Background

My Name is Sam Vaknin: Narcissists, Psychopaths, Abuse

Uploaded 8/23/2023, approx. 5 minute read

♪♪♪ Awareness of sexual abuse with children is not new.

But in the 1970s, it exploded, and it also had legal ramifications, and it was the belief that childhood sexual abuse predisposes people to have certain mental health disorders.

Because he has the capability to withhold affection from you, to withhold his love, to withhold the pleasant times together, the narcissists and psychopaths, they are everywhere. They are hard to detect and harder to cope with.

My name isSam Vaknin and I'm the author of Malignant Self-Love, Narcissism Revisited, and a series of other books, about personality disorders.

If you have a narcissistic neighbor, a psychopathic boss, a colleague, a difficult patient, a spouse, a child, if you are divorcing a narcissist or dating one, you must watch these videos on this channel.

Narcissists are hard to detect. Narcissists are manipulative, exploitative, dangerous, subtle, pernicious, and as I said, they are everywhere.

Many narcissists and psychopaths pass off as normal people, as pillars of the community. They are not the serial blood-stained killers of the media or of horror pictures. They are and appear to be normal.

Yet deep inside, their mentality is alien. They lack empathy.

To them, other people are prey, extensions of themselves, mere functions, avatars, representations of useful functions, narcissists are out to maximize narcissistic supply, attention, adulation, admiration, or barring these, being feared or notorious.

Psychopaths are more down to earth. They want money. They seek power. They trample ruthlessly on everyone and everything in their path.

To them, you are merely an obstacle or a useful instrument, a tool.

To survive in today's world where narcissists and psychopaths have risen to the top, in almost every profession, politics, show business, law enforcement, the media, the judiciary, and the clergy.

To spot the psychopaths and the narcissists in your life, your family, workplace, the church, your congregation, your own children, to know how to cope with them and to get rid of them, before it's too late, I urge you and encourage you to watch the tutorials and videos in this channel.

They are free and they are yours and they would help you.

Thank you.


My name is Sam Vaknin and I'm the author of Malignant Self-Love, Narcissism Revisited. We are the founder of this story. We are both human. We invented most of the language in use today, including narcissistic abuse, and many other phrases, and that gave voice to victims of narcissism.

Finally, they were able to communicate using a common language, the experiences that they had with narcissism.

Now, why is that important?

Because narcissistic abuse is different to any other type of abuse, in all other types of abuse, because many people abuse, there are many abusers, and only a small minority of them are actually narcissists, and even a smaller minority, tiny, vanishingly small, are psychopaths.

So, why is it important to distinguish between narcissistic abuse and regular abuse?

Because regular abuse targets an aspect of your personality, a dimension of your being, something you do, something you don't do, but it's highly specific, it's target specific, target oriented, it's concrete.

Narcissistic abuse is total. It is the negation of your existence, the attempt to subvert, undermine your mind, and to take over your personality and your life so totally that you feel that you have vanished. It is an existential type of abuse, the only existential type of abuse.

So, there was a dire need to put into words these unequal experiences that have no parallel.

When victims of narcissistic abuse went to therapists or to other mental health professionals, when they sought help, even from family, even from good friends, they were not able to say what was happening, they were not able to describe what was happening. They were not able to convey the all-pervasiveness, the ubiquity, the depth of narcissistic abuse, how it vitiates them, how it makes them feel like they are evaporating, and so on.

So, in other words, they were dumb, dumb in the sense that they couldn't speak, they were speechless.

But the narcissist doesn't see you the way you see yourself. Narcissists don't care if they give pleasure to someone. They are auto-erotic, they are focused on themselves as the source of erotic pleasure. They must debate with other people's bodies. End of story.

Why is this no-contact rule which you have defined so important, and what does it mean in its fullness?

No-contact is not, people say, my grandmother invented no-contact, not you, because my grandmother walked out on my grandfather. What's good for your grandmother, but that's not no-contact.

No-contact is a set of 27 strategies, which altogether are intended to totally insulate you from any dimension and vector of narcissistic abuse.

Narcissistic abuse is a chimera, it's a hydra. It's like water. It will find a path of least resistance.

So if you block one area, it will come through, you block the door, it comes through the window, you block the window, it'll come from under the floor. You need to block everything.

So there's 27 strategies on how to do that, and you must implement all of them simultaneously and uncompromisingly.

It's about keeping the narcissists away from you and away from anyone who matters to you, and if there's no other choice, because for example you have children together or something, working only through intermediaries.

So he's allowed to talk only to your lawyer or to your accountant, and they have instructions on how to filter his messages. So they should get rid of all the emotional side, and so they should just convey.

So it requires training professionals around you, and it's a lot of work. No-contact is a lot of work. It's not just walking away.

If you enjoyed this article, you might like the following:

Signs You are Victim of Narcissistic Abuse, Not Common Abuse (Stress, Depression Management Webinar)

Narcissistic abuse is a subtype of abusive behavior that is pervasive, sophisticated, and can be practiced either covertly or overtly. Victims of narcissistic abuse often experience depression, anxiety, disorientation, and dissociative symptoms. This type of abuse can lead to complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and even elements of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The way individuals process and react to trauma can lead to either regression into infantile behaviors or personal growth and maturation, depending on their emotional regulation and maturity.


Victim: How to Avoid Becoming a Psychopathic Narcissist

Victims of narcissistic abuse can sometimes adopt the behaviors of their abusers, becoming self-centered and lacking empathy, which can lead to a cycle of narcissism by proxy. This phenomenon is exacerbated by societal dynamics, where marginalized groups may leverage their victimhood for economic and political gain, mirroring the oppressive behaviors they have experienced. The psychological impact of prolonged exposure to narcissistic individuals can lead to complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), where victims exhibit traits associated with narcissism and psychopathy as a means of coping with their trauma. Ultimately, the interplay between victimhood and narcissism highlights the complexities of human behavior in response to abuse, suggesting that the effects of trauma can be both profound and transformative.


Narcissist Needs to Break Your Spirit (Narcabuse TV on IGTV)

In 1995, a lack of literature on narcissistic personality disorder prompted the creation of new terminology to describe the condition and its effects, leading to the widespread use of terms like "narcissistic abuse." The speaker emphasizes that while many people today use the term "narcissism," its meaning has become diluted and often misapplied, reducing it to a pejorative label rather than a clinical diagnosis. The discussion highlights the complexities of narcissistic and psychopathic behaviors, including the dynamics of relationships where one party seeks to control or manipulate the other, often leading to emotional and psychological harm. Ultimately, the only effective way to escape such toxic relationships is through "no contact," which involves severing ties completely to regain autonomy and mental health.


Two Faces Of Narcissistic Abuse Disrespect From Shared Fantasy To Bargaining

Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the dynamics of narcissistic abuse, including the two phases of the shared fantasy and bargaining phase. He explains how narcissists use stickiness to create a shared fantasy with their targets and then extract adulation, abuse, sex, and services. Vaknin also highlights the differences between narcissists and psychopaths and concludes that narcissistic abuse is a choice and a stupid one at that.


PORTUGUESE SUBTITLES: Narcissists, Narcissistic Abuse Snippets (NarcisismocomMirna)

Narcissists and psychopaths are likened to domestic terrorists, necessitating security measures in the fight against narcissism. Childhood experiences of boundary violations, such as idolization and conditional love, hinder the development of individuality and can lead to abusive dynamics. Narcissists employ mind control techniques like entraining and projective identification, manipulating victims into adopting their rejected traits, which perpetuates a cycle of abuse and victimhood. Healing from such relationships requires acknowledging grief, moving on, and recognizing the dual loss of idealized self and the narcissist's perceived love, leading to prolonged mourning.


Deprogram the Narcissist in Your Mind

Narcissists play the role of a good enough mother, adopting a maternal role and idealizing their victims. They regress their victims to infancy, merging and fusing with them, eliminating their individuality and appropriating their individuality. The narcissist creates an introject, an internal representation of the victim, which is muted and spews out words attributed to the introject by the narcissist. The victim has an introject of the narcissist in their head, which is fully active and talks a lot, becoming a second, harsh, sadistic inner critic. The current advice to recognize and embrace victimhood is counterproductive, as it freezes the emergent roles allocated by the narcissist, and the locus of control remains in the narcissist's hands. Victims need to extricate


Narcissism and Abuse Clarified with therapist Jose Espinosa

Narcissistic abuse aims to psychologically eliminate the target, stripping them of independence and agency, rendering them entirely dependent on the narcissist. Narcissists often start as victims of early childhood abuse, leading them to adopt a false self as a defense mechanism, which they then use to manipulate others. The relationship between narcissists and their victims is complex, as narcissists can resonate with the vulnerabilities of their targets, creating a trauma bond that complicates the victim's ability to break free. Social media exacerbates narcissistic behaviors by rewarding attention-seeking actions, while the treatment of narcissism remains challenging, with behavior modification possible but not a true change in personality or self.


20 Signs that Narcissist Infected YOU (Zombie Narcissism)

Narcissism can be contagious, leading individuals to adopt narcissistic traits and behaviors through a process called coercive snapshotting or introjection, where the narcissist imposes their idealized perception of the victim onto them. This results in a loss of personal identity, empathy, and emotional regulation, causing the victim to feel estranged from themselves and exhibit impulsive, aggressive, or self-destructive behaviors. The victim may also experience cognitive distortions, such as splitting and a dependency on the narcissist's perception of reality, which can lead to a shared psychosis. Ultimately, those affected need to recognize the impact of this contagion and work towards rediscovering their own identity and autonomy.


Coping Styles: Narcissist Abuses "Loved" Ones Despite Abandonment Anxiety

Narcissists abuse their loved ones to decrease their abandonment anxiety, restore their sense of grandiosity, and test their partner's loyalty. Abuse also serves as a form of behavior modification, as it signals to the partner that they need to modify their behavior to avoid abuse. Coping styles for dealing with abuse include submissiveness, conflicting, mirroring, collusion, and displacement, but some of these styles can be harmful and should be avoided.


Narcissist's Reactions to Abandonment, Separation, and Divorce

Narcissistic abusers often resort to self-delusion when faced with the dissolution of a meaningful relationship. They may adopt a masochistic avoidance solution, punishing themselves for their failure, or construct a delusional narrative in which they are the hero. Some may become antisocial psychopaths, while others develop persecutory delusions and withdraw completely from social contact, becoming schizoids. Finally, some abusers resort to an aggressive stance, becoming verbally, psychologically, and sometimes physically abusive towards loved ones.

Transcripts Copyright © Sam Vaknin 2010-2024, under license to William DeGraaf
Website Copyright © William DeGraaf 2022-2024
Get it on Google Play
Privacy policy