The Secret Language of Narcissists: How Abusers Manipulate their Victims.

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The Secret Language of Narcissists: How Abusers Manipulate their Victims.

Society assumes that everyone has a conscience and the ability to empathize.


In fact, 1 in 25 people in the United States are estimated to be sociopaths, according to Harvard psychologist Martha Stout. Narcissists (those who meet the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder), sociopaths and psychopaths, speak in the language of crazy-making, of projection, of word salad, of gaslighting and of pathological envy.

While I will be focusing on narcissistic abusers in this post, keep in mind that all three are unable to empathize with others and frequently exploit others for their own agenda. If you encounter someone with narcissistic traits, they could very well fall towards the extreme end of the psychopathy spectrum and be a sociopath or psychopath.

Narcissistic and partners with Antisocial Personality Disorder engage in chronic manipulation and devaluation of their victims, leaving victims feeling worthless, anxious and even suicidal. This type of continual manipulation, which includes an idealization-devaluation-discard abuse cycle where they “lovebomb” their partners, devalue them through stonewalling, gaslighting, smear campaigns, verbal and emotional abuse, then discard them until the trauma begins again, also known as narcissistic abuse—abuse by a partner with NPD or on the far end of the narcissistic spectrum.

Their manipulation is psychological and emotionally devastating and very dangerous, especially considering the brain circuitry for emotional and physical pain are one and the same. What a victim feels when they are punched in the stomach can be similar to the pain a victim feels when they are verbally and emotionally abused, and the effects of narcissistic abuse can be crippling and long-lasting, even resulting in symptoms of PTSD or Complex PTSD. Needless to say, this type of abuse can leave psychological and emotional scars that can last a lifetime.

Yet what makes narcissistic abuse so dangerous is that it is often not recognized as abuse.

Mental health professionals are only now beginning to research and understand what Narcissist Victim Syndrome is, although survivors have been speaking about it for years. Narcissistic abuse is primarily psychological and emotional (though victims can suffer physical abuse as well) and since these abusers employ very covert and insidious methods to abuse their partners, they are able to escape accountability for the abuse because of the false persona they present to the outside world which is usually a charming mask that hides their cruelty.

Survivors often blame themselves for the abuse, not being able to put into words what they’ve experienced. Once they learn the vocabulary of narcissistic abuse, they are armed with the tools, the insights, and the resources to heal. Learning the language and techniques of these predators means that we are better prepared to identify the red flags when interacting with people who display malignant narcissism or antisocial traits and that we can better protect ourselves from exploitation and abuse. It means we can set appropriate boundaries with others, and make informed decisions about who we keep in our lives.

Understanding the nature of these toxic interactions and how they affect us has an enormous impact on our ability to engage in self-care. I personally know how devastating this type of abuse can be, especially when survivors are not able to speak of their experiences in the traditional discourse about what abuse entails and are often alienated and invalidated by friends, family members, and even mental health professionals who are not trained in this type of abuse. As a survivor, author, coach and a researcher, I’ve made it my mission to continue educating the public about the effects of narcissistic abuse, the techniques of narcissistic abusers, and the fact that healing from this type of abuse is possible.

These pathological individuals walk among us every day in their false masks, often unseen and unnoticed because of how eerily normal they are. They can be of any gender, background, and socioeconomic status. Often times, they are charming, charismatic, the life of the party, able to hook their victims in and dupe the public effortlessly. It’s very possible you’ve dated, worked with, had a family member or friend with Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder in your lifetime.

Learning their emotional language means acknowledging that their cruelty is not only explicit but implicit, deeply ingrained in nuances in their facial expressions, gestures, tones, and most importantly, the contradictory mismatch between their words and actions. Their cruelty is deliberate and designed to control and ultimately destroy their victims.

These types of abusers are fluent in manipulation, well-versed in sadism, in control and in rage. It is akin to psychological and emotional rape—a sordid violation of boundaries and of the trust the victim has given his or her abuser.

Narcissistic abusers can attack at any given moment, using their choice weapons of sarcasm, condescending remarks, name-calling, and blame-shifting whenever they perceive you as a threat or whenever they need entertainment in the form of an emotional reaction. They can also use their nonverbal language in the form of a sadistic smirk, the cold deadness in their eyes while professing their to love you, their bored, sulky looks or their cruel laughter to bully you into believing that you are inferior to them.

Survivors spend much of the devaluation phase of an abusive cycle (the phase where they are thrust off the pedestal, only to be demeaned and degraded) constantly on their toes, careful not to make a sound lest they incur the wrath of their narcissist. Yet walking on eggshells doesn’t help, as the narcissist can and will use anything and everything you’ve said or done against you.

There are three key pieces of information that narcissists frequently collect in the idealization phase of the relationship where they are first lovebombing and grooming you with excessive attention, that they later wield against you in the devaluation and discard phases in their special language of depravity:

1. The flaws, shortcomings, insecurities and secrets you’ve confided in the narcissist about.


The narcissistic abuser rejoices when you share your wounds, your struggles, and your triggers early on. It is then that much easier for them to get underneath your skin and inside of your mind. During the early stages of the relationship, you are likely to feel so trusting and open with a narcissist that you share everything with them: your past, your heartbreaks and what you perceive to be your flaws.

You may see this as a way of establishing rapport, a connection with your partner, a way of being vulnerable and intimate. A narcissistic abuser sees it as dinner laying itself on the table. They will pretend to support you and empathize with you when you reveal these to them initially, but will later use these to provoke you, belittle you and demean you during the devaluation phase.

Remember: The narcissist has no limits as to what he or she will use, they thrive on the fact that you are being retraumatized. Their ability to make you regress right back into the original trauma with just one turn of phrase makes them feel powerful. And they live for that power, because it is the only power they have. To a narcissist, any open wound is an invitation to cut deeper and the narcissist can and always will cut a wound even deeper than the first.

2. Your strengths and accomplishments, especially the ones they are pathologically envious of.


Initially when you were on the pedestal, the narcissist couldn’t get enough of your strengths and accomplishments. They couldn’t stop raving about you to family and friends, showing you off, treating you like a trophy, an essential part of them. Their association with you inevitably made them feel superior and important. It bolstered their false image of being a normal human being who could get a “prize” like you.

In the devaluation phase, a narcissist will literally translate your strengths into perceived flaws. Once you were “confident and sexy,” but now you’re “cocky and vain.” Before, you were “intelligent and driven,” and now you’re just a “know-it-all” or a “a smartass.”

They gaslight you into believing that your value and worth are not real, all while projecting their own sense of inferiority onto you. They will degrade, minimize, and ignore what you accomplish, now acting as if it means nothing to them and as if it is of little importance or value to the world. They will feed you falsehoods about your lack of competence and ability. They will claim to be better at you, all the while stealing your ideas. They will taunt you into believing that you’re not capable of the smallest of tasks, even if you are out of their league professionally and personally. They will threaten to ruin your reputation and they will often sabotage major events as well as support networks you may have, attempting to turn everyone against you. They will trample upon your dreams, your aspirations, your beliefs, your personality, your goals, your profession, your talents, your appearance, your lifestyle – all the while extolling their own.

Their sudden turn of language takes a toll; it is traumatizing, shocking and unexpectedly vicious. Everything they once praised will inevitably be turned and twisted into a weakness. This is because they cannot stand you “winning” and being better than them at something. To them, everything is a competition and a game that they must win at all costs. They seek to destroy you in every way possible so that you, in turn, destroy and sabotage yourself—all the while they sit back, relax and watch the unraveling of everything you’ve worked hard for.

3. Your need to please them and their need to be perpetually dissatisfied.


The narcissist cultivated your need for his or her validation and approval early on in the idealization phase. By making you dependent on his or her praise, they conditioned you to seek the excessive admiration that only they could dole out. Now, as they devalue you, they use your need for validation to their advantage by withdrawing frequently, appearing sullen at every opportunity, and converting every generous thing you do for them as a failure on your part that falls short of their ludicrous expectations. Nothing can meet their high standards and everything wrong will be pointed out. In fact, even the things they do wrong shall be pinned on you.

Their blame-shifting language, passive-aggressive sulky behavior and narcissistic rage at the slightest injury becomes all-consuming for the victim, as the victim attempts to strengthen his or her efforts to meet the standards of the narcissist —standards which inevitably set the victim up for failure. For this, the victim is met with verbal assault, accusations and unfair comparisons which instil in him or her a pervasive sense of worthlessness and never being “enough.”

If the victim ever attempts to make the narcissistic abuser accountable for being a decent human being, they will lash out in rage, blaming them for the abuse and stonewalling the victim into silence. They love to have the last word, especially for the language they’ve created.

Taking back our control and power from a narcissistic abuser means going to war with the language they use against us. This means seeking validating, professional help for the abuse we’ve suffered, detaching from these people in our lives, learning more about the techniques of abusers, finding support networks, sharing our story to raise awareness and finding the appropriate healing modalities that can enable us to transcend and thrive after their abuse.

We can channel this experience of abuse for our highest good and for the greater good. We just have to be willing create in its place what I call a “reverse discourse”—a new language and a rewriting of the narrative that instead lifts us, motivates us, inspires us and revives us by replacing the narcissist’s cutting words with our own powerful truth.

Written by Shahida Arabi

Source: Elephant Journal

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COMMENTS

BLOGGER: 10
  1. This describes my husband perfectly! We are currently separated and I am now seeking a divorce due to his unwillingness to accept any responsibility in the demise of our marriage. I've read some articles that tell you how to deal with a narcissist, but most say to run far away. I'm a bit of an empath, so I have a tremendous amount not guilt that will hit me like a ton of bricks and make me doubt everything I know to be true about him. Do you have an article or book that you would suggest?

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    Replies
    1. Is there a way I can connect with you? I think this describes my husband as well :/

      Delete
    2. Erica. Certainly. I have found that reading others' stories is most helpful. My email is mnm122208 at yahoo.

      Delete
  2. I was intrigued by you article, as not only partners can act this way but also siblings, which you may have spoken of but I was unable to finish reading due to all the pop-ups and such tagged to this page.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. This is so true...it is completely and fully describing my ex -boyfriend. In the beginning I was the amazing one and the attention and flattery level was something that I had never experienced before, but then manipulation begun....after any little thing that I couldn't even notice...he would break up with me in a horrible, cruel...cold way with stone eyes and face...blaming me for everything...my confidence and self -guilt at that time would be so high...I belittled myself completely.....then he would come back to me and be as charming as ever. That cycle happened 3 times in space of 9 months....the day he told me that he love me....he first told me how he didn't like me and didn't want to be with me...made me feel devastated...seemed that he even enjoyed watching me suffering and crying....only to tell me that he loved me 5 hours later the same day. I was so confused...I consider myself normal, empathetic, smart, but this guy managed to make me feel insecure and anxious and not worthy at all times. My family couldn't recognize me anymore, I used to be very strong and happy person before that, but he made me feel so weak. Sometimes I was going through such strong fear and anxiety attacks that he might not love me and leave me that I couldn't concentrate on anything. I doubted myself all the time and even when I found out that he was messaging to other girl behind my back I was afraid to lose him.

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  5. Later his techniques changed to be sulky and unhappy about anything, no matter what I suggested. He used to give me a choice to select what I wanted to do, but always expected me to select the option he was interested in, if I went with a different option, he would go along, but under any small excuse was angry and unhappy with me for the choice I made, but at the same time he would blame me if I selected the option he was interested in....by saying that it was boring that I tried to please him all the time. No matter what I did, I was the looser one and to be blamed. He would keep silent with me for hours sometimes, but very charming and chatty to any stranger that we encountered. I asked him about that and he just made me the guilty one again by saying that I didn't understand anything and what could we even talk about if we always together. He really learnt me and knew how to push my buttons, and observe my reactions whilst doing it. Sometimes he just watched me and observe, I noticed that a few times and pointed out to him. If I at any point withdraw and put the distance because of some of his displayed rage...he would try to get my attention with extreme flattery and attention. He once got extremely angry with me by selecting himself not very nice cafe to eat in Argentina when we travelled there. He looked at me with hatred and accused me of his poor choice, as I was the hungry one! This guy left me in the end in the very brutal way....the pain I went through was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I completely felt useless and unworthy, I blamed myself for every look or gesture or word I said which potentially angered him and made him leave me. After leaving me he sent me nasty emails about how he used to love me and like me before but not anymore...he did it one week before me starting my new job and after he promised to live with me and my flatmate moved out. He only sent me money and said that I should find another person for the flat.

    ReplyDelete
  6. He just told me a lot of nasty things and run away from the house...never answered any message or phone call or called himself. The cruelty of this person is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before. He is from a very abusive family....but it isn't a justification. I am just now 4 months after the break up rebuilding my confidence and self-esteem, my new job, colleagues, my family and friends are my Great support network...they are the one who helped me to realise that he was the abuser, as when you go through that you don't notice or understand what really is going on. Even my family couldn’t understand why I blamed myself or suffered myself from losing him. I don’t know how to explain to them how he broke me down...He and people like him are extremely dangerous for other people sanity and healthy psychic! A few times he told me that sometimes when he wakes up he feels so much rage that he can kill someone. He blamed all his ex girlfriends and myself including for the break up and for being Crazy!
    But the main thing is that he is an extremely charming, friendly, outspoken with others and most people will never be able to know or see what is underneath.

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  7. I think my boyfriend is a narcissist. He has most of the signs desrcribed about them. I have been with him for 14 years and am only just now realizing it. He is a compulsive liar, he lies about everything and does it so naturally. He can not handle any criticism at and he will get angry and start name calling. But he critizies me everyday, everything,I do, everything I day, everything I touch is wrong and i am called a idiot , a retard, the dumbest person he knows almost daily. Early on in our relationship he used to say one thing he liked best about me was that I was smart.He blames me for everything. It is always my fault even if he did it. He will say I started to fight with him, or I pissed him off so I caused it. Its my fault he was arrested for hitting me, i ruined his life i am a cop caller. I can not ask him anything, I have no right to ask wherr his money went, he gambling alot right now (his current obsession). He goes and plays poker loses everything in his pocket and I cant get upset. He says he doesnt owe me nothing and so what I should go with him so he doesnt lose all his money so thats my fault too. But he doesnt listen to me anyway, he will tell me not to tell him what to do im not his mom. He makes promises and always breaks them. I have been finding out he is signed uo to dating websites, to many to count. But says its all fake and so what in stupid because im accusing him of cheating. He has sent emails to girls. Theb he will say im crazy because I looked at his emaim. It none if my buisness. I have aaked him to leave but he wont go. I asked him why he wont leave he just gets angry and throws things at me. I am at a breaking point, I cant continue like this. I am betind broken. I have also lost my only child at age 5 that was not his. He has even used that to hurt me, said it was my fault and I killed my son. He has used every thing I told him about myself or my struggles and he uses it against me cruelly during fights. I dont have the energy to fight him anymore. Im completely exhausted leave emotionaly drained. I just want him to leave.I dont want to even live anymore if it has to be with him.

    ReplyDelete
  8. After being in relationship with Wilson for seven years,he broke up with me, I did everything possible to bring him back but all was in vain, I wanted him back so much because of the love I have for him, I begged him with everything, I made promises but he refused. I explained my problem to someone online and she suggested that I should contact a spell caster that could help me cast a spell to bring him back but I am the type that don't believed in spell, I had no choice than to try it, I meant a spell caster called Dr Zuma zuk and I email him, and he told me there was no problem that everything will be okay before three days, that my ex will return to me before three days, he cast the spell and surprisingly in the second day, it was around 4pm. My ex called me, I was so surprised, I answered the call and all he said was that he was so sorry for everything that happened, that he wanted me to return to him, that he loves me so much. I was so happy and went to him, that was how we started living together happily again. Since then, I have made promise that anybody I know that have a relationship problem, I would be of help to such person by referring him or her to the only real and powerful spell caster who helped me with my own problem and who is different from all the fake ones out there. Anybody could need the help of the spell caster, his email: spiritualherbalisthealing@gmail.com or call him +2349055637784 you can email him if you need his assistance in your relationship or anything. CONTACT HIM NOW FOR SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR PROBLEMS

    ReplyDelete

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Thinking Humanity: The Secret Language of Narcissists: How Abusers Manipulate their Victims.
The Secret Language of Narcissists: How Abusers Manipulate their Victims.
Society assumes that everyone has a conscience and the ability to empathize.
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