It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People

by Ramani Durvasula

antagonistic relational stress to describe what happens to survivors of these relationships, and I prefer to characterize the behavior of the psychologically harmful person in my clients’ lives as antagonistic, which is a broader and less stigmatized term than narcissistic.

It’s not accurate to say narcissistic people are devoid of empathy. Their empathy is hollow and variable. Narcissistic people have cognitive empathy—they may understand what empathy is and why someone feels a certain way, and they may use it to get what they want.

The DIMMER Patterns Dismissiveness, invalidation, minimization, manipulation, exploitativeness, and rage

But radical acceptance isn’t necessarily a call to leave a relationship or situation. It is a shift in expectations regardless of what you choose to do. It means that if you stay in the situation, you see the relationship and the behavior within the relationship clearly.