Sam Vaknin: “The narcissist is never whole without an adoring, submissive, available, self-denigrating and self-deprecating partner. His very sense of superiority, omnipotence, omniscience, indeed, his false self, depend on it. His sadistic super-ego switches his attentions from himself to the partner, finally obtaining an alternative source of sadistic satisfaction. We have a sadist and a masochist in a dyad.”
“The greater the man, the narcissist, the easier it is for the partner to ignore her own self, to dwindle, to become nothing but an extension, to merge with the narcissist.”
