MDMA for narcissism? 5 Questions for psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Alexa Albert | Hacker News Reader

MDMA for narcissism? 5 Questions for psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Alexa Albert

themicrodose.substack.com

9 pointscainxinth6 comments

I can tell you from many years of experience.

You start handing out the disco biscuits (MDMA) at your hard house or trance club to the local narcissist. I can confidently assure you, he will be as loved up as the next man.

He will get in touch with the empathy and love he thought he never had.

he will most likely be snogging his mate, the local Borderline or Histrionic as soon as his eyes start rolling.

I'm pro MDMA for use in therapy. After all it was originally used in therapy for couples.

A few things that jump out:

1) This over all seems like an advertisement piece wrapped up as an FAQ.

2) The definition of narcissism here is so loose and encompassing so many things it makes me wonder if these people can actually distinguish various pathologies. I’d opt to re-categorize especially because terms like narcissism, empathy, psychopath etc are in vogue but given their definitions it’s a day that ends with ‘y’.

3) I’d like to sincerely know the scientific backing of the education that these positions hold, in particular because while I’m okay with a certain level of hypothesizing, getting people hooked on drugs because it can cure anything from grandiosity to childhood neglect is not something I’m ready to accept at face value. I want to see how do they determine conditions, origins, and treatments.

> getting people hooked on drugs

This is the wrong kind of drug war-esque statement to apply to substances like this, given its profile and overall potential. People don't get "hooked" on MDMA.

This is a culture of a country that encourages rampant drug use as a solution to all sorts of problems. It does not surprise me they want to fix deep seated childhood trauma issues by putting someone on molly.

It’s ridiculous. If there was a “drug war” it’s been lost, and big pharma won by a landslide.

Big pharma was never the target of the war on drugs. Therapy using MDMA is proven to be effective for a lot of mental health issues, focusing on PTSD. Narcissism seems to stem from a different kind of trauma persistent through childhood which seems like a good fit for MDMA therapy. Emphasis on therapy, this is not like prescribing amphetamines for ADHD when you are expected to take them forever to treat symptoms which seems like you would be against. The point of this is to make therapy more effective not use the drug forever to treat the symptoms.

While not a narcissist, MDMA helped me with some things even if I used with other intentions in mind and it bringed some other stuff that I had to deal later with.

Just an anecdote that seems interesting. I knew a girl that every time she took MDMA in a party setting freaked out because she started to notice, the first time in months, all the selfish shit she had been doing till that point. And I mean stealing from her current boyfriend, lying to her parents so they gave her more money to buy things she didn't need (while being themselves pretty tight on money) and more.

She was diagnosed with really intense ADHD and CPTSD and I suspect she may have autistic traits and maybe narcissism as well, masked by all the other things, but I'm not a doctor.

You don't understand the potential of MDMA. Used in the right way, it is not a party drug.

I've seen, more than once, a single dose solve intractable problems. When I say this I mean: I've seen medical miracles first hand. Its real, and should absolutely not be grouped together with big pharma or anything else, where profit ultimately drives outcomes, not healing the patient. (There's very little profit incentive here due to its effectiveness.)

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