Narcissism: what's really going on

 In this article, the author gives a fairly thorough description of how those who are narcissistic--clinically or otherwise-manipulate their neighbors to get their way.  NO, "pretty girl with long hair and shiny stuff over her hips" is NOT one of them.  Get your eyes off the picture and read the article, please.  :^)

(why on earth they used that stock photo is beyond me....maybe someone else gets the point, but I must have missed something)

Seriously, the ways are gaslighting, projection, "nonsensical conversations", blanket statements, straw men, "moving the goalposts", changing the subject, threats, name calling, conditioning/brainwashing, smear campaigns/gossip, "love-bombing" and devaluation, "preemptive defense", "triangulation", "baiting", "boundary testing", "aggressive jabs disguised as jokes", condescension, shaming, and control.  

Now when I look at these, I describe the categories somewhat differently.  All of these things would have been described by our ancestors as a mixture of falsehood/lying, gossip, personal attacks/ad hominem attacks, straw men, and other basic logical fallacies.  While perhaps there is a certain point where a sin issue (and lack of decent education) becomes clinically diagnosable, it strikes me that if I were to consistently apply these criteria and start "diagnosing" my neighbors, I'd quickly get to a point where....I'd find that I was diagnosing most of my neighbors as mentally ill, and I'd have to admit that what I thought was mental illness was in fact the normal condition of mankind.

Now let's consider that sequence as well; if we are "medicalizing" our normal condition, we have also participated in "name-calling", "threats", "conditioning", "gossip", "baiting", and.....hey, wait a minute.  If I apply this list consistently, I will implicate myself as a narcissist, at least to a degree.

So while maintaining some room for an actual clinical diagnosis, I'm going to dare suggest that the actual Biblical categories of "lying", "slander", and "gossip", combined with a good appreciation for the rules of informal logic, might be a far more effective way of dealing with these kinds of problems than by throwing the "bomb" of claiming someone is a narcissist.