what is a collapsed narcissist, and what does it mean? First of all, let me just say this is a very rare occurrence. However, a narcissist can collapse, which essentially means becoming debilitated due to a complete loss of narcissistic supply and/or exposure for who they truly are—typically a liar, a fraud, a con artist, and often a serial abuser. For a narcissist to collapse, both of these conditions—loss of supply and exposure—often occur simultaneously.
Most people imagine that narcissists possess never-ending confidence and never suffer from self-doubt, shame, or emotional stress. While this is true most of the time, it’s important to understand that, beneath their false, arrogant, entitled, manipulative, and abusive exterior lies an incredibly vulnerable true self. This hidden self feels deeply flawed, inferior, shameful, worthless, and inadequate.
This vulnerability is one of the reasons the narcissist develops their false self in the first place. The false self serves as a way to compartmentalize those horrible feelings of inferiority and shame, replacing them with a façade of confidence and superiority. However, this self is entirely fabricated. Most of the time, narcissists bury their feelings of worthlessness so deeply that they do not consciously experience them, as long as they are consistently extracting high levels of narcissistic supply.
continue reading on the next page
Sharing is caring!
