Narcissistic Personality: What Is It and How to Deal with a Narcissist?
Anna ChuiAnna is a communication expert and a life enthusiast. She's the Content Strategist of Lifehack and loves to write about love, life, and passion. Read full profile
He asks you for your opinion, but only follows his own advice regardless of what you say.She loves to talk about herself, everything about her is just better than you. When you try to share anything happy about yourself, she seriously doubts it.
If you know someone who acts like these examples, there’s a chance they might be a narcissist.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is a narcissistic personality?
Narcissism is a spectrum personality disorder which most of us have.
In popular culture, narcissism is interpreted as a person who’s in love with themselves, more accurately, their idealized selves. Narcissists believe that they are too unique to be understood and that they are so good that they demand for admiration from others.
Psychologist Stephen Johnson writes that,[1]
the narcissist is someone who has buried his true self-expression in response to early injuries and replaced it with a highly developed, compensatory false self.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describes narcissistic personality as a personality disorder. It is a spectrum disorder, which means it exists on a continuum ranging from some narcissistic traits to the full-blown personality disorder.[2]
Narcissistic Personality Disorder is not very common, but the truth is, we all have some of the narcissistic traits.
Traits of a narcissist:
- They have a deep need for admiration and validation. They think they’re special and too unique to be understood.
- They feel they are superior to other. They achieve more and know a lot more than you.
- They do not show their vulnerabilities. They fear what others think of them and they want to remain superior in all situations.
- They are unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others. They want to be the centre of attention and believe that showing emotions is a sign of weakness.
- They are skilled manipulators and are emotionally abusive. They know how to make use of their charm to take advantage of others to get what they want.
How are narcissists different from others?
Narcissism expert and the author of Narcissism in a Nutshell, Zari Ballard, tried to answer some common questions asked by non-narcissists about what a narcissist thinks and feels from a narcissist’s perspective.[3]
Do narcissists know they are narcissists and are they happy?
We could really care less about how others feel. We enjoy our so called cold existence. True narcissists don’t want to change. We feel in total control of our lives using this method.
Do narcissists know or understand right from wrong?
Narcissists know the difference between right and wrong because they understand cause and effect. There is no “guilty conscience” giving them a clue and they are displaying the symptom of being “indifferent to social norms” while most likely presenting as ‘cold-hearted.’
Narcissists have a very different thinking mechanism. They see things from a different perspective. Unlike non-narcissists and empaths, they don’t have much sympathy and are reluctant to show emotions to others.
Why do people become narcissists?
1. Narcissism is vulnerability taken to an extreme.
The root of a narcissistic personality is a strong resistance to feeling vulnerable with anyone.[4]
Narcissists refuse to put themselves in a position where they feel vulnerable. They fear that others will take advantage of their weaknesses, so they learn to camouflage their weaknesses by acting strong and powerful. The think showing emotions to others is a sign of weakness, so they learn to hide their emotions and act cold-hearted most of the times.
Narcissists live in a state of anxiety because they are highly aware of their emotions and how others think of them.
Vulnerability aversion, is the root of a narcissistic personality.
2. A narcissistic personality could be a result of a wounded past.
Narcissists are desperate to seek validation constantly because they either didn’t feel worthwhile and valued in the past, or were being paid too much attention as the most precious and unique one in the world.
Faulty or inadequate parenting, for example a lack of limit setting, is believed to be a major cause, and both permissive and authoritarian styles of parenting have been found to promote narcissistic symptoms.[5]
Both parents who fail to see the worth in a child, and parents who spoil and give excessive praise to the child promote narcissism as the child grows. While the former ones make the child feel inferior of others and want to get more attention, the latter ones encourage an idealized-self in the child.
How to deal with a narcissist?
1. If someone close to you is a narcissist, embrace the differences.
There’re different personality types and not everyone will think and act the same as you do. Instead of trying to change others, learn to accept the differences and strike a balance when you really have to communicate with them.
2. Don’t try to change them, focus on your own needs.
Try to understand that narcissists are resistant to change, it’s more important for you to see who they really are, instead of who you want them to be. Focus on how you feel, and what you want yourself to be.
Embrace the fact that there’re different types of personality and the only thing you can control is your attitude and your own actions.
3. Recognize what they do only comes from their insecurity.
Narcissists are quite vulnerable deep inside, they question others because that’s how they can make themselves feel better.
When you learn that what a narcissist does to you is nothing personal, but something that comes from their insecurity, you know that sometimes they just need a certain amount of reassurance.
This is especially important if the narcissist is someone you have to closely work with, or if they’re your family member. The right amount of reassurance can calm them down and get the tasks on hand completed.
4. Ask them what would others think instead of what’d others feel.[6]
Narcissists don’t feel guilty, but they care about how others think of them deep in their heart.
Clinical psychologist Al Bernstein explains:
There are just things, like other people’s feelings, that narcissists rarely consider. If you have their ear, don’t tell them how people might react; instead, ask probing questions. Narcissists are much more likely to act on ideas that they think they thought up themselves.
If you have to work with a narcissist closely, focus on the facts and ideas, not the emotions.
5. Let go of the need of getting a narcissist’s approval.
You’re not who a narcissist says you are. Don’t let their blame game undermine your self-esteem, and don’t argue with them just to defend what you believe is right.
There is no point arguing with a narcissist just to prove them wrong because they will not give in proving themselves right. It’s more likely that you’ll get more upset when they disagree with you in an unpleasant way.
Know your own worth and detach from a narcissist’s opinion on you.
6. If a narcissist is hurting you, stay away from them.
Remember, a healthy relationship is two-sided. It’s about mutual respect and it’s based on give and take. But any kind of relationship with a narcissist is likely to be the contrary, it’s about making the narcissist happy and constantly supporting them. A relationship like this will only weigh you down and is unhealthy for your growth.
7. Set a boundary and always keep it.
If you’re setting a boundary, you have to be willing to keep it. When a narcissist sees that you’re trying to take back control of your life, they will try to test your limits, it’s just their instinct to do it.
Be prepared that your boundary will be challenged. Make your boundary clear, have all the actions needed to be taken in your mind.
For example, if you have decided to stop communicating with them, they will likely to show up in front of you just to talk to you. Be brave enough to keep your boundary, don’t back down and get close to them again; or else they will not take your boundary seriously any more.
8. Learn when to walk away.
When a narcissist starts to make you feel uncomfortable and doubt about yourself, it’s time to pick yourself up and give yourself enough respect to just walk away from them.
If you’re in love with a narcissist, you should seriously think about ending the relationship and move on for a better life. If the narcissist is your family member, you don’t have to be cruel to them, but it’s better to keep distance from them.
Reference
| [1] | ^ | Stephen Johnson: HUMANIZING THE NARCISSISTIC STYLE: INTRODUCTION |
| [2] | ^ | Dr. Karyl McBride: What is Narcissism and Maternal Narcissism? |
| [3] | ^ | Zari Ballard: What are Narcissists & Sociopaths REALLY thinking? |
| [4] | ^ | Psychology Today: The Roots of Narcissism |
| [5] | ^ | Winning Teams: Causes of Narcissism |
| [6] | ^ | Observer: How to Deal With a Narcissist: 5 Secrets Backed by Research |
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Anna Chui
Anna is a communication expert and a life enthusiast. She's the Content Strategist of Lifehack and loves to write about love, life, and passion.
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Published on October 30, 2020
11 Essential Philosophy Books That Will Open Your Mind
Lifehack ReadsLifehack Reads is the curated collection of our favorite books, carefully categorized and sorted by our Editorial Team. Read full profile
There are numerous ways to build your mindset, but none are as profound as reading philosophy books. Through these books, some of the greatest minds around ask questions and delve deep into thought.
While there isn’t always a clear and distinct answer to the many questions of philosophy, the entire field is a gateway to a higher sense of self. It gets you to think about all manner of things.
Below, we cover some of the essential philosophy books that are best for those who are just starting or looking to expand their mind.
How To Choose a Good Philosophy Book
Before getting to this list, we’ve researched ideal philosophy books to help you expand your mind.
We’ve found that the best philosophy books excel in the following criteria:
- Complexity – Philosophy isn’t a subject that you can’t dive into immediately and understand everything. The books that we selected are great for people making the first leap.
- Viewpoint – With philosophy, in particular, the author’s views are more important than in your standard book. We want to ensure the viewpoints and thoughts being discussed still hold up to this day.
- Open-mindedness – Philosophy is all about asking perplexing questions and unraveling the answer. You might not reach a conclusion in the end, but these books are designed to get you to think.
- Culture – The last criterion is culture. A lot of these books come from early philosophers from centuries ago or possibly from recent years. These philosophy books should paint a picture of the culture.
1. Meditations
One that you’ll find on many of these types of lists is Meditations and for good reason. It’s the only document of its kind to ever be made. The book focuses on the private thoughts of the world’s most powerful man who advises himself revolving around making good on his responsibilities and the obligations of his position.
We know enough about Marcus Aurelius to know that he was trained in stoic philosophy and practiced every night on a series of spirituality exercises. These exercises were designed to make him humble, patient, empathetic, generous, and strong in the face of whatever problem he had to face off. And he faced plenty of problems since he was basically the emperor of roughly a third of the planet.
All of that is poured into this book, and you are bound to remember a line or more that will be applicable in your life. It’s a philosophy book staple.
2. Letters From a Stoic
Similar to Marcus Aurelius, Seneca was another powerful man in Rome. He was a brilliant writer at the time and was the kind of guy to give great advice to his most trusted friends. Fortunately, much of his advice comes in letters, and those letters happen to be in this book. The letters themselves provided advice on dealing with grief, wealth, poverty, success, failure, education, and more.
While Seneca was a stoic, he has a more practical approach and has borrowed from other schools of thought for his advice. As he said when he was alive, “I don’t care about the author if the line is good.” Similar to Meditations, there are several brilliant lines and advice that are still relevant to this day.
Buy “Letters From a Stoic” here.
3. Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle was a famous Greek philosopher at the time with profound knowledge. He’s named after a form of logic as well called Aristotelian logic. Through this book, Aristotle writes about the root of all Aristotelian ethics. In other words, this book contains the moral ideas that form a base for pretty much all of western civilization.
Buy “Nicomachean Ethics” here.
4. Beyond Good & Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche played a big role in the philosophical world. He was one of the leading philosophers of the existential movement, and it all came through this particular book. He is a brilliant mind. However, the issue with a lot of his work is that it’s all written in German.
Fortunately, this book is one of the slightly more accessible ones since it’s translated. Within the book, he breaks down the paradoxes of conventional understandings of morality. By doing this, he sets the stage for a lot of the 20th-century thought process that followed.
Buy “Beyond Good & Evil” here.
5. Meditations on First Philosophy
In Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes breaks his book down into six meditations. The book takes a journalistic style that is structured much like a six-day course of meditation. On day one, he gives instructions on discarding all belief in things that are not guaranteed. After that, he tries to establish what can be known for sure. Similar to Meditations, this is a staple and influential philosophical text that you can pick up.
Buy “Meditations on First Philosophy” here.
6. Ethics
Written by Benedict de Spinoza, this came at a time during the Age of Enlightenment. Enlightenment was a movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries and with that, many schools of thought emerged and were presented through books.
Out of the many influential philosophy books published back then, Ethics dominated during this period as it discussed the basis of rationalism. Even though we’ve developed further beyond that, Ethics can introduce new ways of thinking from this particular school of thought.
7. Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant is another great philosopher who brought together two of history’s biggest opposing schools of thought into a single book. Those schools being rational thought and empirical experiential knowledge—knowledge gained through experience.
In Critique of Pure Reason, Kant explores human reason and then works to establish its illusions and get down to core constituents. Overall, you can learn more about human behavior and thought processes and thus, open your mind more to how you think and process everything around you.
Buy “Critique of Pure Reason” here.
8. On the Genealogy of Morals
Another piece of work from Nietzsche that is accessible to us is On the Genealogy of Morals. According to Nietzsche, the purpose of this book is to call attention to his previous writings. That said, it does more than that so you don’t need to worry so much about reading his other books.
In this book, he expands on the cryptic aphorisms that he brings up in Beyond Good and Evil and offers a discussion or morality in a work that is more accessible than a lot of his previous work.
Buy “On the Genealogy of Morals” here.
9. Everything Is F*cked
The only book on this list that’s been written in the past few years, this book by Mark Manson aims to explain why we all need hope while also accepting that hope can often lead us to ruin too.
While many of the books on this list are all practical, this one is the most realistic one since not even the greatest of philosophical minds could predict things like technology, Twitter, and how our political world has shaped.
Manson delivers a profound book that taps into the minds of our ancestral philosophers, such as Plato, Nietzsche, and Tom Waits, and digs deep into various topics and how all of it is connected—religion and politics, our relationship with money, entertainment, and the internet.
Overall, this book serves as a challenge to all of us—a challenge to be more honest with ourselves and connect with the world in a way we’ve never tried before.
Buy “Everything Is F*cked” here.
10. Reasons and Persons
One of the most challenging philosophy books to read on this list, Reasons and Persons will send you on quite the trip. Through a lot of painstaking logic, Derek Parfit shows us some unique perspectives on self-interest, personhood, and whether our actions are good or evil.
Considered by many to be an important psychological text around the 20th century, the arguments made about those topics will open your mind to a brand new way of thinking.
Buy “Reasons and Persons” here.
11. The Republic of Plato
Written by Plato himself, this book is the origin of political science and offers a brilliant critique of government. As you would expect, the critique is still important today. If you’re looking to understand the inner thoughts of Plato, this is one of the best books around.
Buy “The Republic of Plato” here.
Final Thoughts
Philosophy books take a while to digest as they provide profound knowledge and leave you with many questions. With many of these philosophy books, you need to take your time with them, and you might have to read through them a few times as well. And with every read, your mind will only expand.
More Books to Open Your Mind
- 10 Mind Expanding Books To Read In A Lifetime
- 10 Books to Read That Will Change The Way You Think Forever
- 20 Brilliant Self-Help Books You Need To Read
Featured photo credit: Laura Chouette via unsplash.com
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