First published on Psychology Today, March 25, 2023. To understand the trauma narcissists induce in others, we often focus on their external behaviors and how those behaviors affect the people around them. But what is really going on in the narcissistic…
Exaggerated victimhood is a form of narcissistic grandiosity.
Through the projective identification process, the parents both interpret and induce behavior in the child to identify with their projections.
People with narcissistic personalities are relational antagonists who compulsively undercut others to gain a sense of control and superiority. Even when they are shining an idealizing light on someone, it is a form of manipulation—through flattery and praise—, which can (and…
In order to ban autocracy, exploitation, and inequality in the world, we must first realize that the first inequality in life is that of child and adult. —Erik Erikson For humans, a highly social species dependent on the group for survival,…
Dysfunctional, narcissistic families typically feature inequities, and one of the most common forms of inequity is parental favoritism of one child over another. In a survivalist, hierarchical narcissistic family system, there are many reasons parents select a particular child to elevate and another to…
Despite the fact that an increasing number of young people identify as LGBTQ (1 in 6 of Generation Z), queer-identified individuals are subject to lifelong invisibility and bigotry, often even within their own families. As societal scapegoats, they have far fewer positive role models…
One of the most confusing and difficult issues many adult children of narcissists face is how to navigate the relationship between our children and their narcissistic grandparents. Even after identifying the dysfunction in our parents and acknowledging the neglect and…
Here are tried and true boundary-setting strategies to protect yourself from narcissistic abuse.
The healthy family model is turned on its head to support the parents rather than foster the children’s development.