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Movies Featuring
Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Here are movies/films which have been recommended by the members of our forum. They feature Narcissists as major characters - either the main character as in the case of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, or a parent as in the case of Sybil.

The film Gaslight is where we get the term gaslighting from.

Many of these films are also available, in sections and variable quality, on YouTube.

If you live in the USA or Canada you can sign up for Netflix's free one-month membership trial, and watch any of these movies for free. Either download the movie or get the DVD sent to you. And after that, it's only $7.99 a month for download and $9.99 for physical DVDs mailed to you.

Absolute Must-Watch Movies about NPD

Gaslight

This classic movie is where the term gaslighting comes from, to indicate how an N (or other abuser) lies to you to make you doubt your experience of reality.

Although the film is a bit dated now (it was made in the 1940s) it is still extremely gripping and terrifying. The narcissist in this film, Gregory Anton, is trying to deliberately send his new wife insane in order to inherit from her.

An absolute must-watch for anybody interest in learning more about malignant NPD.

Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens is another classic. It's a documentary rather than a fiction story, and is rather disjointed and bizarre. It features two women, mother and daughter, both called Edit Bouvier Beale. The mother is known as 'Big Edie' and the daughter as 'Little Edie'.

These women, wealthy and connected (they were aunt and first cousin, respectively, of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis), live a classic engulfed life together, and the film follows their eccentric and (in my opinion) sad lives.

Coraline

Coraline's Other Mother and Other Father are totally narcissistic, and her father is an Enabling Father too. there is a scene where the Other Father IS a friggin' puppet and he says to Coraline, "Your mother made me do it!" about some horrible behaviour.

Mommie Dearest

A classic film. It's the real-life story of total narcissist Joan Crawford and her daughter Christina. A chillingly accurate portrayal of the hell of being raised by a narcissist.

Harold and Maude

Harold's mother is a total narcissist. She fills out his dating service questionnaire for him in a great scene, answering everything with "we."

 

White Oleander

Michelle Pfeiffer plays the narcissistic mother in this amazing film, and by all accounts does a terrific job.

Precious

This is a very tough, but ultimately empowering, film about abuse and inner-city life.

The mother of Precious (the title character) is the N in this story.

A tough film to watch, in truth.

Matilda

Matilda's parents are both narcissistic. There are good laughs at them though. Perhaps a film more for adults than for children.

Ever After - A Cinderella Story

Angelica Huston's character in "Ever After," which is an adaptation of the Cinderella story, is a classic narcissist. She plays the evil stepmother, and her two daughters are classic examples of the narcissistic golden child and scapegoated child. With Cinderella, of course, being the biggest scapegoat of them all.

Flowers In The Attic

The mother in this horrific story is narcissistic - totally selling out her poor children for her own selfish ends.

 

September

In this film Elaine Stritch plays the narcissistic mother, and Elaine Stritch is the long-suffering daughter.

Mildred Pierce

IMDB says: " After her cheating husband leaves her, Mildred Pierce proves she can become independent and successful, but can't win the approval of her spoiled daughter."

We say: not spoiled. Narcissistic.

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?

Baby Jane Hudson is chillingly played by Bette Davis, and she's a total narcissist, terrorising her sister.

Gone With The Wind

Scarlett O'Hara is a total narcissist in this classic tale.

The Little Foxes

Regina Giddons, played by Bette Davis, plays a vicious and evil narcissistic mother.

 

Mermaids

Cher's character, Mrs Flax, is a narcissist.

Ordinary People

Mary Tyler Moore plays Beth, the bitter mother, whose icy perfectionism is totallly narcissistic.

East Of Eden

The father in this film is a narcissist, and like a lot of narcissists, he plays his sons against each other.

American Beauty

Annette Bening plays the narcissistic mother perfectly here.

 

Sybil

Sally Field's character has multiple personalities (Disassociative Identity Disorder) because of her crazy narcissistic mother and the abuse she experienced at her hands. A very sad film, very powerful.

The Devil Wears Prada

Meryl Streep's character, Miranda Priestly, is an N.

In typical Hollywood fashion, there is some redemption at the end, most un-N-like, but in fairness it's only a bit of redemption - not enough to make a lie of the character.

The Prince Of Tides


Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte) has a total narcissist for a mother. This story explores deeply and well the dynamics of the dysfunctional family.

Like Water For Chocolate

The mother is a narcissist, and her daughter Tita (the protagonist of the story) is the scapegoat, and her eldest sister is the Golden Child and another narcissist.

Rebel Without A Cause

James Dean's character's mother is a narcissist, and his father is an enabling father.

 

Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood

Siddalee is the DONM, and therefore, of course it's her mother who is the narcissist. This story is a good example of how narcissists can get their flying monkeys, i.e. their minions who are on their side (either because they're fooled, or equally dysfunctional) to try to lure the DONM back into the web.

Empire Falls

The characters Janine Roby and Walt Comeau are both narcissists, as is Mrs. Whiting - the Whiting daughter is a classic DoNM who recovered from her ordeal.

Postcards From The Edge

Shirley Maclain plays a complete narcissistic mother, and Meryl Streep her poor daughter. It's interesting that Meryl's character suffers from substance abuse issues, because that's something a lot of DONMs experience.

Four Christmases

Almost all the characters in this movie are narcissistic! A real N-soup. Robert Duvall is spectacular as Vince Vaughn's Narcissistic Father, and Vince's character himself is either N or has major FLEAS. The whole comedic tone of the movie is about Ns, invalidation, scapegoating and the futility of trying to escape an N family.  

A Streetcar Named Desire

The famous character Blanche Dubois is a histrionic narcissist 

Dead Poets' Society

Dead Poets Society the father is an n and the mother is an enabler

I am watching "The Dead Poets Society" right now; I had only seen it once when it came out in 1989, so I had forgotten much of it.

But watching it, one of the main characters', Niel, has a narcissistic father. A classic one. And Niel shows all of the classic signs of a child of a narcissist--a GC/SG at that......

It is a beautiful film, very poignant.

Terms of Endearment

Shirley MacLaine's character is a classic narcissist. The put-downs and jabs, the making her daugher feel small and inadequate but smothering and engulfing her at the same time... Total narcissistic mother. Her reaction when she learns her daughter is expecting a baby is classically narcissistic: "But I'm tooooo young to be a grandmother!" 


Box Sets of TV shows

Everybody Loves Raymond
Series 1

Raymond's mother Marie is a complete narcissist!

Everybody Loves Raymond
Full Box Set

Raymond's mother Marie is a complete narcissist!

The Sopranos - Series 1

The mother, Livia, is a perfectly portrayed narcissist.

The Sopranos - Full Box Set

The mother, Livia, is a perfectly portrayed narcissist.

Absolutely Fabulous

Edwina is completely narcissistic, and her daughter Saphy is the long-suffering DONM. This wonderfully executed comedy is a caricature of narcissism rather than a subtle portrayal, but is worth looking at nonetheless.

Absolutely Fabulous

Edwina is completely narcissistic, and her daughter Saphy is the long-suffering DONM. This wonderfully executed comedy is a caricature of narcissism rather than a subtle portrayal, but is worth looking at nonetheless.

Happy Families
Showing us normal, happy, loving families

These types of films, surprisingly can be harder to watch than the ones above, as they show us so strongly what we missed. There will probably be plenty of tears watching these - I know that I have cried at one particular scene in Mamma Mia!, where the mother and daughter are sharing a special intimate loving time together. And members of the forum, who recommended the other films, have cried at those too.

I find it interesting that two of these movies: The Martian Child and The Secret Life Of Bees, are about unconventional family situations where loving adults take on a needy child and provide a family for him/her. Only Mamma Mia! features the daughter's own mother.

One suggestion is to Tap (i.e. use EFT) while going through the emotion. You don't have to say anything while doing it, just use the Tapping process, and it will help heal and erase some of the hurt.

The Martian Child



The Martian Child - this is a great movie about healing rejection and abandonment (it was highly recommended by the therapist of the DONM who recommended this.)

The Secret Life Of Bees

Lily Owen's mother is dead (and there's a mystery about her past) and her father is cruel. Lily runs away to find out more about her mother, and ends up being taken in by the loving and quirky Boatwright sisters.

Mamma Mia!

I love this film for its loving and normal portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship. The relationship isn't gooey - they fight, and disagree. But they love each other, and the mother loves her daughter in such a healthy and un-N way. I cry every time I watch the pre-wedding scene ... tears pricking my eyes now even at the thought of it.


 

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