How The Narcissist Sees You

The narcissist conditions their target to admit weakness. They will pounce on an admission of inferiority, or a stutter, or you waking up late compared to them. On the other hand, when the target brags or achieves something great, the narcissist puts it down. As the target then feels shame and admits weakness, the narcissist grows amused and reinforces it.

This is how the narcissist manipulates the shame/grandiosity continuum, which is a paradigm; a set of psychological glasses that affect how we see the world.

When we meet someone, they may exhibit a set of behaviours that create the impression of high status, such as posture, attire, career, emotional restraint or how they treat us. Somebody else may tell us that this person is famous or talented at something. As a result, we might designate that person as being ‘better’ than us. This is commonly referred to as the ‘halo e...