Laurie Helgoe

Biography

Helgoe was born in 1960 in Billings, Montana. Her father is a Lutheran Minister; her mother was a homemaker. She is the ninth of ten children in her family. She was educated at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and the University of Nevada, Reno. She is married and has two sons.

Helgoe currently is a clinical associate professor of Clinical Psychology at Augsburg University. Previously she served as an associate professor of Behavioral Sciences at the Ross University School of Medicine Until 2022. She served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the West Virginia University School of Medicine and was an assistant professor of Psychology and Social Sciences Division Chair at Davis & Elkins College. Helgoe is the author of a blog entitled Introvert Power: Food for the Inner Life and hosts the pages Introvert Power and Fragile Bully on Facebook.

In 2019, Helgoe wrote Fragile Bully: Understanding Our Destructive Affair with Narcissism in the Age of Trump, which explores the relationship between narcissism and American political discourse (Diversion Books, 2019). Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D., distinguished professor at CCNY and integrative psychology theorist, noted that Helgoe's writing provides "seemingly effortless linkage between the intimately psychological and the broader social and cultural" and that "[s]he probes the depth of individual experience, explores the dynamics of couples and families and makes plain how all of this derives both from the powerful impact of our earliest experiences and the equally powerful impact of our current interactions and current social and cultural context. In her hands, there is no contradiction in this complex web of causality, just a rich tapestry of interwoven threads that create a life."