Sam Vaknin: Narcissists (about 1% of the population) are concentrated in certain professions, in teaching, clergy, show business, management, medicine, military, law enforcement, politics, sports…
Narcissists are addicted to a drug called narcissistic supply. They seek attention, adulation, affirmation, applause, obedience, notoriety, being feared. They need this input to regulate their sense of self-worth, to build their self-confidence.
Narcissists seek to interact with people from a position of advantage. The cerebral narcissist is likely to emphasize intellectual prowess and accomplishment, whether real or imaginary, to solicit supply from awestruck students, voters, patients…
Narcissists seek to create the pathological narcissistic space… They navigate towards certain professions to create spaces where they are divine figures and have a coterie of fans.
Narcissists are liars. They misrepresent their credentials, knowledge, talents, achievements. The narcissist doctor would rather let his patients die than expose his mistakes. The narcissistic therapist often traumatizes his clients with his acting out. Narcissistic businessmen ruin their firms, and often engage in scams.
The narcissist’s relationship with his sychophants is often abusive. He perceives others as objects, mere instruments of gratification. He treats them as dispensable and interchangeable instruments. Being an addict, he seeks an ever larger dose of narcissistic supply, gradually losing what is left of his moral constraints.
When the narcissist’s sources become wary, amused, bored, by his excessive dependence and antics, when they get frightened by his OCD behaviors, when his acolytes leave him, the narcissist resorts to emotional blackmail, distortion, criminal conduct, or he discards the people he cherished a short while before.
Narcissists don’t know how to collaborate and to accept their place. They’re not deterred by possible punishment. They have a sense of entitlement and superiority.
