Malignant Narcissism in Healthcare

When your trusted doctors are dangerous

Rev. Sheri Heller, LCSW, RSW
Published in
7 min readNov 25, 2022

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Photo by Online Marketing on Unsplash

There’s been considerable programming depicting heinous stories of malignant narcissists operating as clinical and medical providers in the healthcare professions. Recently The Good Nurse, about the New Jersey serial killer Charles Cullen was released on Netflix. Another series, Dirty John chronicled the life and demise of psychopathic nurse anesthetist, John Meehan.

In addition, the Oxygen channel produced License to Kill, a true-crime marathon that investigated homicidal nurses and physicians. Currently in development is a mini-series The Devil in the White City, about serial killer Dr. Henry H. Holmes.

In keeping with our fascination with sadists and serial killers in the healthcare industry, the fictional realm of television and cinema has created content embellishing on this theme. For example, in the fifth season of American Horror Story Dr. H.H. Holmes’ house of torture and murder, dubbed Murder Castle, inspired the creation of the Hotel Cortez. Likewise, most of us are familiar with the iconic celluloid figures, psychiatric Nurse Mildred Ratched, and the cannibalistic forensic psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter.

On the lighter side, an iconic American sitcom Seinfeld, which parodies societal norms and psychopathology, aired an episode…

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Rev. Sheri Heller, LCSW, RSW
Invisible Illness

Complex trauma clinician and writer. Survivor turned thriver, with a love for world travel, the arts and nature. I think outside the box. Sheritherapist.com