This presentation will attempt to clarify the developmental psychopathology of Narcissism – unstable self-esteem – over inflated as in grandiosity or under inflated as in self-depreciation. It will discuss the role of certain types of early relational trauma in what is referred to as “traumatic narcissism”. It will help recognize the overlap of narcissism and borderline conditions between and betwixt the haze of symptoms and presentations which will dictate the therapeutic stance one takes in the Conversational Model.