Ariadne Conill 🐰1d ago

IQ and other psychometric assessments are not actually backed by hard science but vibes

so when someone brags about having a "genius level IQ", just write them off as a narcissist

sincerely, your local psychologist turned software engineer

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago

@ariadne what does a psychologist say about narcissism anyway

i've seen probably every possible take on the internet by now

Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰1d ago
@whitequark its complicated, I think in a lot of situations narcissistic behavior develops out of self loathing and the discovery that they can self soothe through maladaptive behavior
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago

@ariadne that's useful and reasonable but i was thinking about something different

i think in practice i've mostly seen "narcissist" be used as an insult and as a leverage in an attack. this made it really hard historically to figure out how, if at all, one can make good conclusions about that type of behavior and its observations

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago
@ariadne if someone tells me "X is a narcissist" I don't have any tools to find out if there's truth to it or they just really don't like X
Show threadasie1d ago
@whitequark @ariadne

i think it's pretty hard for an unqualified person to conclusively diagnose someone from a distance; harder, even, than self-diagnosis.

flip side: is there a meaningful difference between "narcissist" and "unlikable/best to avoid, but in a non-narcissistic way" in day to day social life?
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago
@asie @ariadne there is a pretty big difference between someone who I can reasonably avoid, and someone who is likely to (upon finding a real or perceived slight) start tracking down my friends and either coercing them or lying to them as a way to get to/at me
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago
@asie @ariadne last time I was dealing with a (presumably) narcissist they've convinced a friend that she (friend) has weeks to live due to advanced heart disease, all based on an extreme degree of bullshit but one that you wouldn't know how to tell from truth without some training in cardiology. it was not pleasant, and it was most certainly not something I could have simply avoided (indeed I've tried doing exactly that in first place)
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰

@asie @whitequark yes, "know it all" behavior is a common expression of narcissism.

I hope your friend listens to the experts and follows their guidance...

Apr 5 at 6:05pmWeb
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago
@ariadne @asie through the combination of getting an incredibly useless cardiologist to do some tests and having an MD i know explain some cardiology the situation was resolved, yes. but not without them dragging me into like two other largely unrelated conflicts