The Object of My Affection Is in My Reflection: Coping with Narcissists

We become constricted and singularly focused in the presence of our narcissistic partner; each action we take and each word we speak becomes measured.

It’s important to keep in mind that narcissists desperately long to be involved in a relationship but have expectations that inevitably cause misery and disillusionment in themselves and in their partners. Their wounds prevent them from experiencing human intimacy because their primary attachment is not to a person but to the procurement of adorati

In elegant, expensive clothing, she is the consummate homemaker and bares her soul to anyone who will listen. She obsesses about her mangled love life.

narcissism is better viewed as a continuum of emotional states from adolescent self-interest to romantic love to excessive self-absorption and entitlement.

Romantic love (which has been called temporary insanity) is a narcissistic state where we can become focused on our relationship and ourselves to the exclusion of everything and everyone.

This, by the way, is exactly what narcissists want. They want you to submit your power to them. They want you to quake in your shoes at the thought of a confrontation with them.

“If you don’t come to terms with your fear of abandonment, you will never be able to act with abandon.” (Berenson, 1998) How true this is! If we don’t face our abandonment fears, we’ll never be free. We’ll always be walking on tiptoe, making sure that no one leaves us. We’ll squeeze the life out of our relationships as well as ourselves. In this wa

Being human plagues narcissists. To show vulnerability shatters their image and leaves them with a raw shame that’s so intolerable they often react with the rage of a wounded animal.

One of the challenges in describing narcissism is that it is often associated with the sense of self-entitlement that has become such a part of our culture that makes it difficult to discern narcissistic tendencies from pathological narcissism.