Narcissism of Small Differences
Narcissism of Small Differences is a phenomenon where people reserve their most virulent emotions, aggression, hatred, envy, towards those who resemble them the most. The ugliest manifestations of racism up to genocide are reserved for immigrants who look, act and talk like us. The more they try to emulate and imitate us, the harder they attempt to belong, the more ferocious our rejection of them. The more similar you are to someone, the more you want to distance yourself, the more you want to render yourself unique, the more aggressive and violent and vicious you are likely to be towards him or her.
Narcissistic Grandiosity Bubbles
Grandiosity bubbles are a rare event in the life of a narcissist. They involve the creation of an imagined, self-aggrandizing narrative that the narcissist weaves around elements of his real life. The narcissist modifies his behavior to conform to the newly adopted roles and gradually morphs into the fabricated character he has created. The deflation of a grandiosity bubble is met with relief by the narcissist, who views it as an experiment at being someone else for a while.
Narcissist: Normal People are Enigma
The narcissist feels that they cannot understand normal people and that they are often exploited in their relationships. They try hard not to offend others and give a lot, but it seems that they can do nothing right. The narcissist feels that they are a mental leper and that people only tolerate them because of what they can offer. They acquiesce in the asymmetry of their relationships and have known no differently since their early childhood.
Narcissists Hard to Spot
Narcissistic personality disorder is difficult to isolate with certainty, and it is important to distinguish between inherent traits and reactive patterns. Narcissism is considered pathological only when it becomes a rigid personality structure with primitive defense mechanisms and leads to dysfunctions in one or more areas of life. Pathological narcissism is the art of deception, and the narcissist projects a false self to manage social interactions. Victims of narcissists often find themselves involved before discovering the narcissist’s true nature, and the narcissist emits subtle signals even on a first or casual encounter.
Narcissist: You are Cardboard Cutouts, Avatars
Narcissists lack object constancy, which means they struggle to see people as reliable, predictable, and trustworthy. Instead, they create mental representations of people, which are often confabulations and projections of their inner world. These substitutes provide the narcissist with narcissistic supply, but they have little to do with reality. When confronted with real people, the narcissist is often dismayed and refuses to accept the facts, preferring to interact with their mental avatars instead.
Narcissist’s Reality Substitutes
Pathological narcissism is a defense mechanism that isolates the narcissist from their environment and shields them from hurt and injury. The false self is a psychological construct that replaces the narcissist’s true self and is intended to elicit praise and deflect criticism and pain. The narcissist’s reality substitutes fulfill two functions: they help them rationally ignore painful realities with impunity, and they prefer an alternative universe in which the narcissist reigns supreme and emerges triumphant always. The final phase of narcissism involves verbal, psychological, situational, and mercifully more rarely physical abuse directed at their foes and their inferiors.
Narcissist’s Addiction to Fame and Celebrity
Narcissists are addicted to being famous as it provides them with power, constant narcissistic supply, and fulfills important ego functions. The narcissist’s only bad emotional stretches are during periods of lack of attention, publicity, or exposure. The more the narcissist fails to secure the attention of the target group, the more daring, eccentric, and outlandish the narcissist becomes. The narcissist is not really interested in publicity per se, but with the reactions to his fame and celebrity.
Narcissist of Substance vs. Narcissist of Appearances
There are two types of narcissists: those who derive ample narcissistic supply from mere appearances and those whose narcissistic supply consists of doing substantial deeds. The former type of narcissist aims for celebrity, defined as being famous for being famous, while the latter type aims for careers in the limelight. The celebrity narcissist has a short attention span, is indolent, and prefers the path of least resistance. The career substantial narcissist is very concerned with leaving his mark and stamp of the world with his legacy, is a natural-born leader, and is willing and able to negotiate, compromise, and network.
Normal Personality and Personality Disorders
Personality is a complex pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics that are expressed automatically in almost every area of psychological function. Personality traits are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to and thinking about the environment in oneself that are exhibited in a wide variety of social and personal contexts. Our temperament is the biological genetic template that interacts with our environment. Our character is largely the outcome of the process of socialization, the acts and imprints and edicts of our environment and nurture, and how they work on our psyche during the formative years, 0 to 6 and in other lists. Personality disorders are dysfunctions of our entire identity, tears in the fabric of who we are.
Narcissists Hate Women, Misogynists
Narcissists view women as objects and use them for both primary and secondary narcissistic supply. They fear emotional intimacy and treat women as property, similar to the mindset of European males in the 18th century. Narcissists frustrate women by teasing them and then leaving them, and they hold women in contempt, choosing submissive partners whom they disdain for being below their intellectual level. The narcissist projects his own behavior and traits onto women.