Theall Road resident James Masterson is dead at the age of 84. Masterson was an accomplished psychiatrist known for developing object relations theory, an alternative view to Freudian theory as to the drivers of personality disorders such as narcissism.
Masterson was internationally known and in 1977 established The Masterson Institute. Its focus was to promote the developmental self and object relations approach to the psychotherapy.
The New York Times carried an extensive obituary on Masterson that concluded:
"Dr. Masterson became so well known as an expert on narcissism that he sometimes attracted patients for whom only a high-profile therapist would do — in other words, narcissists. In the 1980s, after The New York Times cited him as an authority on the disorder, he received a dozen calls from people wanting treatment.
Too busy to accept new patients, Dr. Masterson referred the callers to his associates. As The Times reported in 1988, not a single one made an appointment."
