{"schema":"https://ver.cy/schemas/card/1.0.0","id":"vr.tr.narcissistic-injury","code":"thing-q6965646","url":"https://ver.cy/models/thing/q6965646/","name":"narcissistic injury","alternateNames":[],"kind":"thing","status":"published","version":"0.1.0-research.1","language":"en","classifiers":{"family":"Thing Registry","category":"Activities and processes","entryKind":"thing","plane":"ACT","domain":["ACT.ACT"],"industry":[],"navPath":"","tags":[],"facets":{}},"whatItIs":"Narcissistic injury is a psychoanalytic concept describing a perceived blow to self-esteem, self-worth, or an idealized self-image, whose meaning and consequences are interpreted differently across theories of narcissism.","purpose":"Help an agent recognise and cautiously evaluate a proposed narcissistic injury by recording the threatened self-regard, supporting evidence, competing interpretations, subsequent course and appropriate responses.","scope":{"in":["Definitions of narcissistic injury and the theoretical commitments that distinguish them","Actual, anticipated or remembered events experienced as threats to self-regard","The personal meaning of criticism, rejection, failure, humiliation or loss of recognition","Evidence for an episode, including uncertainty and alternative explanations","Emotional and behavioural responses, recovery and relational consequences","Limits on inference and actions justified by the observed episode"],"out":["Diagnosis and comprehensive modelling of narcissistic personality disorder","Stable narcissistic traits or personality organisation beyond their relevance to an episode","Shame, anger or humiliation without an established connection to threatened self-regard","Independent assessment and treatment of trauma-related disorders","Comprehensive models of abuse, coercive control, aggression or violence","Physical injury and neurological impairment"],"boundaries":[]},"distinguishingFeatures":["An event is a candidate precipitant only when evidence connects it to threatened self-regard or self-cohesion; criticism alone does not establish an injury.","The record separates disappointment about an outcome from an experienced implication about personal worth, identity or standing.","The injury is distinguished from its response: anger, withdrawal or reassurance seeking may follow but cannot independently establish the construct.","An episode-level interpretation does not establish narcissistic personality disorder or a stable narcissistic trait.","The record identifies whether 'injury' means an acute experience or a proposed enduring developmental wound, rather than silently treating those uses as equivalent."],"structure":{"bundles":[{"id":"meaning-and-theoretical-boundaries","name":"Meaning and theoretical boundaries","description":"Establish what narcissistic injury means in the account being modelled.","layers":[{"id":"framework-specific-meaning","name":"Framework-specific meaning","description":"Identify the school, author or speaker supplying the interpretation.","findings":[{"id":"self-cohesion-and-self-regard","name":"Self-cohesion and self-regard","description":"Self-psychological accounts can frame vulnerability through failures of mirroring and effects on the sense of self; this is a theory-specific explanation, not an established history for every episode. [Narcissistic vulnerability and the fragile self](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3801340/).","questions":[{"text":"Who defines this episode as narcissistic injury, and which theoretical account do they use?","id":"self-cohesion-and-self-regard-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Does injury here mean wounded self-esteem, disrupted self-cohesion, frustrated grandiosity or another specified experience?","id":"self-cohesion-and-self-regard-q02","kind":"definition"}]}]},{"id":"episode-versus-enduring-condition","name":"Episode versus enduring condition","description":"Keep acute experience separate from trait, diagnosis and developmental explanation.","findings":[{"id":"limits-of-the-label","name":"Limits of the label","description":"Require independent support for any claim about personality disorder, enduring vulnerability or childhood origins; the episode label supplies none by itself.","questions":[{"text":"Is the referent a particular episode, a recurrent pattern or a hypothesised developmental wound?","id":"limits-of-the-label-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Which claims about diagnosis or developmental history require evidence beyond this episode?","id":"limits-of-the-label-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"precipitant-and-personal-meaning","name":"Precipitant and personal meaning","description":"Connect the event to the aspect of self that the person experienced as threatened.","layers":[{"id":"event-and-audience","name":"Event and audience","description":"Record the precipitating interaction and the social setting in which it occurred.","findings":[{"id":"precipitant-is-not-injury","name":"Precipitant is not injury","description":"Record criticism, exclusion, failure or lost recognition as candidate triggers while preserving uncertainty about their subjective effect and the other party's intent.","questions":[{"text":"What was said or done, by whom, and was it experienced directly, anticipated or remembered?","id":"precipitant-is-not-injury-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What evidence shows whether the audience, relationship or public exposure mattered to the experience?","id":"precipitant-is-not-injury-q02","kind":"measurement"}]}]},{"id":"threatened-self-investment","name":"Threatened self-investment","description":"Capture the bridge between the event and its implication for personal worth.","findings":[{"id":"meaning-of-the-blow","name":"Meaning of the blow","description":"Record the person's account of what the event appeared to reveal or take away, distinguishing specific failure from global self-devaluation.","questions":[{"text":"Which valued identity, expectation of recognition or belief about personal worth felt threatened?","id":"meaning-of-the-blow-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"What supports interpreting the experience as a blow to self-regard rather than disappointment about the practical outcome?","id":"meaning-of-the-blow-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"evidence-and-operationalisation","name":"Evidence and operationalisation","description":"Make the interpretation inspectable without presenting it as a directly observed object.","layers":[{"id":"accounts-and-inferences","name":"Accounts and inferences","description":"Separate reports, observations and theoretical interpretations.","findings":[{"id":"attribution-with-provenance","name":"Attribution with provenance","description":"Attach each claim to its speaker, timing and evidence, retaining disagreement between the person's account and an observer's formulation.","questions":[{"text":"Which elements are first-person reports, observable actions or inferred motives?","id":"attribution-with-provenance-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What evidence would weaken or overturn the narcissistic-injury interpretation?","id":"attribution-with-provenance-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"measurement-without-proxy-substitution","name":"Measurement without proxy substitution","description":"Measure relevant components while keeping them distinct from the proposed construct.","findings":[{"id":"component-measures","name":"Component measures","description":"Record instruments and timing for distress, self-esteem, shame or anger when available; do not treat a component score or personality questionnaire as direct confirmation of an injury.","questions":[{"text":"What operational definition identifies an episode, and what evidence supports using it in this setting?","id":"component-measures-q01","kind":"measurement"},{"text":"Were changes measured against the person's baseline, and which alternative explanations remain compatible with them?","id":"component-measures-q02","kind":"measurement"}]}]}]},{"id":"responses-and-course","name":"Responses and course","description":"Represent what followed the proposed injury and how the experience changed.","layers":[{"id":"affect-and-behaviour","name":"Affect and behaviour","description":"Record emotional experience separately from outward action.","findings":[{"id":"rage-is-a-possible-response","name":"Rage is a possible response","description":"Self-psychological literature proposes different relations among shame, depletion, fragmentation and rage; these proposed mechanisms should remain attributed rather than universalised. [Narcissism: shame, rage and addiction](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8165267/).","questions":[{"text":"Which emotions were reported, and which actions were actually observed?","id":"rage-is-a-possible-response-q01","kind":"measurement"},{"text":"Is rage being documented as a response, or incorrectly used as the sole evidence that an injury occurred?","id":"rage-is-a-possible-response-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"persistence-and-recovery","name":"Persistence and recovery","description":"Track recurrence, rumination and restoration of ordinary functioning.","findings":[{"id":"recovery-beyond-outward-calm","name":"Recovery beyond outward calm","description":"Assess subjective distress and functioning over time rather than equating silence, renewed confidence or reconciliation with recovery.","questions":[{"text":"How long did the reported threat to self-regard persist, and what events reactivated it?","id":"recovery-beyond-outward-calm-q01","kind":"measurement"},{"text":"What person-reported and behavioural evidence supports improvement or continuing impairment?","id":"recovery-beyond-outward-calm-q02","kind":"measurement"}]}]}]},{"id":"response-and-relational-repair","name":"Response and relational repair","description":"Determine what an agent may responsibly do with an episode interpretation.","layers":[{"id":"clarification-and-support","name":"Clarification and support","description":"Use the formulation to support inquiry and proportionate assistance.","findings":[{"id":"collaborative-meaning-check","name":"Collaborative meaning check","description":"Offer the interpretation tentatively, invite correction and identify the person's immediate needs before proposing repair or further assessment.","questions":[{"text":"Does the person recognise the proposed meaning of the event, and what wording do they prefer?","id":"collaborative-meaning-check-q01","kind":"action"},{"text":"Would clarification, space, practical repair or professional assessment best address the expressed need and observed impact?","id":"collaborative-meaning-check-q02","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"accountability-and-inference-limits","name":"Accountability and inference limits","description":"Keep explanations of distress separate from judgments about conduct and danger.","findings":[{"id":"conduct-remains-independently-assessable","name":"Conduct remains independently assessable","description":"Evaluate threats, coercion and boundary violations on their own evidence; a proposed injury neither excuses harmful conduct nor establishes that harm will occur.","questions":[{"text":"Which concrete actions require a boundary or separate safety assessment regardless of the injury interpretation?","id":"conduct-remains-independently-assessable-q01","kind":"action"},{"text":"Could applying this label obscure justified hurt, actual mistreatment or the other party's accountability?","id":"conduct-remains-independently-assessable-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"evidence-and-external-alignment","name":"Evidence and external alignment","description":"What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.","layers":[{"id":"reported-evidence","name":"Reported evidence","description":"Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-confidence-notes","name":"Check these first","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these check these first hold for the sense of narcissistic injury this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-confidence-notes-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-real-world-use","name":"Real-world use","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of narcissistic injury this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-real-world-use-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards","name":"Failure modes and hazards","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of narcissistic injury this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-neighbours","name":"Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of narcissistic injury this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-neighbours-q01","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]}]},"agentConduct":{"may":["Explain the concept and how different psychoanalytic schools interpret it.","Point people to qualified mental health professionals."],"mustNot":["Diagnose a person with narcissism or a personality disorder.","Label a named public figure or acquaintance as narcissistic.","Use the concept to advise someone to stay in or excuse an abusive relationship."],"requiresHuman":["Responding to a person in emotional crisis, which should be passed to trained people."]},"ethics":{"considerations":["Pop-psychology labels such as narcissist stigmatize people and are used as insults.","People hurt by others' reactions deserve support, not armchair diagnosis."],"affectedParties":["People given psychiatric labels","People in difficult relationships"]},"owners":{"steward":"Nobody owns the concept; clinicians and theorists in psychoanalysis maintain it.","roles":[],"masterSystems":[]},"relations":[{"target":"Q1775767","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"}],"interaction":{"identity":{"applicability":"required","items":["Vercy registry: vr.tr.narcissistic-injury","Wikidata: Q6965646 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6965646)"]},"properties":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":["Interpretive framework: Classical psychoanalytic; self psychology; contemporary self-esteem regulation; colloquial; other specified; unresolved","Referent timescale: Acute episode; recurrent pattern; proposed developmental wound; unspecified","Precipitant and temporal status: Linked event classified as experienced, anticipated, remembered or uncertain","Threatened investment in self: Competence; lovability; moral worth; status; autonomy; bodily self-image; self-cohesion; other specified; unknown","Appraised meaning: Person's reported interpretation linked to the event, with observer interpretations recorded separately","Evidence standing: Person-reported; independently observed components; clinician-formulated; third-party conjecture; disputed; insufficient","Episode distress: Optional self-rated 0-10 distress with time and anchors recorded; descriptive only, not a diagnostic cutoff","Observed course: Ongoing; easing; recurring; reportedly resolved; unknown","Functional and relational impact: Documented changes in work, daily activity, self-care or relationships linked to the episode, with attribution uncertainty"]},"recognition":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":[]},"capabilities":{"applicability":"required","items":["Compare definitions and explicitly select or leave unresolved the framework used for an episode.","Reconstruct the sequence from precipitating event through personal meaning to response.","Record first-person accounts separately from observations and inferred mechanisms.","Evaluate competing explanations without diagnosing a person from a conflict.","Track distress, functioning and repair across an episode.","Suggest consent-based clarification, a pause in conflict or professional assessment according to expressed needs and observed impact."]},"hazards":{"applicability":"required","items":["Applying the label without sufficient evidence can stigmatize a person and misrepresent their distress.","Assuming that a perceived injury predicts aggression can encourage unjustified judgments about risk.","Relying on this interpretation alone can obscure other explanations for distress and delay appropriate support."]},"interfaces":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":[]},"context":{"applicability":"required","items":["Narcissistic injury is used in psychoanalytic discussion to interpret experiences that threaten a person's self-esteem or idealized self-image.","It may inform therapeutic exploration of reactions to criticism, rejection or humiliation, but the interpretation depends on the person's account and the theoretical framework.","The concept alone does not establish a psychiatric diagnosis."]}},"sources":[{"title":"Wikidata item Q6965646: narcissistic injury","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6965646","note":"identity and sense of the item"},{"title":"Wikipedia: Narcissistic injury","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_injury","note":"general description of the item"}],"openQuestions":["Which source-supported definitions most clearly distinguish acute narcissistic injury from ordinary wounded pride across psychoanalytic schools and contemporary research?","Is there a validated episode-specific operationalisation with discriminant validity against shame, rejection sensitivity and general self-esteem threat?","When should acute injury and a proposed developmental wound share a concept model, and when should they be represented as distinct related constructs?","How do cultural expectations about dignity, recognition and public criticism affect identification without making culturally normative distress appear pathological?","Which responses support recovery or relational repair specifically after narcissistic injury, beyond evidence concerning broader distress or personality difficulties?"],"resources":{"spec":"/models/things/publications/thing-q6965646/spec.json"},"provenance":{"origin":"thing registry research (pass 2)","builtFrom":["models/things/publications/thing-q6965646/spec.json"],"providers":["Codex"],"researchStatus":"unreviewed","generatedAt":"2026-09-12T11:30:51Z","builder":"tools/build_cards.py@1.0.0"},"completeness":{"sections":{"classifiers":"filled","whatItIs":"filled","purpose":"filled","distinguishingFeatures":"filled","structure":"filled","agentConduct":"filled","ethics":"filled","owners":"filled","relations":"filled","interaction.identity":"filled","interaction.properties":"not-applicable","interaction.recognition":"not-applicable","interaction.capabilities":"filled","interaction.hazards":"filled","interaction.interfaces":"not-applicable","interaction.context":"filled","sources":"filled"},"notes":{"_gate":"Published through the thing publication gate 1.0 on 2026-10-07T10:10:32+00:00: completeness 1.00; sense: Wikidata description; 2 live sources; review by codex: pass","interaction.properties":"Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.","interaction.interfaces":"No dedicated official classification or standard defines narcissistic injury as a standalone diagnosis.","interaction.recognition":"Narcissistic injury is an interpretive psychological concept without a distinctive visual appearance."},"score":1.0}}