Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin (; born April 21, 1961) is an Israeli writer and professor of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
and
business studies
Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource manageme ...
. He is the author of ''Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited'' (1999), an
IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of la ...
and
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
affairs consultant for several
nation states
A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the State (polity), state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly ...
, he also was the last
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...
of the now-defunct political news website '' Global Politician'', and runs a private website with content about psychological themes such as
narcissistic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of grandiosity, exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathy, empathize w ...
(NPD),
psychopathy
Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity ...
,
abuse
Abuse is the act of improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, ...
, victimization by stalkers, as well as other topics such as
philosophical
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
sociopolitical
Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how p ...
and
economic
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
issues. His views have been solicited by the media.
He has also postulated a theory on chronons and time asymmetry.
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, the eldest of five children born to Sephardi Jewish immigrants. Vaknin's mother was from
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, and his father, a construction worker, was from
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
. He describes a difficult childhood, in which he writes that his parents "were ill-equipped to deal with normal children, let alone the gifted".
He left home to serve in the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
from 1979 to 1982 in training and education units. Between 1980 and 1983 he founded a chain of computerized information kiosks in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, and
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
In the mid-1980s, he became aware of difficulties in his relationship with his fiancée, and that he had mood swings. In 1985 he sought help from a
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
, who diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Vaknin did not accept the diagnosis.
From 1986 to 1987, he was the general manager of IPE Ltd. in London. He moved back to Israel, where he became director of an Israeli investment firm, Mikbatz Teshua. He was also president of the Israeli chapter of the
Unification Church
The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...
's Professors for World Peace Academy.
Arrest and imprisonment
In Israel, in 1995, he was found guilty on three counts of
securities fraud
Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information.shekels (about $14,000), while the company was fined 100,000 shekels. In 1996, as a condition of parole, he agreed to a mental health evaluation, which noted various
personality disorder
Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. ...
s. According to Vaknin: "I was borderline, schizoid, but the most dominant was NPD," and on this occasion he accepted the diagnosis, because, he wrote, "it was a relief to know what I had."
Later life
Vaknin moved to
Skopje
Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...
,
Republic of Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
(now North Macedonia), where he married Macedonian Lidija Rangelovska. They set up Narcissus Publications in 1997, which publishes Vaknin's work.Vaknin, Sam "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" samvak.tripod.com, accessed October 30, 2010. Between 2001 and 2003, Vaknin was a Senior Business Correspondent for
United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
. He has also written for '' Central Europe Review'' about political issues in the Balkans, as well as for the '' Middle East Times''. Until a few weeks before the September 2002 Macedonian election, he served as an adviser to Macedonia's Ministry of Finance. He writes regularly for other publications, such as the International Analyst Network, ''Brussels Morning'', and the online ''American Chronicle''.
Vaknin was a visiting professor at Southern Federal University in
Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblastʹ, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
in 2017–22 holding a course of lectures there on
personality theory
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that examines personality and its variation among individuals. It aims to show how people are individually different due to psychological forces. Its areas of focus include:
* Describing what per ...
. He is also a professor of management and a professor of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
in the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS) in Nigeria, Canada and the United Kingdom. He is a visiting professor of psychology and
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
in
South East European University
South East European University (SEEU), informally also known as the Max van der Stoel University, is a private-public nonprofit higher education institution. It was established upon initiative of OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minoriti ...
in North Macedonia.
Vaknin served as a founding member of the Steering Committee for the Advancement of Healthcare in the
Republic of North Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
between 2009-2011. Vaknin is a member of the Board of Advisors of CFACT Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow.
Vaknin and his wife, Lidija Rangelovska, established in 2024 the Vaknin-Rangelovska Foundation which distributes grants to further the study of Vaknin's work in psychology, economics, and physics.
Work in psychology
Views on narcissism
True self and false self
In his view, narcissists have lost their "
true self
The true self (also known as real self, authentic self, original self and vulnerable self) and the false self (also known as fake self, idealized self, superficial self and pseudo self) are a psychological property dualism, dualism conceptualized ...
", the core of their personality, which has been replaced by delusions of grandeur, a " false self". Therefore, he believes, they cannot be healed, because they do not exist as real persons, only as reflections: "The False Self replaces the narcissist's True Self and is intended to shield him from hurt and narcissistic injury by self-imputing
omnipotence
Omnipotence is the property of possessing maximal power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as ...
… The narcissist pretends that his False Self is real and demands that others affirm this
confabulation
Confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage (especially aneurysm in the anterior com ...
." The false self is, according to him, an unreal facade or cover that a narcissist shows to the world which involves what the narcissist intends to be seen as - powerful, elegant, smart, wealthy, or well-connected. This false self is subsequently projected to elicit a constant stream of attention or narcissistic supply from others, which may consist of reactions to this projected false self.
Narcissistic supply
Vaknin extends the concept of narcissistic supply and introduces concepts such as primary and secondary narcissistic supply. Both positive attention and negative attention ("sadistic supply") can serve as narcissistic supply.
''Primary narcissistic supply'' is based on attention in both its public forms such as recognition, fame,
infamy
Infamy is notoriety gained from actions considered dangerous, disrespectful, immoral, unethical, or otherwise perceived in a negative manner. An infamous person or organization is one considered to have said or done something that provokes publ ...
, stardom, and its private, more interpersonal, types of praise, admiration, applause,
fear
Fear is an unpleasant emotion that arises in response to perception, perceived dangers or threats. Fear causes physiological and psychological changes. It may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the ...
, and repulsion. Primary narcissistic supply represents attention of any kind–positive or negative. Appearances qualify more than the content; it is not the truth that matters, but their perception of it. Therefore, as long as they receive the expected reaction or attention that they had projected through their false self, the connotation attached to it is inconsequential.
''Secondary narcissistic supply'' refers to the reinforcement a narcissist derives from projecting an image of success, security, and social acceptability. This includes financial stability,
upward mobility
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...
, and the perception of living a fulfilling life. Sources of secondary narcissistic supply may include having a partner, owning significant property, engaging in creative pursuits, running a business, experiencing a sense of personal freedom, belonging to a community, achieving professional recognition, displaying wealth, or otherwise signaling status.
''Triggers'' of narcissistic supply are stimuli that provoke sources into providing validation, reinforcing the narcissist’s False Self. Publicity—whether through fame, notoriety, or
infamy
Infamy is notoriety gained from actions considered dangerous, disrespectful, immoral, unethical, or otherwise perceived in a negative manner. An infamous person or organization is one considered to have said or done something that provokes publ ...
—is a key trigger, as it compels others to pay attention, thereby fueling the narcissist’s need for recognition. Other triggers include an air of mystery, sexual validation, and proximity to power, whether political, financial, military, or spiritual. Narcissists actively seek out these triggers through self-promotion, creative endeavors, or provocative actions, ensuring a continuous flow of attention. Since both admiration and hostility serve as validation, they may embrace controversy or infamy as readily as praise, prioritizing perception over reality.
Cerebral and somatic narcissism
He distinguishes between cerebral and somatic narcissists; the former generate their narcissistic supply by applying their minds, the latter their bodies. According to Vaknin, cerebral narcissists display their intellectual abilities and knowledge ostentatiously, while giving their bodies little importance, often to the point of the body being utterly devalued. Somatic narcissists, on the other hand, focus on areas related to the body, such as appearance and sexual abilities. Attention and sexual conquest are in his view the narcissistic supply which upholds the cerebral narcissist's favorable body-image. However, Vaknin claims that narcissists switch between these two modes of acquiring narcissistic supply, particularly as a result of threat or damage to the erstwhile mode. He considers himself a cerebral narcissist.
Other work, views and postulations
Vaknin suggests that narcissists and their intimate partners regard each other as introjected, idealized maternal figures ("snapshotting") in a shared fantasy and attempt to re-enact early childhood dynamics in their relationships, in what he dubs a "dual mothership". He believes that disproportionate numbers of pathological narcissists are at work in the most influential reaches of society, such as medicine, finance and politics as a manifestation of growing collective narcissism. He observes that narcissists possess "cold empathy" (
cognitive
Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
and reflexive).
He calls narcissistic co-dependents "inverted narcissists." " heyprovide the narcissist with an obsequious, unthreatening audience… the perfect backdrop." He postulated the existence of a type of narcissistic borderline he dubbed covert borderline.
In 2022, Vaknin proposed a theory of psychodynamics, Intrapsychic Activation Model (IPAM), which involves self-states that trigger constructs and introjects and are reactive to stimuli emanating from both the internal and the external changing environments.
Vaknin developed a new treatment modality for narcissism and depression, dubbed "Cold Therapy". It is based on recasting pathological narcissism as a form of CPTSD (Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) and arrested development, which result in an addictive personality with a dysfunctional attachment style. The therapy uses re-traumatization and a form of reframing.
Work on chronons and time asymmetry
A model of quantised time was proposed by Vaknin in his 1982 Ph.D. dissertation, titled "Time Asymmetry Revisited".Pacific Western University, available on Microfiche in UMI and from the Library of Congress http://lccn.loc.gov/85133690 The dissertation was published by Pacific Western University (California). The dissertation submitted postulates the existence of a particle ( chronon). In the proposed theory, time is the result of the interaction of chronons, very much as other forces in nature are the result of other particle interactions. Vaknin postulates the existence of various time
quarks
A quark () is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei. All commonly o ...
(up, down, colors, etc.) whose properties cancel each other and thus the arrow of time is derived (time asymmetry). The postulated particle (chronon) is not only an ideal clock, but also mediates time itself (analogous to the relationship between the
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field,
one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...
and mass). In other words, what we call "time" is the interaction between chronons in a field. Chronons exchange between them a particle and thereby exert a force. "Events" are perturbations in the Time Field and they are distinct from chronon interactions. Chronon interactions (particle exchanges) in the Time Field generate "time" and "time asymmetry" as we observe them.
Film appearances
* In 2007, Vaknin appeared in the episode " Egomania" of the British Channel 4 documentary series ''Mania''.
* In 2009, he was the subject of an Australian documentary film, ''I, Psychopath'', directed by Ian Walker. In the movie, Vaknin underwent a psychological evaluation in which he met the criteria for psychopathy according to the
Hare Psychopathy Checklist
The Psychopathy Checklist or Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, now the Psychopathy Checklist—revised (PCL-R), is a psychological assessment tool that is commonly used to assess the presence and extent of psychopathy in individuals—most of ...
, but did not meet the criteria for narcissism.
* In 2016, Vaknin appeared in the documentary ''How Narcissists Took Over the World'' produced by
Vice Media
Vice Media Group LLC is a Canadian-American digital media and broadcasting company. Vice Media encompasses four main business areas: Vice Studios Group (film and TV production); Vice TV (a joint venture with A&E Networks, also known as Vicelan ...
.
* In 2019, Vaknin appeared in the online documentary ''Plugged-in: The True Toxicity of Social Media Revealed'' produced by Richard Grannon.
Selected publications
* ''Requesting my Loved One'' (Bakasha me-Isha Ahuva) published by Yedioth Aharonot Miskal, Tel-Aviv, 1997
* (with
Nikola Gruevski
Nikola Gruevski (, pronounced ; born 31 August 1970) is a former Macedonian politician who served as Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 until his resignation, which was caused by the 2016 Macedonian protests, ...
) ''Macedonian Economy on a Crossroads''. Skopje, NIP Noval Literatura, 1998.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
books by Sam Vaknin /ref>
*''Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited''. Narcissus Publications, Prague, 1999.
*''After the Rain: How the West Lost the East''. Narcissus Publications, in association with Central Europe Review/CEENMI, 2000. Accessed December 22, 2020