{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]],"date-time":"2026-02-16T07:20:01Z","timestamp":1771226401325,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]],"date-time":"2026-02-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771200000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012434","name":"Middle-aged and Young Teachers' Basic Ability Promotion Project of Guangxi","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012434","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Current paradigms for understanding Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)\u2014including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, and neuroscientific approaches\u2014offer valuable insights but remain fragmented. They largely fail to explain the deep motivational structure of narcissism, particularly the co-existence of grandiose and vulnerable subtypes and the disorder\u2019s profound resistance to treatment. This paper proposes an integrative meta-theoretical framework, the Existential Fracture model, to re-conceptualize NPD not merely as a cluster of symptoms but as a fundamental crisis of meaning arising from a systematic dissociation between primary lived experience and secondary symbolic representation. Drawing on Jaspers\u2019 phenomenological psychopathology and Heidegger\u2019s existential analytics, the model posits that narcissistic pathology originates from a collapse of ontological security and the individual\u2019s world-picture (Weltbild). In response to existential \u201cboundary situations\u201d (Grenzsituationen), such as the awareness of mortality, the individual constructs a rigid, performative \u201cidealized self\u201d as a defensive fantasy of special exemption. This paper further integrates the Buddhist critique of \u201cself-grasping\u201d (atma-graha) to illuminate the narcissistic attachment to a fictional self-entity and the instrumentalization of others. The analysis reveals that both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism represent divergent defensive strategies against the same core existential anxieties, rooted in a fractured relationship with time, death, and intersubjectivity. The clinical implications call for a paradigm shift from symptom correction to ontological transformation. Therapeutic practices informed by phenomenological reduction, death awareness meditation, and mindful non-attachment are proposed to facilitate the move from a performative existence to an authentic one by rebuilding the capacity for symbolic integration of primary experience. This theoretical synthesis provides a robust platform for future research and humane clinical intervention, bridging subjective meaning-making with objective clinical observation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1771661","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]],"date-time":"2026-02-16T06:38:46Z","timestamp":1771223926000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The existential fracture model: reconceptualizing narcissistic personality disorder through a phenomenological-existential lens"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Jian","family":"Sun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","article-title":"Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.)","year":"2013","DOI":"10.1176\/appi.books.9780890425596"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cpr.2007.09.006","article-title":"Narcissism at the crossroads: Phenotypic description of pathological narcissism across clinical theory, social-personality psychology, and psychiatric diagnosis","volume":"28","author":"Cain","year":"2008","journal-title":"Clin Psychol Rev"},{"key":"B3","article-title":"The narcissism spectrum model: A spectrum approach to conceptualizing narcissism","volume":"114","author":"Krizan","year":"2018","journal-title":"J Pers Soc Psychol"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/hum0000371","article-title":"Reconstructing a narcissistically dehumanized self: Cinema therapy with the Dexter series","volume":"53","author":"Santarpia","year":"2025","journal-title":"Humanistic Psychol"},{"key":"B5","volume-title":"The analysis of the self","author":"Kohut","year":"1971"},{"key":"B6","volume-title":"Severe personality disorders: Psychotherapeutic strategies","author":"Kernberg","year":"1984"},{"key":"B7","volume-title":"Personality disorders in biopsychosocial perspective","author":"Beck","year":"1990"},{"key":"B8","volume-title":"Schema therapy: A practitioner\u2019s guide","author":"Young","year":"2003"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn3027","article-title":"Neural mechanisms of the cognitive model of depression","volume":"12","author":"Disner","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nature Reviews Neuroscience"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1000446107","article-title":"Resting-state functional MRI in depression unmasks increased connectivity between networks via the dorsal nexus","volume":"107","author":"Sheline","year":"2010","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"},{"key":"B11","volume-title":"Allgemeine psychopathologie","author":"Jaspers","year":"1913"},{"key":"B12","first-page":"67","article-title":"On narcissism: An introduction","volume-title":"The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud","author":"Freud","year":"1957"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1037\/14041-006","article-title":"The pathological narcissism inventory","volume-title":"Understanding and treating pathological narcissism","author":"Pincus","year":"2013"},{"key":"B14","volume-title":"Impasse and interpretation: Therapeutic and anti-therapeutic factors in the psychoanalytic treatment of psychotic, borderline, and neurotic patients","author":"Rosenfeld","year":"1987"},{"key":"B15","volume-title":"Cognitive therapy of personality disorders","author":"Beck","year":"2015"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"28","DOI":"10.5840\/monist19735738","article-title":"Narcissism and philosophy","volume":"17","author":"Bartlett","year":"2011","journal-title":"Modern psychol Stud"},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4613-9564-5_10","article-title":"The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory","volume-title":"Public self and private self","author":"Greenberg","year":"1986"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpsychires.2013.05.017","article-title":"Gray matter abnormalities in patients with narcissistic personality disorder","volume":"47","author":"Schulze","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of Psychiatric Research"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-662-05505-2","volume-title":"Psychologie der weltanschauungen","author":"Jaspers","year":"1919"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10746-024-09712-x","article-title":"Affect disorders: A Husserlian interpretation of alexithymia, BPD and narcissistic traits","volume":"47","author":"Ferrarello","year":"2024","journal-title":"Hum Stud"},{"key":"B21","volume-title":"Being and time","author":"Heidegger","year":"1962"},{"key":"B22","article-title":"Being and time (J. 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