covert vs. compensatory narcissism

What is this difference? Read elsewhere a while back that covert was narcissistic core, avoidant outside whereas compensatory was avoidant core, narcissistic outside. Can anyone elaborate? I mean what if a compensatory narcissist also had a "suppressed" sense of entitlement (hating what others had, hated other people getting what they don't etc.), would that mean they have both? A covert is definitely a narcissist and will eventually go through the process of self-awareness and accepting who and what they really are, but what about compensatory?

I guess compensatory is a defense against shame, insecurity and inferiority, I mean basically an avoidant who developed narcissistic traits to compensate for that during either childhood or earlier adulthood, but how does that differ to covert I'm sure there's some overlap, they differ yet they seem fairly similar.

Ubinix800 wrote:What is this difference? Read elsewhere a while back that covert was narcissistic core, avoidant outside whereas compensatory was avoidant core, narcissistic outside. Can anyone elaborate? I mean what if a compensatory narcissist also had a "suppressed" sense of entitlement (hating what others had, hated other people getting what they don't etc.), would that mean they have both? A covert is definitely a narcissist and will eventually go through the process of self-awareness and accepting who and what they really are, but what about compensatory?

I guess compensatory is a defense against shame, insecurity and inferiority, I mean basically an avoidant who developed narcissistic traits to compensate for that during either childhood or earlier adulthood, but how does that differ to covert I'm sure there's some overlap, they differ yet they seem fairly similar.

Compensatory narcissism is a subtype coined by theodore Million. I dont think it has been used anywhere else. For him that type "captures the psychoanalytic view of narcissism", where a person who has grown up with a very negative and inferior self-view compensates by a grandiose yet brittle way of acting, including portraing "every small certificate and placque" on the walls [Personality Disorders in Daily Life 2nd Ed p339].
Covert or also closet narcissism has originally been used interchangably with hypervigilant, hypersensitive or vulnerable narcissism, as the latter for example by James Masterson or Ralph Klein, as the former by Shalman Akhtar, but has lately been used in research more to describe purely the way that certain symptoms show or dont show.
So the first difference is that for Million his subtype captures the character, while the latter term describes the degree to which pathology is observable. But yeah if we accept the older definition of the latter and if we accept Millions conviction about his theory then they would be seen as complementary. In Ralph Kleins presentation even the object relations are inverted in what he calls closet narcissism, so in the grandiose self the "external" object has become the idealized one. If we stay with him for a little more another difference might be that Klein is saying that the child hides its natural grandiosity, its too painful to be naturally grandiose so that part of psychic development gets arrested (Klein, Closet Naricssistic Disorder p.14). So personally I'd argue that from that it follows that Klein describes a more low-level development compared to Millon.
But there, too I am not sure how many people have followed this idea, plus its too abstract for personal use. Even "narcissism" itself is defined so differently in different contexts (which adds to heaps of overlap and contradiction), its descriptive ability is very limited imo.

Guess they're the same but as you said different theories and presentations. Both make sense, but I think I'm more with million on this, kind of like the whole point why someone would develop some narcissism, or "narcissistic defenses" on top comes from underlying feelings of shame and weakness. Guess compensatory uses grandiosity as well, but not all the time and as you said not outwardly, basically like some napoleon complex or something where they're always trying to feel better than the next person in the room

Thanks for the well educated and well thought-out response.