Sam Vaknin

Sam Vaknin was born in 1961 in Kiryat Yam

Shmuel "Sam" Vaknin was born in Kiryat Yam in 1961. He was the eldest of five children of Jewish immigrants, a mother from Turkey and a father from Morocco who worked in construction. He was drafted into the IDF at 17.

From 1982 to 1983 he studied for a doctorate at Pacific Western University in California. His dissertation, Time Asymmetry Revisited, proposed a particle he called the chronon.

In the mid 1980s he lived in London, where a psychiatrist diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder, which he rejected. Back in Israel he directed the investment firm Mikbatz Teshua. In 1995 he was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to 18 months in prison, and he began writing his book while in prison.

After his release in 1996 he moved to Skopje. With Lidija Rangelovska, later his wife, he founded Narcissus Publications in 1997, and his book came out in 1999. He wrote for Central Europe Review and United Press International and advised Macedonian finance minister Nikola Gruevski.

He has appeared in documentaries on narcissism, including I, Psychopath in 2009. In 2026 a documentary and podcast presented allegations of sexual violence and misrepresented credentials against him, which he denied.