Communicating with narcissists . . . why do we bother? I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Between their penchant for tossing word salad, pathological lying, broken promises, deliberate provocations, pretzel twisting words, putting words in your mouth that were never there — it’s both pointless and exhausting. Unless, of course, the narcissist or borderline is […]
Narcissist Fight Club Rule #5: Defending Yourself Makes You More Vulnerable
Arguing with narcissists, borderlines, psychopaths and other emotionally immature and unstable personalities is typically a pointless exercise for several reasons. First, narcissists aren’t interested in equitable solutions. They want to “win.” They especially like to win when they’re objectively wrong. They take perverse pleasure in getting others to admit that up is down and day […]
High-Conflict Phases of Abuse, Blame Shifting, Distortion, Rage and Manipulation Diagram
Although this post is published under my name (Dr Tara J. Palmatier) it was actually written by one of my clients who is also a doctor in another health field. A couple weeks ago, he sent a diagram (included below) he created to discuss during our upcoming session. I was blown away. The diagram captures […]