Agency and Communion in Grandiose Narcissism

Gebauer and Sedikides examine the role of agency and communion in grandiose narcissism. Global self-evaluations constitute their starting point. Global self-evaluations (e.g., self-esteem, self-enhancement, humility) can typically be characterized along the agency-communion dimensions. However, one global self-evaluation, grandiose narcissism, has long been thought of as the exception to this empirical rule. In particular, the classic view of grandiose narcissism describes it as inherently agentic and considers a communal counterpart oxymoronic. This chapter summarizes theoretical and empirical evidence that grandiose narcissism, too, can be characterized along the agency-communion dimensions. From a theoretical standpoint, the chapter summarizes the agency-communion model of grandiose narcissism in its revised, minimalist form. From an empirical standpoint, the chapter summarizes the evidence for the model's six validity criteria. The chapter concludes that grandiose narcissism is not an exception to the above-mentioned empirical rule. Agentic narcissism and communal narcissism are both for real.