“A family is a tyranny ruled by its weakest member.” George Bernard Shaw nailed the truth with this quote, and no better example is the narcissistic family. The Narcissistic Family Playbill The narcissistic family can be understood as a play…
Make a keystroke blindfolded and you’re likely to land on a mention of narcissism on the Internet. But nothing explains the shocking things narcissists are capable of better than real-life examples. Here are some doozies. It’s All About Me Maria had…
When we think of the narcissistic personality it is typically the flamboyant person in the room dominating the conversation and basking in the limelight, but there is another less obvious type: the covert narcissist. Compared to the overt, the covert…
Published on The Huffington Post 01/02/2017 Over 70,000 mental health professionals have publicly diagnosed Donald Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). But you don’t need a degree to recognize it in his fathomless need for attention, vicious lack of empathy, criminally entitled…
A child of narcissists, Charlotte was seven years old when she became in her words the “death dealer” on her family’s makeshift farm. At her mother’s insistence, the family moved from D.C. to acreage in rural Virginia and embarked on…
Published on The Huffington Post May 25, 2016 This is the second of a two-part series about the role of the so-called golden child in the narcissistic family. (Read Part 1.) The Narcissist’s Idealized Mirror Image Those familiar with narcissistic…
Published on The Huffington Post May 23, 2016 If you are familiar with the narcissistic family system you know there is typically a scapegoat and a golden child. Both are projections of the narcissistic parent (or parents), false identities assigned…
Published on The Huffington Post April 25, 2016 If you have the misfortune of having been raised by narcissists, chances are you’ve heard classics like these: “You’re just too sensitive.” “You need to learn to let things go.” “When are…
Helen’s troubles with her narcissistic mother started long before she could talk. As an infant she suffered an undetected neonatal stroke. Helen’s mother, Maurine, said she was a colicky baby who was acting out to spite her. It wasn’t until…
As an adult child of narcissistic parents, I am vomitously sick of that word narcissist. No One Knows What It Means 1. For starters, no one knows what it means. Is it your everyday air-glossed Facebook or Instagram preening? Twenty-something…