A commentary on
Personality and intentional binding: an exploratory study using the narcissistic personality
inventory by Hascalovitz AC and Obhi SS. Front. Hum. Neurosci. (2015) 9:13. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.0001

Dimaggio, Giancarlo

Lysaker, Paul H.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

PubMed

Giancarlo Dimaggio

Paul H. Lysaker

Frontiers - Publisher Connector

GENERAL COMMENTARY
published: 03 June 2015
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00325
Edited by:
John J. Foxe,
Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
USA
Reviewed by:
Marco Iacoboni,
University of California Los Angeles,
USA
Jennifer Vonk,
Oakland University, USA
*Correspondence:
Giancarlo Dimaggio
gdimaje@libero.it
Received: 15 April 2015
Accepted: 21 May 2015
Published: 03 June 2015
Citation:
Dimaggio G and Lysaker PH (2015)
Commentary: “Personality and
intentional binding: an exploratory
study using the narcissistic
personality inventory”.
Front. Hum. Neurosci. 9:325.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00325
Commentary: “Personality and
intentional binding: an exploratory
study using the narcissistic
personality inventory”
Giancarlo Dimaggio1* and Paul H. Lysaker 2,3
1 Centro di Terapia Metacognitiva Interpersonale, Rome, Italy, 2 Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center (116H), Indianapolis,
IN, USA, 3 Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Keywords: narcissism, agency, narcissistic personality disorder, vulnerable narcissism, personality disorders
A commentary on
Personality and intentional binding: an exploratory study using the narcissistic personality
inventory
by Hascalovitz AC and Obhi SS. Front. Hum. Neurosci. (2015) 9:13. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00013
Hascalovitz and Obhi (2015) examined whether narcissism was related to a disturbed sense of
agency. Using the construct of intentional binding, which is thought to be a core element of agency,
they sought to determine whether the speed with which a voluntary action was perceived to have a
consequent effect differed according to levels of narcissism. They hypothesized that higher levels of
narcissismwill predict hyper-agency or increased sense that one’s actions will have immediate effects
on the world. Hascalovitz and Obhi note that this is consistent with observations that patients with
narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) often report that they feel in control of their environment
and tend to err on the side of an omnipotence, which they believe should result in admiration
from others. Indeed, persons with NPD are often described as feeling entitled, and quick to take
impulsive action if they are not perceived as they think they should, leading frequently to ruptures
in relationships that previously appeared solid.
Of note, there are many long-standing hypotheses about the potential relationship between
narcissism and agency, which suggest a different view. Kohut (1971), for instance, observed that a
core feature of NPD is a hidden sense of fundamental powerlessness, which involves being relatively
unable to influence others within the flow of life. Others have suggested that a lack of agency in
NPD leads to a loss of touch with the person’s deepest wishes resulting in the experience of being
flat, devitalized, and empty (Modell, 1984; Dimaggio et al., 2002; Dimaggio andAttinà, 2012). This is
consistent with clinical reports that recovery fromNPD involves increased agency in domains other
than social rank, such as creativity and playfulness (Dimaggio et al., 2015).
How then can these results be reconciled with the larger literature? Even with the limitations
that Hascalovitz and Obhi (2015) acknowledge prevent the generalizability of their study, their
findings suggest that with narcissism comes a heightened sense of effectiveness and control over
willful action. One possibility suggested by clinical reports (Ronningstam, 2009; Links, 2015) is that
persons with NPD alternate from hyper-agency to passivity and flatness. We would like to explore
a different possibility, specifically one that distinguishes instrumental agency, or agency in dealing
with the non-personal world, from interpersonal agency or agency, which involves affecting how
others think and behave. In other words, perhaps these results help us to see that in narcissism
there is not merely an excess or deficit in agency but a paradox in which there are high levels of
instrumental agency complimented by low levels of interpersonal agency.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org June 2015 | Volume 9 | Article 3251
Dimaggio and Lysaker Narcissism and sense of agency
Persons with narcissism may have an initially high appraisal
of their abilities to complete tasks effectively (Kohut, 1971), but
then they may doubt that others will share this view. Therefore,
despite a kind of heightened intentional binding, they should
expect others will not properly admire their effectiveness and
control, leading back to reduction in their sense of agency gener-
ated by over-reliance on the judgment of others and ending up in
passivity. Indeed, we can well imagine how then the narcissist feels
so painfully and deeply powerless. They alternate from perceiving
that they possess considerable abilities to affect the world in
instrumental ways, to the perception that others do not share that
view and then believe that the negative perceptions of other people
cannot be affected. Thus, in narcissism, we hypothesize that there
may come a continuous oscillation between high instrumental
agency and low interpersonal agency. This would be consistent
with how relationships can be frustrating for patients with NPD
and also how relationships can be so quickly and irreparably
ruptured. Alternative ideas cannot be ruled out. For one, given
the chance that two subtypes of narcissism likely exist (Zeigler-
Hill et al., 2008), it is possible that the vulnerable subtype is
more closely linked to reduced agency, for example when fac-
ing a romantic rejection which affects an already unstable self-
esteem (Zeigler-Hill et al., 2011), while the grandiose type could
experience hyper-agency.
The possibility of a continuous oscillation between high instru-
mental agency and low interpersonal agency may point to ques-
tions for future research. For one, it would seem possible to
measure both self-appraisal of personal effectiveness in instru-
mental laboratory tasks and also the extent to which participants
think others will agree with their appraisal of their abilities. It
would also seem important to use tasks that involve appraisals
of real-life social outcomes. In addition, there may be an even
more nuanced set of relationships at play. As observed in session,
persons with narcissism can experience rapid shifts in their states
of mind (Dimaggio et al., 2008) as determined by interpersonal
events. It has been suggested (Kohut, 1971; Ronningstam, 2009;
Dimaggio et al., 2014; Pincus et al., 2014) that swings between
an inflated sense of personal worth and a sense of virtual non-
existence and failure largely depend on the presence of support
and admiration from the environment. Thus, a lack of interper-
sonal agency may result in changes in self-appraisal of instru-
mental agency. This suggests that laboratory tasks seeking to
measure agency in narcissism requires appropriate priming. One
hypothesis is that after having been primed with experiences
of social or romantic rejection, narcissistic-related oscillations
in the sense of agency for instrumental tasks would appear.
After social rejection, for example some high in grandiose nar-
cissism may experiment increased sense of agency, while those
with vulnerable narcissism may resemble the profile of persons
with depression or low self-esteem and experience diminished
agency.
Finally, a range of other questions also exist including whether
what hyper-agency observed here is a function of just having a
personality disorder in general or specific to this one kind of
phenomenon. Work is thus needed, for example, with patients
with dependent or avoidant traits (Dimaggio et al., 2015). As
there may be different forms of narcissism, work is needed to
determine whether agency is affected in similar ways in different
manifestations of the condition or even more closely linked to
some aspects of narcissism than others.
References
Dimaggio, G., and Attinà, G. (2012). Metacognitive interpersonal therapy for nar-
cissistic personality disorders with perfectionistic features: the case of Leonardo.
J. Clin. Psychol. 68, 922–934. doi:10.1002/jclp.21896
Dimaggio, G., Montano, A., Popolo, R., and Salvatore, G. (2015). Metacognitive
Interpersonal Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Treatment Manual. London:
Routledge.
Dimaggio, G., Nicolò, G., Fiore, R., Pedone, R., Popolo, R., Centenero, E., et al.
(2008). States of minds in narcissistic personality disorder. Three psychotherapy
patients analysed through the grid of problematic states. Psychother. Res. 18,
466–480. doi:10.1080/10503300701881877
Dimaggio, G., Semerari, A., Falcone, M., Nicolò, G., Carcione, A., and Procacci, M.
(2002). Metacognition, states of mind, cognitive biases and interpersonal cycles.
Proposal for an integratedmodel of narcissism. J. Psychother. Integr. 12, 421–451.
doi:10.1037/1053-0479.12.4.421
Dimaggio, G., Valeri, S., Ottavi, P., Popolo, R., Salvatore, G., and Montano, A.
(2014). Adopting metacognitive interpersonal therapy to treat narcissistic per-
sonality disorder with severe somatization. J Contemp Psychother 44, 85–95.
doi:10.1007/s10879-013-9254-8
Hascalovitz, A. C., and Obhi, S. S. (2015). Personality and intentional binding:
an exploratory study using the narcissistic personality inventory. Front. Hum.
Neurosci. 5:13. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00013
Kohut, H. (1971). The Analysis of the Self . New York, NY: International Universities
Press.
Links, P. S. (2015). Advancing psychotherapy integration for treatment of person-
ality disorders. J. Psychother. Integr. 25, 45–48. doi:10.1037/a0038777
Modell, A. H. (1984). Psychoanalysis in a New Context. New York, NY: International
Universities Press.
Pincus, A. L., Cain, N. M., and Wright, A. G. (2014). Narcissistic grandiosity
and narcissistic vulnerability in psychotherapy. Personal. Disord. 5, 439–443.
doi:10.1037/per0000031
Ronningstam, E. (2009). Narcissism personality disorder: facing DSM-V. Psychiatr.
Ann. 39, 111–121. doi:10.3928/00485713-20090301-09
Zeigler-Hill, V., Clark, C. B., and Pickard, J. D. (2008). Narcissistic subtypes and
contingent self-esteem: do all narcissists base their self-esteem on the same
domains? J. Pers. 76, 753–774. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00503.x
Zeigler-Hill, V., Fulton, J. J., and McLemore, C. (2011). The role of unstable self-
esteem in the appraisal of romantic relationships. Pers. Individ. Dif. 51, 51–56.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.009
Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was con-
ducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be
construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Copyright © 2015 Dimaggio and Lysaker. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, dis-
tribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s)
or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in
accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is
permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org June 2015 | Volume 9 | Article 3252


Commentary: â€œPersonality and Intentional Binding: An Exploratory Study Using the Narcissistic Personality Inventoryâ€

IUPUIScholarWorks

GENERAL COMMENTARYpublished: 03 June 2015doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00325Edited by:John J. Foxe,Albert Einstein College of Medicine,USAReviewed by:Marco Iacoboni,University of California Los Angeles,USAJennifer Vonk,Oakland University, USA*Correspondence:Giancarlo Dimaggiogdimaje@libero.itReceived: 15 April 2015Accepted: 21 May 2015Published: 03 June 2015Citation:Dimaggio G and Lysaker PH (2015)Commentary: “Personality andintentional binding: an exploratorystudy using the narcissisticpersonality inventory”.Front. Hum. Neurosci. 9:325.doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00325Commentary: “Personality andintentional binding: an exploratorystudy using the narcissisticpersonality inventory”Giancarlo Dimaggio1* and Paul H. Lysaker 2,31 Centro di Terapia Metacognitiva Interpersonale, Rome, Italy, 2 Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center (116H), Indianapolis,IN, USA, 3 Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USAKeywords: narcissism, agency, narcissistic personality disorder, vulnerable narcissism, personality disordersA commentary onPersonality and intentional binding: an exploratory study using the narcissistic personalityinventoryby Hascalovitz AC and Obhi SS. Front. Hum. Neurosci. (2015) 9:13. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00013Hascalovitz and Obhi (2015) examined whether narcissism was related to a disturbed sense ofagency. Using the construct of intentional binding, which is thought to be a core element of agency,they sought to determine whether the speed with which a voluntary action was perceived to have aconsequent effect differed according to levels of narcissism. They hypothesized that higher levels ofnarcissismwill predict hyper-agency or increased sense that one’s actions will have immediate effectson the world. Hascalovitz and Obhi note that this is consistent with observations that patients withnarcissistic personality disorder (NPD) often report that they feel in control of their environmentand tend to err on the side of an omnipotence, which they believe should result in admirationfrom others. Indeed, persons with NPD are often described as feeling entitled, and quick to takeimpulsive action if they are not perceived as they think they should, leading frequently to rupturesin relationships that previously appeared solid.Of note, there are many long-standing hypotheses about the potential relationship betweennarcissism and agency, which suggest a different view. Kohut (1971), for instance, observed that acore feature of NPD is a hidden sense of fundamental powerlessness, which involves being relativelyunable to influence others within the flow of life. Others have suggested that a lack of agency inNPD leads to a loss of touch with the person’s deepest wishes resulting in the experience of beingflat, devitalized, and empty (Modell, 1984; Dimaggio et al., 2002; Dimaggio andAttinà, 2012). This isconsistent with clinical reports that recovery fromNPD involves increased agency in domains otherthan social rank, such as creativity and playfulness (Dimaggio et al., 2015).How then can these results be reconciled with the larger literature? Even with the limitationsthat Hascalovitz and Obhi (2015) acknowledge prevent the generalizability of their study, theirfindings suggest that with narcissism comes a heightened sense of effectiveness and control overwillful action. One possibility suggested by clinical reports (Ronningstam, 2009; Links, 2015) is thatpersons with NPD alternate from hyper-agency to passivity and flatness. We would like to explorea different possibility, specifically one that distinguishes instrumental agency, or agency in dealingwith the non-personal world, from interpersonal agency or agency, which involves affecting howothers think and behave. In other words, perhaps these results help us to see that in narcissismthere is not merely an excess or deficit in agency but a paradox in which there are high levels ofinstrumental agency complimented by low levels of interpersonal agency.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org June 2015 | Volume 9 | Article 3251Dimaggio and Lysaker Narcissism and sense of agencyPersons with narcissism may have an initially high appraisalof their abilities to complete tasks effectively (Kohut, 1971), butthen they may doubt that others will share this view. Therefore,despite a kind of heightened intentional binding, they shouldexpect others will not properly admire their effectiveness andcontrol, leading back to reduction in their sense of agency gener-ated by over-reliance on the judgment of others and ending up inpassivity. Indeed, we can well imagine how then the narcissist feelsso painfully and deeply powerless. They alternate from perceivingthat they possess considerable abilities to affect the world ininstrumental ways, to the perception that others do not share thatview and then believe that the negative perceptions of other peoplecannot be affected. Thus, in narcissism, we hypothesize that theremay come a continuous oscillation between high instrumentalagency and low interpersonal agency. This would be consistentwith how relationships can be frustrating for patients with NPDand also how relationships can be so quickly and irreparablyruptured. Alternative ideas cannot be ruled out. For one, giventhe chance that two subtypes of narcissism likely exist (Zeigler-Hill et al., 2008), it is possible that the vulnerable subtype ismore closely linked to reduced agency, for example when fac-ing a romantic rejection which affects an already unstable self-esteem (Zeigler-Hill et al., 2011), while the grandiose type couldexperience hyper-agency.The possibility of a continuous oscillation between high instru-mental agency and low interpersonal agency may point to ques-tions for future research. For one, it would seem possible tomeasure both self-appraisal of personal effectiveness in instru-mental laboratory tasks and also the extent to which participantsthink others will agree with their appraisal of their abilities. Itwould also seem important to use tasks that involve appraisalsof real-life social outcomes. In addition, there may be an evenmore nuanced set of relationships at play. As observed in session,persons with narcissism can experience rapid shifts in their statesof mind (Dimaggio et al., 2008) as determined by interpersonalevents. It has been suggested (Kohut, 1971; Ronningstam, 2009;Dimaggio et al., 2014; Pincus et al., 2014) that swings betweenan inflated sense of personal worth and a sense of virtual non-existence and failure largely depend on the presence of supportand admiration from the environment. Thus, a lack of interper-sonal agency may result in changes in self-appraisal of instru-mental agency. This suggests that laboratory tasks seeking tomeasure agency in narcissism requires appropriate priming. Onehypothesis is that after having been primed with experiencesof social or romantic rejection, narcissistic-related oscillationsin the sense of agency for instrumental tasks would appear.After social rejection, for example some high in grandiose nar-cissism may experiment increased sense of agency, while thosewith vulnerable narcissism may resemble the profile of personswith depression or low self-esteem and experience diminishedagency.Finally, a range of other questions also exist including whetherwhat hyper-agency observed here is a function of just having apersonality disorder in general or specific to this one kind ofphenomenon. Work is thus needed, for example, with patientswith dependent or avoidant traits (Dimaggio et al., 2015). Asthere may be different forms of narcissism, work is needed todetermine whether agency is affected in similar ways in differentmanifestations of the condition or even more closely linked tosome aspects of narcissism than others.ReferencesDimaggio, G., and Attinà, G. (2012). Metacognitive interpersonal therapy for nar-cissistic personality disorders with perfectionistic features: the case of Leonardo.J. Clin. Psychol. 68, 922–934. doi:10.1002/jclp.21896Dimaggio, G., Montano, A., Popolo, R., and Salvatore, G. (2015). MetacognitiveInterpersonal Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Treatment Manual. London:Routledge.Dimaggio, G., Nicolò, G., Fiore, R., Pedone, R., Popolo, R., Centenero, E., et al.(2008). States of minds in narcissistic personality disorder. Three psychotherapypatients analysed through the grid of problematic states. Psychother. Res. 18,466–480. doi:10.1080/10503300701881877Dimaggio, G., Semerari, A., Falcone, M., Nicolò, G., Carcione, A., and Procacci, M.(2002). Metacognition, states of mind, cognitive biases and interpersonal cycles.Proposal for an integratedmodel of narcissism. J. Psychother. Integr. 12, 421–451.doi:10.1037/1053-0479.12.4.421Dimaggio, G., Valeri, S., Ottavi, P., Popolo, R., Salvatore, G., and Montano, A.(2014). Adopting metacognitive interpersonal therapy to treat narcissistic per-sonality disorder with severe somatization. J Contemp Psychother 44, 85–95.doi:10.1007/s10879-013-9254-8Hascalovitz, A. C., and Obhi, S. S. (2015). Personality and intentional binding:an exploratory study using the narcissistic personality inventory. Front. Hum.Neurosci. 5:13. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00013Kohut, H. (1971). The Analysis of the Self . New York, NY: International UniversitiesPress.Links, P. S. (2015). Advancing psychotherapy integration for treatment of person-ality disorders. J. Psychother. Integr. 25, 45–48. doi:10.1037/a0038777Modell, A. H. (1984). Psychoanalysis in a New Context. New York, NY: InternationalUniversities Press.Pincus, A. L., Cain, N. M., and Wright, A. G. (2014). Narcissistic grandiosityand narcissistic vulnerability in psychotherapy. Personal. Disord. 5, 439–443.doi:10.1037/per0000031Ronningstam, E. (2009). Narcissism personality disorder: facing DSM-V. Psychiatr.Ann. 39, 111–121. doi:10.3928/00485713-20090301-09Zeigler-Hill, V., Clark, C. B., and Pickard, J. D. (2008). Narcissistic subtypes andcontingent self-esteem: do all narcissists base their self-esteem on the samedomains? J. Pers. 76, 753–774. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00503.xZeigler-Hill, V., Fulton, J. J., and McLemore, C. (2011). The role of unstable self-esteem in the appraisal of romantic relationships. Pers. Individ. Dif. 51, 51–56.doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.03.009Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that the research was con-ducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could beconstrued as a potential conflict of interest.Copyright © 2015 Dimaggio and Lysaker. This is an open-access article distributedunder the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, dis-tribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s)or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, inaccordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction ispermitted which does not comply with these terms.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience | www.frontiersin.org June 2015 | Volume 9 | Article 3252