Karen Arluck, a clinical psychotherapist in private practice, on the 10 signs a loved one might be a narcissist…
1. A lack of object constancy and constant splitting
Meaning when this person is angry, they are unable to connect to any of their previously positive feelings towards you. You will quickly go from being “all good” to “all bad” in their mind frequently.
2. They will be easily narcissistically injured
They will frequently feel someone else caused them to feel angry, humiliated, ignored, or discarded.
3. An obsession with self perception
A person with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is likely to be very concerned with how they viewed by others at all times.
Listen: What’s up with our fake images on Instagram?
4. Status is everything
They care a great deal about having a high status in whatever their interests are: financial wealth, intelligence, appearance, career, impressive romantic partner, etc.
5. Threats of retaliation
When they feel wronged, they will often talk about retaliating in some way. For example, firing them, dumping them, suing them, writing a scathing review, so on.
6. A dislike of being proven wrong
They will not take kindly to being “corrected” or proven wrong about anything, especially publicly.
7. A rigid view of hierarchy
Someone with NPD will often admire and “suck up to” the people they view as above them, and devalue the people they view as below them.
8. A lack of self awareness
Most people with NPD will not have any awareness of their own role in negative situations.
9. A tendency to feel guilty
This person is likely to suffer from a lot of shame and guilt, and do everything they can to avoid feeling this way.
10. The real clincher
They are unlikely to self-identify as having NPD.
This post originally appeared on Quora, and has been republished with full permission.
Top Comments
They post photos of themselves constantly online and their Instagram consists mainly of photos of themselves posing.
Isn't that every millennial ever?
Narcissism is not the same as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Posing for selfies is a bit vain but NPD is a very scary mental disorder. Being with one will scar you forever