Wish I had read your post before I wrote mine! Love it. Have you heard of Sam Vaknin? He is the ‘famous’ narcissist. He’s not hard to find on the web because, as a narcissist, he wants to be seen as the worlds leading expert on narcissism - and this according to his own words. Sam has many excellent articles - one in which he describes how narcissists feel about other people (paraphrasing here: ‘you are an appliance to me. If you got cancer and stopped serving me I would be as angry as if my refrigerator stopped working’) is particularly chilling. Sam makes the point that he is unusual, very unusual, in that he is self aware - he understands his illness and the damage he causes others to an exacting degree but that awareness does not bring healing.
At some point I was desperate to find a source of healing for a loved one who has this illness. I railed against the field of psychology for turning their backs on those with personality disorders -don’t the sick deserve a doctor? If we can heal these lost souls, they improve and they stop damaging others. WIN- WIN!
But I came to the crushing discovery that science does not know how to build a personality once it is destroyed. The damage is supposedly done to the forming self between the ages of 2 and 4 years. Repair work must be accomplished by the age of 18 (I think this seems like an almost arbitrary ethical limit) after which, they are viewed as incurable. They are indeed treatable (not curable) and can improve their quality of life drastically by learning tools that help them interact with others. But that is for those who will face the ordeal (it’s very hard for them to examine the smoking crater where their personality used to be before it was destroyed in childhood) of counseling.
Obama does not want counseling. Obama wants dominion. Soon after the election, one of his lackys was taken to task for gaily speaking about how “Obama is ready to rule...” I have always believed she was not speaking out of hand but that she was quoting him and that he is so damaged he was not able to understand how we might object or why. *shudder*
Still, though, even narcissists are not superhuman. They get sick, injured, and brought low. They can try to use people as appliances, but eventually, what goes around comes around, and they become victims of all their machinations. Or they are outwitted by even WORSE narcissists. I guess that what I’m saying is that Soetero is neither omnipotent nor immortal. How on earth do you go through life an empty shell and not expect to be exposed and “defanged”? (Sorry for the mixed metaphors.) I do think that the notion of a narcissistic supply source is a valid concept. Except for lackeys, bootlickers, and malleable masses, these people would not inflict damage on others.
Thank you for this post. Excellent post.