Narcissist vs. Borderline On Autopilot: Depersonalization Derealization Disorder

Scroll down for symptoms of depersonalization and derealization

BPD: Intact reality testing; NPD not

BPD: Reaction to stress, substance abuse; NPD reaction to deficient supply, injury, and mortification

Disrupted integration of self-perceptions with sense of self (estrangement). BPD: situational and reactive; NPD: constant

Both: Watching oneself from a distance, as if in a movie

BPD: Out of body and mystical experiences; NPD not

Both: Auto-pilot (going through the motions, automatism, roboticism)

Both: Acting vs. observing (BPD’s bad object, NPD self-audiencing)

Both: Dream, fog (BPD trauma response; NPD fantasy defense)

Both: Body dysmorphia, detached from mirror image, organs, whole body (especially cerebral NPD)

BPD: Out of control speech or locomotion, ventriloquist’s dummy; NPD grandiosity defense

BPD: Alien or intrusive thoughts; NPD only after injury or mortification

Both: Memory retrieval issues, alien memories

Both: Numbed emotions (BPD intermittently and defensively, NPD all the time)

Both: Unfamiliarity or detachment from surroundings, people, objects, time (BPD after rejection; NPD at the devaluation-discard phase of shared fantasy).

NPD: Hypoemotionality plus unreality, unfamiliarity

From “Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: Past, Present, and Future”, 2023

“Depersonalization (DP) describes a disrupted integration of self- perceptions with the sense of self so that individuals experiencing depersonalization are in a subjective state of feeling estranged, detached, or disconnected from their own being.

The following are common descriptions of depersonalization experiences (Sierra & Berrios, 2000): feeling strange, as if not real or as if being cut off from the world; feeling as if parts of one’s own body do not belong to one¬self; having the feeling of being a ‘detached observer’ of oneself, including the feeling of being outside of one’s body or watching oneself from a distance; perceiving the body as very light, as if floating on air; perceiving one’s own voice as remote and unreal; feeling detached from autobiographical memories as if not having been involved in them; not feeling any affection towards family or close friends; feeling as if not in charge of movements, as if moving automatically or like a robot; perceiving one’s own image in the mirror as strange and unreal; feeling the need to touch oneself to make sure that one’s body is real and exists; feeling disconnected from one’s own thoughts and feelings.

Depersonalization is frequently accompanied by derealization (DR) – a sense of unfamiliarity, alteration or detach¬ment from one’s own surroundings, other people, and objects. The following are common descriptions of DR: seeing the surrounding as ‘flat’ or ‘lifeless’ as if looking at a picture; feeling detached from surroundings or perceiving them as unreal, as if there is a veil between the person and the outside world; impression that objects seem to look smaller or further away; experience of familiar places looking unfamiliar, as never seen before (Sierra & Berrios, 2000).

Notably, all the above experiences are “as if ” experiences, meaning that an individual with DP/ DR has intact reality testing; this point is crucial to the differentiation from psychosis.

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