Psycho-Free Zone

Unmasked Narcissism Recently, I read an article, written by a mental health professional regarding narcissistic personality disorder, that made a derogatory statement about there being so much information online written by lay-folk regarding personality disorders. My first thought was, yeah, due to having the misfortune of experiencing an NPD at an intimate level, some lay-folk understand narcissism better than certain clinicians . I don’t mean non-professionals should try to diagnose each new acquaintance, but psychologists aren’t infallible, and they, too, may be fooled by a narcissist playing the role of a decent human being. Having the training and a degree doesn’t necessarily mean the therapist learned it correctly or actually knows how to apply the knowledge appropriately. Reading about the traits of personality disorders and psychopathy in textbooks isn’t the same as encountering them in the wild. As far as armchair psychologists go, who better to identify an NPD than someone w

Why did we move in with my Narcissistic Mother-In-Law? When my husband and I returned to our home state, several years ago, the plan was to stay with his parents while he settled into a new job position. We both worked with the company, and the owners wanted him to relocate. He was also to have a minor surgery (with a sufficient recovery period), and we were to search for an apartment. It was my narcissistic mother-in-law (NMIL) who extended the invitation for us to stay with them during this time. Upon our arrival, she designated one end of the house, with two spare rooms, for us to spread out in. ( She later rewrote history by stating that she never said any such thing, but I specifically remember her telling us this, because it made me feel that she was giving us room to breathe, and maybe this wouldn't be so unpleasant after all . ) For a brief period of time, she expressed concern over Tim's injury, even sharing her prescription pain meds and sleeping pills with him, and

Sabotage Anyone who's come out of a long-term toxic relationship knows that a manipulative, vindictive narcissistic ex can all but ruin your life. They'll at least do their best to try. My husband's abuser managed to sabotage his career, basically setting him back to square one. She did this even though taking away his means to support himself also meant taking away his means to pay child support to her. An emotionally healthy woman with a handful of kids will look for a job to help support herself and her children. An unbalanced wreck in the same situation will spend all of her time plotting and scheming until she succeeds in cutting off the only source of income she does have. To me, this is one of the most baffling aspects of psychopaths and the personality disordered . When they perceive that someone has wronged them, they will go out of their way to harm that person, even when it is inevitable that they themselves will be negatively affected by the outcome. I truly bel

Disordered and Deceitful Psychopaths There is no cure for psychopathy/sociopathy/cluster B personality disorders. There is no way to teach a psychopath to have compassion and empathy. Worse, being a sociopath isn't even a crime, in and of itself. There are plenty of personality disordered, high conflict people running around loose in our culture, and they destroy people's lives. Not all of them kill, not all of them are physically abusive, and not all of them commit such blatant crimes that they wind up in prison, but they all use and abuse others for their own personal gain. Given that knowledge, is there any way we could co-exist with psychopaths peacefully? Could they be integrated into society in such a way that they could only be helpful? Here are a few ideas for how to neutralize them, in order to protect the innocent.  Option 1 - Banishment Exile psychopaths. Give them their own remote territory to reside on, but make sure they have no way to leave this pla

  Sex Trafficking I was reading an article about sex trafficking (I removed the old, broken link but was unable to find the original article again), and I couldn't help noticing how the abusers got into the victim's head in Brianna's story. Psychopaths, sociopaths, predators, whatever you want to call them, they all follow basic patterns for victimizing others. It starts by asking seemingly innocuous, friendly questions. What they are really doing is gleaning personal information from you with the intent of using it against you later. In Brianna's case, the predator used personal knowledge of her likes and dislikes so that he could cast a younger predator in the role of her Prince Charming. The one portraying her "dream guy", then made her feel special and forged a superficial bond with her, thus making it easier to manipulate her into doing what he wanted. Predators Know How To Get Into Your Head It's important to notice these patterns, because anyone is