Entitlement - Dan Cassenti, Novelist

Concept: Narcissists maintain false narratives of their superiority to others as a defense against the inner shame that constantly presses against them. This alignment pushes the narcissist into inventing competitions between themselves and anyone they know with the goal of winning those competitions. Whether they have legitimately achieved greater success than their competitors or have justified why they would have if they had the same advantages, narcissists often feel as if they deserve special status over their competitors.

Testing someone who you suspect of narcissism: Point out the achievement of someone else in the suspected narcissist’s field or social circle and attribute their success to a positive quality or smart move. Narcissists are likely to disagree and jump straight to extreme, negative reactions.

Examples:

“So what if I cut them off? They sped up when merging. I was supposed to be ahead of them.”
“Yeah, I cheated on you, but that’s only because you checked out that woman at the party a year ago.”
Nick peeks at Jamia’s test answer because she didn’t help him study as much as he expected.

Advice: Entitlement directly results from the narcissist’s insecurities and need to win against perceived competitors. Believing in their specialness is a hallmark trait of narcissists. An especially telling sign is hypocrisy. Narcissists often tell others what they shouldn’t do, then turn right around and do it themselves. Make no mistake, narcissists in your life have created false narratives about their superiority to you and will act to benefit themselves at your expense with no moral boundaries.

Narcissism Encyclopedia

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