Why do narcissists have such fragile egos?

https://lemmy.world/post/35133653

Why do narcissists have such fragile egos? - Lemmy.World

Lemmy

Cause they only focus on themselves? If that gets attacked, it’s an attack on their only asset. When your focus lies on a spectrum of interests other than yourself, you keep an overview and your overall self worth. I dunno.

Hmmm… That gives me an idea.

I know someone who might be a narcissist. Maybe I could exploit this vulnerability to expose him. You know, just to test my suspicions. Could just say something that mildly challenges his ego and see how he responds. If he menages to keep his cool like a normal person, then my hypothesis was wrong and I don’t have to be so suspicious of him any more.

Careful. Skillful Narcissists can be quite adept at keeping their cool in public (to maintain their positive public image) while simultaneously planning their complete and total revenge on you - smear campaign, sabotaging relationships, setting up traps, lobbing false accusations, messing with your employment, messing with your spouse, vexatious lawsuits, the works.

If you play with a Narcissist, be prepared to go ALL THE WAY when you dance with them. Complete and total WARFARE.

Really, unless you have some compelling reason to do so, the only winning move is not to play.

Hmm… That is a good point. Seems like a risky experiment.

The idea with this test setup is based on the idea that the result could potentially provide new information instead of just confirming what I already believe to be true. An inferior experiment would just involve mild flattery, but that can only result in confirmation bias instead of rejecting a hypothesis. Not my favorite type of experiment.

I guess and observational approach is the way to go in this case.