“Highly sensitive” people are people who have an increased sensitivity to sensory stimulation and are more easily overwhelmed by stimuli. While society ignorantly believe this is a positive trait as it does allow the person to have some unique abilities, ultimately this personality give the highly sensitive person lots of maladaptive behaviors and emotional regulations, including getting in the way of their own personal growth.
It is also found that highly sensitive people, one way or another, develop an attitude of feeling they are special and deserve special treatment. This brings them also into the category of narcissism, entitlement and self-importance. A feature of narcissism is vulnerable (hypersensitive) narcissism, where such person, like those who are “highly sensitive,” also are sensitive to external stimuli.
In a study published in Journal of Clinical Psychology, researchers explored the overlap between people who are highly sensitive and hypersensitive narcissism. For their study, they recruited 280 adults from Germany and 210 from the United Kingdom. Participants completed online questionnaires that assessed personality characteristics and psychological and somatic symptoms. Questionnaires also included the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS)., Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, and the Brief Pathological Narcissism Inventory (B-PNI).
The results showed high positive correlation between hypersensitivity and vulnerable narcissism, and this was especially evident when it comes to entitlement.
Furthermore, researchers found that overall HSPS scores were tied to vulnerable-based entitlement, include ease of excitation and low sensory threshold factors, leading to the authors conclusion, “This likely indicates that highly sensitive individuals, to some extent, hold an attitude of ‘I am fragile, so I deserve to avoid any discomfort’, similar to those who display hypersensitive narcissism.”
The also found hypersensitivity and narcissism were both highyl tied to neuroticism and introversion, with the neuroticism. being main link between hypersensitivity and narcissism leading to greater symptoms of psychological distress.
The authors do point out that hypersensitivity and narcissism are not the same thing but they share significant overlaps that ultimately becomes a hinderance to one’s personal growth.
While it is important to acknowledge the importance of being sensitive to the needs and feelings of others in addition to your own, being hypersensitive and hyper reactive to everything is from a source of narcissism.
If you’re hypersensitive, you’re probably upset because you’re being called a narcissist, therefore you’re a narcissist because it is hurting your ego in being a hypersensitive.
So don’t be so sensitive. Develop a skill to assess situations and view issues from other possible point of views and respond accordingly.
E Jauk et al. “Do highly sensitive persons display hypersensitive narcissism? Similarities and differences in the nomological networks of sensory processing sensitivity and vulnerable narcissism. Journal of Clinical Psychology (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23406
