The Top Hat of Justice

While working in the social service field you learn that some types of social work or even types of people you work with don’t meld very well with you. It’s not that they are bad clients or you are a bad case manager, it just means that the combination doesn’t work and something needs to be changed to positively affect the outcome. Personally, I couldn’t work with children or geriatrics. The former because…well I hate kids, and the latter because, I just don’t feel comfortable around old people. It’s the same way with personalities, and I recently found out that my Achilles heel are people with Narcissism.

Lance was an older gentleman with grandiose assertions of himself. He states that he is from an old mob family that ran illegal fireworks stores in the area, has a doctorate in philosophy and still has “connections” if you know that I mean. In reality, he is a short bald guy with Yoda ears with a diagnosis of late stage alcoholism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Funny how that all works out. The only “connections” that I determined were the county hospital when he drinks himself into a medical stupor and his rehab counselor who sent him here.

His rehab counselor, who I have a pretty good relationship with, sent me his file which entails his past, psych reports, interviews, as well as his future plan for services. In the initial interview the rehab counselor writes how he arrived for the interview in a, and I quote, “jaunty top hat.” I know that she tends to be a bit cynical in her reports, so I laughed it off seeing the diagnosis of the client. We scheduled him to arrive for an evaluation the next week.

Let me say that a diagnosis of NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) does come with its good sides. Individuals with NPD usually communicate very well verbally, are intelligent, and are very snappy dressers. This is all because they feel that they are better than everyone else, and want to show it. It’s almost impossible to make a person with NPD see your way of thinking, because your way of thinking is improbable and inferior.

Lance came in the first day with a suit that matched his attitude; three matching pieces with suspenders and yes, what I would describe as a “jaunty top hat.” You must realize however, that he was being sent to work in our factory area. This means making boxes, working on an assembly line and putting plastic things together. He felt that this was WAY under him and he made sure to let everyone know. This, of course didn’t last very long. A week later Lance was readmitted to the hospital for nearly killing himself with an alcohol binge. When we tried to close his case due to the fact that he was incapable of working, he threatened to sue and called his rehab counselor a mongrel.

What I really wanted to do though was to give him a monocle and pocket watch and observe him tape boxes in a run down factory. That would have really been funny to me.