UNITED STATES
Charles Zeigers
Charles Zeiders, Psy.D.
86 West Eagle Road, Havertown, PA 19083
email: drzeiders@drzeiders.com
phone: 610-653-0151
To illustrate the phenomenon of malignant narcissism in church leadership, this article develops a composite profile of a malignant narcissist. The profile is rendered in the form of an excerpt from a “fictional” psychological autopsy. “Imagined” clinical material, all retrieved from public sources, woven into genuine psychological scholarship, offers a developmental narrative of the pathogenesis of a malignant narcissist embedded in a church culture. Following the “psychological autopsy,” The Journal of Christian Healing interviews the author, discussing pertinent issues. It is hoped that this article will enhance awareness of the manifestations of destructive leadership in religious life.
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Introduction
When a narcissistic cleric assumes church leadership, the matter is problematic. But, if the leader’s narcissism is malignant, the matter is catastrophic. Such a destructive cleric will injure not only his detractors but also his followers and himself. He will be charismatic and grandiose. He will offer infectious oratory, and he will gain followers. He will become the adored champion of a disaffected group looking for recognition in a world populated by “enemies.” He will employ convincing theological rationalizations to gratuitously and sadistically injure the enemies of his “divine” agenda. His followers will continue to buy in and love him. His grandiosity will delude him to think that Providence has vouchsafed him to be incapable of mistakes. Wildly overconfident, he will engage in criminal over-reach and demonstrate enraged paranoia when he is called to account. To preserve his legend and avoid accountability, he will blame former allies, run away, or commit suicide. If he commits suicide, he will depict his last destructive act as a kind of victory.
The recent preponderance of church scandals, crimes, cover-ups, and malfeasances necessitate a revisiting of the concept of malignant narcissism. While not listed in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), the construct offers utility in understanding the charismatic leader whose attractiveness is predicated on his apparent embodiment of the answer to the deep concerns of a beleaguered group. He grows in fame and influence, only to disappoint with criminal scandals, born of grandiosity and megalomania, run amok. Psychology’s great thinkers have concerned themselves with this characterological disease. After World War Two, the psychoanalyst Eric Fromm (1964) introduced the term “malignant narcissism.” He reserved the diagnosis for grandiose, charismatic leaders whose psychopathology accounts for a broad destructiveness that devours their enemies, their proponents, and even themselves. Online reference material (Malignant narcissism, in Wikipedia, 2016) elaborates that:
… Fromm first coined the term “malignant narcissism” in 1964, describing it as a … severe mental sickness … representing … the quintessence of evil … He characterized the condition as … the root of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity …
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