Grandiosity, splitting, and sadism are coping mechanisms for dealing with internalized feelings of inferiority. In the case you describe, the extremist who happens to have Asperger's syndrome hypothetically has reacted to being slighted and attacked by developing a narcissistic character. Narcissists split the world into two parts: the idealized good (the self and those the ego identifies with) and the devalued bad external object. The narcissist holds a repressed anger against others that he or she projects onto the devalued others to avoid recognizing such unpleasant feelings actually originate in the self. Since the narcissist experiences these external objects as contemptible, he or she can feel superior in comparison, even eliciting such nods to their grandiosity through their veneer of friendliness and high achievement.
When the narcissist's grandiosity defense fails to ward off feelings of inadequacy through personal failure or lack of social recognition, he or she may regress to using even more maladaptive coping mechanisms. One possibility is sadism. The sadist will actively pursue opportunities to brutalize or humiliate the devalued others to achieve a feeling of power over them and restore the reflection of their grandiose image. Some sadists quite literally get off on having control over others—even the godlike power of life and death over their victims (see lust murder). Sadists will reenact previous psychological trauma with roles reversed, "punishing" the person who harmed them, in some extremely personality disordered sense.
The lack of regard AlexUK mentioned is a classic sign of the narcissist's lack of empathy; the aloofness he mentions is a devaluation and rejection of others. Of course, the extreme version of pathological narcissism coupled with overall poor self-control is the personality disorder of psychopathy.
23 Mar 2006, 7:32 pm
