Sam Vaknin
Israeli author (born 1961)
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Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin (Hebrew: שמואל "סם" ואקנין, born April 21, 1961) is an Israeli writer.
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April 21, 1961 (age 65)
Sam Vaknin | |
|---|---|
סם ואקנין | |
Vaknin in 2014 | |
| Born | Shmuel Vaknin April 21, 1961 (age 65) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Known for | Self-help material on psychology and personality disorders, in particular NPD. Work on chronons. |
| Spouse | Lidija Rangelovska |
| Website | narcissistic-abuse |
He is the author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited (1999), was the last editor-in-chief of the now-defunct political news website Global Politician, and runs a private website about narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).[1]
Early life and career
Born in Israel,[2] Vaknin was the eldest of five children born to Sephardi Jewish immigrants. His mother was from Turkey, and his father, a construction worker, was from Morocco. He was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces when he was 17.[3] In 1985, he was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a diagnosis which he initially rejected.[2]
In 1995, Vaknin was convicted of three counts of securities fraud in Israel for deceiving customers and thereafter engaging in stock manipulation. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and fined 50,000 shekels (about $14,000).[4][5] He was later paroled in 1996, having served 11 months in prison, and receiving a second diagnosis by a prison psychiatrist of NPD, which he accepted.[1][3][2]
Writing and media work
After his release from prison, he moved to Macedonia, becoming a writer and commentator on NPD. He has claimed to be an expert on NPD, publishing a series of books, videos, and web pages on the disorder.[3][6][7] He also wrote and consulted on foreign relations and international business for a number of years after his release,[1][8][9] at one point advising Macedonian politician Nikola Gruevski, who later became Prime Minister.[10][11][12][13]
His work has been publicly successful, gathering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of internet followers.[2][14] He has also lectured at Southern Federal University and South East European University.[15][16] Although Vaknin has been regarded as one of the most influential popular authors on NPD since the 1990s,[2][3] he does not hold any qualifications in psychology.[14]
He has appeared in a number of documentaries.[6][17][18][19] In 2009, he was the subject of the Australian documentary, I, Psychopath,[20] directed by Ian Walker, where he underwent a psychiatric assessment and was found to be a psychopath. In the documentary, Vaknin confessed that he wished to be a psychopath, in part out of financial gain, and engaged in bullying and coercion of the director and documentary staff.[6][21][22]
Views
Vaknin's views on narcissism are idiosyncratic and controversial.[2][6][23][24] He has claimed that narcissists are not human and that NPD is a result of childhood trauma,[3][14][25] advocating for a form of psychotherapy he self-developed known as 'Cold Therapy'.[26] He believes that former president Barack Obama is a narcissist.[27][28]
Personal life
Vaknin claims that he has an abusive childhood, which led to the development of his NPD.[3] He also claims to have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and schizoid personality disorder, attributing the failure of his personal relationships and financial career to NPD.[2][29] He is married.[3]
Selected publications
- Requesting my Loved One (Bakasha me-Isha Ahuva) published by Yedioth Aharonot Miskal, Tel-Aviv, 1997[33]
- (with Nikola Gruevski) Macedonian Economy on a Crossroads. Skopje, NIP Noval Literatura, 1998. ISBN 9989-610-01-0[34]
- Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited. Narcissus Publications, Prague, 1999. ISBN 978-80-238-3384-3
- After the Rain: How the West Lost the East. Narcissus Publications, in association with Central Europe Review/CEENMI, 2000. ISBN 80-238-5173-X[35]