Newsletter: Are All Narcissists Truly Dangerous?
How To Know When to Walk Away
Last week, I did a livestream with the hilarious Instagram sensation Adam of Epistemiccrisis, where we talked about him growing up in a New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) church and his MAGA indoctrination. Of course, we also talked about his expertise working with elderly people and he has been tracking Trump’s health decline. This week, I will be doing a livestream on Wednesday, February 11th, from 2-3 pm Eastern time, and a special livestream with Dave Troy on Friday from noon to 1 pm Eastern. Dave Troy has been a colleague and friend who has been expertly researching Russian disinformation efforts for a very long time. Dave has a podcast, blogs at America2.news. Feel free to bring your questions!
It seems that everywhere you look, somebody is warning you about the dangers of the narcissist. Psychology goes through fads, as any other industry, and one look at social media would have you diagnosing everybody from your neighbour to your best friend.
The risk here, of course, is that of fearmongering and spreading misinformation about what narcissism actually is, and how we can know if a narcissistic person is difficult or dangerous.
While it might seem counterintuitive to warn against the dangers of fearmongering, there is a very real difference between calling out a real danger and fostering a constant fear mindset.
To put it metaphorically, it is one thing to tell someone to watch out for a pothole that you’ve encountered, and another to convince someone not to leave the house because they might twist their ankle.
Narcissists: Difficult or Dangerous?
In this week’s post for paid subscribers, What Makes Narcissism “Malignant” and Why It Matters for Your Safety, I talk about how to distinguish between a difficult person and a dangerous person, and discuss:
The Spectrum of Self-Importance
What Makes a Malignant Narcissist - some warning signs
Difficult vs. Dangerous Narcissists
How Narcissists Weaponize Institutions
What to Do When it’s Time to Plan Your Escape
It’s never been a better time to become a paid subscriber! As a paid subscriber, you gain weekly access to premium content like this, along with my full archive of expert interviews, useful articles, and comprehensive guides, including:
Hubbard, Trump, and Narcissism: A Discussion with Jon Atack - we compare the narcissistic qualities of two classic cult leaders: L. Ron Hubbard and Donald Trump.
The Gaslight Report: Understanding Narcissism, Addiction, and Neuroscience With Frank R. George, PhD - Why does Trump act the way he does? A leading expert on narcissism weighs in.
The Traumatizing Narcissist’s Relational System with Daniel Shaw, LCSW - a classic discussion on narcissism and how the traumatizing narcissist controls and affects the lives of those around them.
From the Moral Majority to QAnon
Another way cults and narcissists control people with fear is through conspiracy theories and “end-time” narratives.
However, many people don’t know the historical depth of the current narratives fueling such movements as QAnon, the “alt-right”, and ultra-conservative Christian Dominionism.
In this week’s Cults, Culture & Coercion podcast, End Time Politics: From the Moral Majority to QAnon, I spoke with Keri L. Ladner, Ph.D., author and fundamentalist‑politics expert, about her scholarly research into Jerry Falwell, The Moral Majority, Liberty University, and so much more.
She described the history behind such disturbing entities as Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation, tracing them from their roots in the late 1800s.
Listen on Apple | Spotify | Watch on YouTube
Read my Substack post about the interview:
End Time Politics: From the Moral Majority to QAnon with Dr. Keri L. Ladner
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
Lifton's eight criteria in five words each (AI)
• Milieu Control: Total control over all communication.
• Mystical Manipulation: Orchestrated experiences framed as supernatural.
• Demand for Purity: Binary world of good versus evil.
• Cult of Confession: Forced reporting of secret thoughts.
• Sacred Science: Dogma framed as absolute truth.
• Loading the Language: Complex thought compressed into slogans.
• Doctrine over Person: Logic ignored to protect belief.
• Dispensing of Existence: Only true believers deserve life.
Take whatever is in the field of psychology’s body of knowledge that is beyond my limited knowledge, put it on paper, and it would fill libraries (plural). My knowledge of human psychology that is beyond the field of psychology’s BofK fills a short essay. But if the field of psychology’s current BofK is the grape juice, then my simple contribution is the yeast.
An individual’s CofC (circle of concern) is a “perception” (aka “it is what the unconscious mind thinks”). The individual’s CofI (circle of influence within the social system) is “real” (aka “it is what it is”). A mature individual’s CofI is encompassed within the individual’s CofC. Psychological health is when the CofI expands, but never much beyond the CofC (think Joe Biden). Psychological illness is when the CofI expands far beyond the CofC (think Donald Trump), or when the CofC shrinks (think Rudy Giuliani).
We are unaware that we are expressing our maturity in our behavior, but if you apply the knowledge in the above paragraph, then maturity and immaturity become readily apparent.
In a healthy social system, there is a healthy tolerance for immaturity, meaning that it is perceived as a vice, and the tolerance is limited. Civilization is unhealthy because of modern culture’s implied message that immaturity is a virtue.
With one exception, a mammalian social instinct specifies a single-family social system. Larger mammalian groups are simple “fission-fusion” societies (aka not “complex-adaptive” systems). We are the one exception. The Homo sapiens social instinct caused our prehistoric ancestors to form the planet’s first multi-family system, the hunter-gatherer band. When a prehistoric band grew much beyond Dunbar’s number (150 individuals), it divided in two.
As MLK put it, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Translation: like it or not, we are all subjects of a single global system.
A narcissist’s CofC is “me, myself, and I.” A "malignant" narcissist has a large CofI.
Now how does that not make sense??? You’re welcome.