Recognizing the Pattern behind Narcissistic Abuse Cycle and Recovery (A study in the Indian context)

Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Research in Psychology

Year: 2022

DOI:

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Recognizing the Pattern behind Narcissistic Abuse Cycle and Recovery (A study in the Indian context)

Malini Nandi Majumdar

ABSTRACT: 

Narcissistic abuse covers a wide array of manipulative techniques being applied by an individual who has been clinically diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). This abuse starts in different forms from the very first moment when one comes into close contact with a narcissist individual and continues till the moment they disappear, making the affected person feel worthless, confused and incompetent. The victims may hold themselves responsible for the failure of the relationship and carry the agony throughout their life. The commonly applied techniques of narcissistic abuse include but are not limited to love bombing, crazy making, stone walling, ghosting, gas lighting. guilt tripping, lying, name calling, scapegoating, baiting, withholding etc. and could be categorized into four distinctive stages: idealization, devaluation, discard, and hoover. In countries like India, psychological counseling is still perceived as a taboo and the majority of people still have a certain amount of reservation against visiting a mental healthcare provider. This closed societal perception has created a major road block in diagnosing NPD and also fails to recognize the need for providing necessary support to the victims of this abuse. This paper aims at creating awareness in understanding the pattern of narcissism in India, identify the difficulties in victims of narcissistic abuse and educate them with necessary knowledge towards transforming from striver to thrive.

keywords: love bombing, crazy making, stone walling, gas lighting, guilt tripping.