Cascading constraints: The role of early developmental deficits in the formation of personality styles

Defining the subclinical personality styles and the longitudinal coherence of the personality constructs of psychopathy and narcissism is a necessary prelude to discussing component processes that constellate to make up the signature personality dispositions. I then profile the descriptive similarities of the dark triad (Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism). Despite the dark triad's shared moments of difficulty in a developmental trajectory outlined briefly, it is likely that the milestones are differently negotiated. I take as case study, in dynamic systems terms, the differing development of empathy deficits in psychopathic and narcissistic personality styles. The unusual neuro-cognitive profiles of psychopathy reveal early affective and motivational deficits which impact upon empathy development, while profiling narcissism reveals a failure to differentiate self and other, and an inability to integrate a sense of self which spans abilities admired by others as well as an inherent sense of self worth. Experience consolidates and renders accessible emotion-cognition-action sequences. Such 'attractors' are stable, recurrent or resilient states in which systems, like these personality styles outlined, tend to get stuck, though they may be highly maladaptive 'solutions' to environmental challenges. Importantly for this chapter, the set of attractors or 'preferred solutions' that can arise is not infinite, but is constrained by organismic variables and by child-environment interactions. These constraints have cascading, knock-on effects for further development. Such detailed understanding is relevant to intervention, treatment as well as real-time prediction of the actions and experiences of these personality styles.