What is Narcissism?
Narcissism is a formal mental health condition in which an individual develops extreme desire to be validated inorder to boost their self- esteem, they clearly lack empathy and often indulge in destructive and manipulative actions.
While every individual possesses some degree of narcissistic traits in them, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are real narcissists as narcissism is a full spectrum. In narcissistic personality disorder NDP, people tend to seek excessive attention and appreciation to satisfy their false ego.The cause of narcissism isn’t known. But it can be linked to your.
Narcissistic people often use manipulation tactics to exploit others in order to gain power and fulfil their own needs, but they also can be charismatic and have the ability to modulate anyone’s mind. According to psychology and scientific research, narcissists use varieties of manipulation techniques to deceive and exploit their victims. Some of the techniques include:
1.Gaslighting
Gaslighting is also known as psychological abuse where an individual causes someone to doubt and question their rationality, perception of reality and sense of self. By gaslighting their victim, they explicitly target their mental spot by weakening their rational ability to think of themselves due to this, the victim may feel perplexing and overwhelming emotions and start to doubt their thinking and reality and it leads them to mental exhaustion. Narcissists use this technique to gain control over their victims so they can maintain dominance.
2. Love bombing and Devaluation
Love bombing is a manipulative technique often used in the context of relationships where the narcissist manipulates their partner by expressing excessive love, care and admiration in order to form strong connections and hook their partner to themselves, it generally happens in the initial stages of a relationship.
3.Grandiosity and superiority
Grandiosity in psychology refers to an exaggerated sense of self- love and obsession created by a narcissist’s delusional mindset of being unique and superior to others. There is always an internal insecurity persists in narcissists no matter how self-assured seem, they often suffer from some inner battles of insecurities and low self esteem so in order to compensate their inadequacy and low self esteem they develop grandiosity as a defence mechanism to overshadow the feeling of worthlessness.
4.Hoovering
Hoovering is a manipulative technique used by narcissists to take someone back into their life by showering them with affection, guilt-tripping, by giving gifts, and gaslighting. The word hoovering comes from the “hoover vacuum cleaner”, as it signifies the manipulative way of narcissist, try to “suck” their victims back into their lives.
Narcissist use this technique when they their narcissistic void such constant need to be validated, attention, and admiration, so they again attempt to suck their victim back into their lives to get those things again.
Why it’s important to spot a narcissistic person
It’s quite natural to get a feeling to know whether someone is narcissistic or not before you get any kind of relationship with them or develop attachment because nobody wants a toxic person into their lives. While everyone has some degree of narcissistic traits in them, it’s quite important to differentiate between a normal individual who possesses a few narcissistic traits and an individual with narcissistic personality disorder NDP.
6 signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder
According to scientific and psychological research, there are various methods to recognize an individual with NDP based on neuroscientific research and behavioural science research.
Here’s some of the most obvious signs of NDP:
- They devalue the needs of others and lack empathy .
- Has an extreme desire for validation and admiration.In Order to boost their self esteem, they always tend to seek external validation inorder to compensate for the sense of inadequacy and low self esteem.
- They use others for their advantages by manipulating and exploiting them in several ways to achieve their goals and ends up exhausting their victims mentally and emotionally
- They often behave as extraordinary, unique and special beings and often try to dominate the people they think are below them and they might be even rude.
- They often maintain excessive self-importance and display egotistical behaviour.
1. Grandiose Narcissism
Grandiose narcissism is a type of narcissism which involves an extreme desire for external validation, admiration, self-importance. There is a keen difference between vulnerable narcissists, who generally appear insecure or hypersensitive, people having grandiose narcissism often seem bold, dominant and overconfident.
2. Communal Narcissism
It is a type of narcissism which generally involves an extreme desire for admiration and validation from others through their exterior. Grandiose narcissism is all about seeking validation through power, success, or dominance.
3.Vulnerable Narcissism
Vulnerable narcissism is a type of narcissistic personality disorder that is marked by insecurity, fragility, and Reserved self-image. And People who have vulnerable narcissism often suffer from low self esteem, a sense of unworthiness, self-consciousness, and also they can’t tolerate rejection.
4. Malignant Narcissism
Malignant narcissism is a type of narcissism that usually involves antisocial behaviours, and sadistic desires and traits. It is a dangerous form of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) which can lead to complete destruction in a person’s life. It is just much more than a typical narcissism because it generally includes a mix of grandiose narcissism, manipulation, lack of empathy, and sometimes cruelty toward others.
Conclusion:
As we know that narcissism is a complex disorder though it’s often hard to detect as it is a full spectrum that ranges from healthy self-love to destructive behaviour. As we all know that self love is an important part of our life but narcissism is a type of trait or disorder that just crosses all the boundaries of self love and that leads to a harmful persona. So it’s important for everyone to understand these signs and evaluate whether you feel it in yourself or others, these signs will surely help you in setting strong boundaries and overall protecting your mental state and peace.