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Sam Vaknin

Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin is an Israeli writer.

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Sam Vaknin
סם ואקנין
Vaknin in 2014
Born
Shmuel Vaknin

April 21, 1961 (1961-04-21) (age 65)
Kiryat Yam, Israel
OccupationWriter
Known forSelf-help material on psychology and personality disorders, in particular NPD. Work on chronons.
SpouseLidija Rangelovska
Websitenarcissistic-abuse.com

Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin (Hebrew: שמואל "סם" ואקנין, born April 21, 1961) is an Israeli writer.

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).45 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.132

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.367 He also wrote and consulted on foreign relations and international business for a number of years after his release,189 at one point advising Macedonian politician Nikola Gruevski, who later became Prime Minister.10111213

His work has been publicly successful, gathering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of internet followers.214 He has also lectured at Southern Federal University and South East European University.1516 Although Vaknin has been regarded as one of the most influential popular authors on NPD since the 1990s,23 he does not hold any qualifications in psychology.14

He has appeared in a number of documentaries.6171819 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.62122

Views

Vaknin's views on narcissism are idiosyncratic and controversial.262324 He has claimed that narcissists are not human and that NPD is a result of childhood trauma,31425 advocating for a form of psychotherapy he self-developed known as 'Cold Therapy'.26 He believes that former president Barack Obama is a narcissist.2728

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.229 He is married.3

Selected publications

303132

  • Requesting my Loved One (Bakasha me-Isha Ahuva) published by Yedioth Aharonot Miskal, Tel-Aviv, 199733
  • (with Nikola Gruevski) Macedonian Economy on a Crossroads. Skopje, NIP Noval Literatura, 1998. ISBN 9989-610-01-034
  • 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-X35
See also

See also

References

References

  1. Race, Tim (2002-07-29). "New Economy; Like Narcissus, executives are smitten, and undone, by their own images. (Published 2002)". New York Times.
  2. Tempany, Adrian (September 4, 2010). "When narcissism becomes pathological". Financial Times.
  3. Roberts, Yvonne (September 16, 2007). "The monster in the mirror". The Sunday Times. London, England: News UK. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
  4. Rosenfeld, Jose (July 27, 1995). "Business Briefs". The Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 321174686.
  5. Gordon, Evelyn (June 14, 1996). "Supreme Court rejects appeal of three stock manipulators". The Jerusalem Post. ProQuest 316853034.
  6. Jalava, Jarkko; Griffiths, Stephanie; Maraun, Michael (2015-01-01). The Myth of the Born Criminal: Psychopathy, Neurobiology, and the Creation of the Modern Degenerate. University of Toronto Press. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-1-4426-2836-6.
  7. Sunday Morning (2022-07-31). "Dr Sam Vaknin - the global narcissist database". RNZ. Retrieved 2025-11-13.
  8. Farnam, Arie (May 15, 2001). "Macedonia tries again for difficult unity". The Christian Science Monitor. ProQuest 405543102.
  9. Drake, James (April 2001). "Back to basics in the Balkans". Institutional Investor Magazine.
  10. MACEDONIA'S PUBLIC SECRET (Report). International Crisis Group. 2002. p. 41.
  11. Byrne, Andrew (May 15, 2015). "Strongman Nikola Gruevski blamed for Macedonia's ills". Financial Times. ProQuest 1687923873. Retrieved 2025-11-12.
  12. Džankic, Jelena (2016-03-03). Citizenship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro: Effects of Statehood and Identity Challenges. Routledge. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-317-16579-8.
  13. Peshkopia, Ridvan (2014-04-15). Conditioning Democratization: Institutional Reforms and EU Membership Conditionality in Albania and Macedonia. Anthem Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-85728-325-2.
  14. Long, Owen (September 8–21, 2025). "The rise of the professional narcissist". New York Magazine.
  15. "Prof. Sam Vaknin is appointed to lecture as a visiting professor at SEEU". South East European University. 26 September 2024.
  16. "Сэм Вакнин с курсом лекций «Теория личности в психологии»" [Sam Vaknin will deliver lectures on "Personality Theory in Psychology"]. Southern Federal University (in Russian). 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2025-11-09.
  17. Walters, Conrad (March 25, 2010). "Brain scan". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
  18. How Narcissists Took Over the World Vice Media 12 September 2016
  19. Moi, narcissique et cruel. Retrieved 2025-11-10 – via www.rts.ch.
  20. "I, Psychopath", CBC, May 25, 2009.
  21. Shoemaker, David (2015-04-01). Responsibility from the Margins. Oxford University Press. pp. 159–160. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198715672.003.0006. ISBN 978-0-19-871567-2.
  22. Shoemaker, David W. (2014). "Psychopathy, Responsibility, and the Moral/Conventional Distinction"". In Schramme, Thomas (ed.). Being Amoral: Psychopathy and Moral Incapacity. The MIT Press. pp. 247–274. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262027915.003.0011. ISBN 978-0-262-02791-5.
  23. Collins, Megan (2018). The new narcissus in the age of reality television. Classical and contemporary social theory. Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-20697-7.
  24. DuBrin, Andrew J. (2012-01-01). Narcissism in the Workplace: Research, Opinion and Practice. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 978-1-78100-136-3.
  25. Plante, Thomas G. (2006-08-30). Mental Disorders of the New Millennium. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-313-05459-4.
  26. Lecklitner, Ian (2021-11-04). "They Say Narcissism Is Untreatable. This Narcissist Is Giving It a Try Anyway". MEL Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-13.
  27. Cusk, Rachel (2013-08-03). "On narcissm: the mirror and the self". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2025-07-19.
  28. Vaknin, Sam (2001). Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited. Narcissus Publishing. ISBN 978-80-238-3384-3.
  29. Hill Cone, Deborah (October 9, 2009). "Self-love stuck in an endless honeymoon". NZ Herald.
  30. Vaknin, Sam (October 4, 2002). "Commentary: The morality of Child labor". United Press International. Archived from the original on March 15, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  31. Vaknin, Sam (April 3, 2003). "The 'axis of oil'". Middle East Times. Archived from the original on April 30, 2003. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  32. Vaknin, Samuel (21 June 1999). "Why Did Milosevic Surrender?". Central Europe Review.
  33. ואקנין, שמואל (1997). Baḳashah me-ishah ahuvah. Prozah. ISBN 9789654483414. LCCN 97826249.
  34. Project Gutenberg - books by Sam Vaknin
  35. Central Europe Review Accessed December 22, 2020
External links