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Sam Vaknin

Israeli writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ3470570
Source-derived summary

Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin (Hebrew: שמואל "סם" ואקנין, born April 21, 1961) is an Israeli writer. He is the author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited (1999), was the last editor-in-chief of the now-defunct political news website Global Politician, and runs a private website about narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). He was a financial advisor for several nation states; he has also postulated a theory on chronons and time asymmetry.

Life

Born in Kiryat Yam, Israel, Vaknin was the eldest of five children born to Sephardi Jewish immigrants. His mother was from Turkey, and his father, a construction worker, was from Morocco. He describes a difficult, violent childhood, stating in an interview that his parents "were ill-equipped to deal with normal children, let alone the gifted". Vaknin believes that abuse and trauma from this time triggered his NPD.

Vaknin was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces when he was 17.

Between 1982 and 1983, Vaknin studied for a doctorate at Pacific Western University (California). His PhD dissertation was entitled "Time Asymmetry Revisited". In it, Vaknin postulated the existence of a particle (chronon).

Editorial summary

“Sam Vaknin” enters the record as israeli writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Vaknin, Israeli and writer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1961, 1999, 1982, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1961-04-21. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Vaknin, Israeli and writer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Sam Vaknin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Vaknin, Israeli and writer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3470570. VIAF identifies the subject as 53443534. The Library of Congress control number is n97123301. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961, 1999, 1982 and 1983.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sam Vaknin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sam Vaknin primary sources, Sam Vaknin archive and Vaknin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sam Vaknin”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Sam Vaknin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.