TY - JOUR PY - 1995// TI - Codependence, narcissism, and childhood trauma JO - Journal of clinical psychology (Hoboken) A1 - Irwin, H. J. SP - 658 EP - 665 VL - 51 IS - 5 N2 - Codependence has been held to be a product of living in a household with an alcoholic parent or, more generally, an outcome of childhood abuse. Codependent traits also have been proposed to have a complementary developmental relationship with narcissism. Australian adults (N = 190) were administered the Codependency Inventory, the Spann-Fischer Codependency Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Narcissistic Personality Disorder scale, the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, and the Survey of Traumatic Childhood Events. Results indicated that codependence is not predictable by childhood trauma, and although a relationship between codependence and narcissism was established, it was rather more complex than that anticipated by the literature. These findings substantially weaken the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of codependency, and due caution should be exercised in psychotherapeutic applications of the concept.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0021-9762 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -