As a result, they will do anything and everything possible to minimize the accomplishments of those who threaten their false sense of grandiosity and superiority. The success of others evokes their pathological envy, reminding them of what they lack and could never achieve themselves. This is why narcissists tend to be pompous critics, usually incapable of the same efforts they criticize in others. Any threat to their grandiose delusions of grandeur will result in a narcissistic injury, and inevitably, narcissistic rage. Yet this horrifying aspect of a narcissist’s diagnostic criteria is even noted in the DSM-5, which states that not only are narcissists envious of others, they believe others to be envious of them.Ī narcissist’s pathological envy arises from their need to be the best, their excessive sense of entitlement to being the center of attention at all times, with the most fame, wealth, and status. We often cannot fathom that a loved one, whether a friend, a family member or significant other, would ever want to sabotage our success, undermine our joy or belittle our accomplishments. Out of all of the manipulative tactics and forms of coercion and control a malignant narcissistic abuser subjects us to, the pathological envy of a narcissist is one of the most baffling and devastating experiences of the narcissistic abuse experience. Shahida Arabi, POWER: Surviving and Thriving After Narcissistic Abuse. In fact, narcissistic abusers feel particular joy at bringing down anyone whose accomplishments and traits they envy to reinforce their false sense of superiority. So the secondary narcissism can also be described as a pathological regression to primary narcissism triggered by a traumatic event that blocks the flow of libidinal energy towards the outside object.Abusers manipulate victims because they enjoy the feelings of power and control, not because victims themselves lack merits. Freud calls this Secondary Narcissism which may lead to Paraphrenia, a combination of megalomania and paranoid delusions. However if due to some reason, the object-love is unreciprocated and unreturned or a certain trauma stops the flow of libido to the outside object, all of the libidinal energy starts to flow back to the ego once again.Īs a result, the individual is consumed in extreme neurotic self-love. In other words, there would be a balance between autoerotism and object-love. This might very well be the reason behind the fact that having sex and having a meal become two completely separate things once we outgrow primary narcissistic stage.įrom now on, the libidinal energy will be directed towards outward objects as well and would be referred to as object-libido.

This is the time when the sex-instincts separate themselves from the ego-instincts. Therefore, it starts to look for outside objects to direct its energy on.

However with the passage of time, the ego becomes packed with libidinal energy because it has been accommodating it for quite some time. This type of self-love caused by the ego-libido in early life is referred to as Primary Narcissism and is necessary for our proper development. During this time, the ego-instincts (the need for self-preservation) and the sex-instincts (the need for preservation of the species) are inseparable.

Pathological narcissist meaning