Reply #27: when you're a person who tries to care about others [View All]

[marions ghost]

it's hard to accept that there are plenty of people who just don't have that sort of empathy with others in them, even though they may pretend to. You just don't want to think that people you are willing to give "the benefit of the doubt" to ...are merely good actors. This is the thing about the malignant narcissist--they often function well in society and give the impression of caring, because they have learned exactly how to manipulate people around them. You'll even find them in "do-gooder" organizations where they win prizes for service to humanity, even while they're completely screwing somebody over in another aspect of their lives. It's very typical that when they do slip up and show their true colors, people are left gaping by the exposure of a side they didn't know existed. Narcissists are extremely destructive, especially when banding together. Our Rethuglican government is full of them. Once you start to see this "personality disorder" or major character flaw (or whatever--the term isn't important--"narcissist" itself is a misleading term)-- anyway, once you see the constellation of behaviors, you realize it's not an uncommon phenomenon.