Gullible Narcissist Victimized and Abused
Narcissists are more gullible than the average person because they live in a fantasy world of their own making, where they are at the center of the universe. They are prone to magical thinking and believe they are immune to the consequences of their actions. Narcissists feel entitled to everything and are easily duped, cheated, and deceived. They attract abuse and are often targeted by stalkers and persecutors, usually mentally ill people who develop a fixation on the narcissist.
Victims Become Narcissists: Contagious Narcissism
Victims of narcissistic abuse can become narcissistic themselves, adopting the role of a professional victim. These individuals become self-centered, abusive, and exploitative, and their existence and identity rest solely on their victimhood. This is known as narcissistic contagion or narcissism by proxy, and it is a danger that should be avoided by every victim and survivor of abuse. Once the victim starts to abuse, they never stop, and their abuse becomes indiscriminate and affects everyone around them.
Narcissistic Supply Deficiency Coping Strategies
Sam Vaknin explains that the grandiosity gap between a narcissist’s self-image and reality is grating on their nerves. As a result, the narcissist resorts to self-delusion, which can lead to various solutions. These include the delusional narrative solution, the antisocial solution, the paranoid schizoid solution, the paranoid aggressive or explosive solution, and the masochistic avoidance solution. Ultimately, the narcissist’s pronounced and public misery and self-pity are compensatory and reinforce their self-esteem against overwhelming convictions of worthlessness.
Abusive Ex Leverages Children Against You
Abusive ex-partners often use their children to manipulate and control their former partners. They may co-opt their children into aiding and abetting their abusive conduct, using them as bargaining chips or leverage. The abuser may emotionally blackmail the children, threatening to withhold love and affection if they do not comply with their demands. The abuser may also pervert the system, using therapies, marriage counselors, mediators, court-appointed guardians, police officers, and even judges to pathologize the victim and separate them from their sources of emotional sustenance.
Depressive Narcissist
Pathological narcissism is often considered a form of depressive illness, with the life of a typical narcissist punctuated with recurrent bouts of dysphoria, sadness, hopelessness, anhedonia, loss of the ability to feel pleasure, and clinical forms of depression. Narcissists react with depression not only to life crises but to fluctuations in narcissistic supply and to the internal dynamics that these fluctuations generate. There are several types of dysphoria and depression in pathological narcissism, including loss-induced dysphoria, deficiency-induced dysphoria, self-worth dysregulation dysphoria, grandiosity gap dysphoria, and self-punishing dysphoria. Many narcissists end up delusional, schizoid, or paranoid to avoid agonizing and knowing depression.
Narcissist Has No Friends
Narcissists treat their friends like Watson and Hastings, who are obsequious and unthreatening, and provide them with an adulating gallery. Narcissists cannot empathize or love, and therefore have no real friends. They are interested in securing narcissistic supply from narcissistic supply sources. The narcissist overvalues people when they are judged to be potential sources of supply, and devalues them when no longer able to supply him, ultimately leading to the alienation and distancing of people.
Love as Biochemical Pathology
Falling in love is similar to a mental health pathology, with changes in behavior and biochemistry resembling psychosis and substance abuse. Love is addictive and akin to cocaine and speed, with sex intended to bind partners long enough to bond. Falling in love involves the enhanced secretion of PEA, or the love chemical, which creates a euphoric high and helps obscure the failings and shortcomings of the potential mate. Love in all its phases and manifestations is an addiction, probably to the various forms of internally secreted norepinephrine, such as the aforementioned amphetamine-like PEA.
Narcissistic and Psychopathic Politicians and Leaders
Narcissistic or psychopathic leaders are a product of their society and culture, and their mental health pathologies resonate with their followers. They create a personality cult with all the hallmarks of an institutional religion, and their reign is all smoke and mirrors, devoid of substance. When their regime ends, the entire edifice crumbles, leaving behind a massive, collective, post-traumatic stress disorder.
Narcissists: Their Professions, Jobs, and Vocations
Narcissists are over-represented in certain professions, including teaching, the clergy, show business, corporate management, medicine, the military, law enforcement, politics, and sports. They gravitate towards these professions to construct self-enclosed spaces where they are divine, god-like figures with a coterie of fans, admirers, followers, and devotees. Narcissists are dangerous in these professions as they lack empathy and ethical standards, and are prone to immorally, cynically, callously, and consistently abuse and misuse their position. Their socialization process is often disturbed, perturbed, and this results in social dysfunctioning.