQ-33 is a reliable and valid instrument. OP-OC by caregivers may be as traumatic as other types of childhood adversities. Cross-cultural research would illuminate the significance of OP-OC beyond Turkish culture. The possibility of intergenerational transmission of trauma through OP-OC by fearful parents in and after times of cultural upheaval and political oppression should be considered for future research.