Welcome to our new subscribers!
First of all, I’m pleased to share that I am now a recognized licensed Mental Health professional within the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube conducts extensive research on a practitioner before granting this formal recognition. Not everyone cares if information being distributed on social media is coming from an authoritative source but for those who do, you can look for a light blue banner under each video to see if the channel owner is licensed and considered to be an authoritative source within their chosen niche. Learn more about YouTube’s Health Professional program.
On a different note: Thank you to all of you who listened to my interview on family scapegoating with Sheree Clark last week and gave me such positive feedback. For those of you who missed this interview, I will be sharing it here in a future post once I receive the audio file from Sheree.
Dysfunctional Versus Narcissistic Family Systems
Next: The video I released today (see below) on narcissistic families and scapegoating explores family systems that are dominated by a narcissistic parent. This would be a parent that meets the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder or who displays strong narcissistic traits.
My years of research on what I eventually named family scapegoating abuse (FSA) confirmed that scapegoating can occur in both dysfunctional and narcissistic families. However, these days it seems that all dysfunctional families are assumed to be narcissistic, and this is simply not the case.
Specifically: A narcissistic family system is always dysfunctional, but a dysfunctional family is not always a narcissistic family system. A dysfunctional family that scapegoats may have intergenerational trauma and/or a parent who is suffering from a personality disorder, such as Borderline Personality Disorder or Histrionic Personality Disorder, which are classified as Axis II disorders in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM).
Alternatively, the scapegoating parent (or other family power-holder) may suffer from an Axis I disorder, such as an anxiety disorder, PTSD, major depression, or Substance use. In these types of dysfunctional family systems, FSA is typically driven by the Family Projective Identification Process, which you can read more about in my article on dysfunctional family scapegoating.
How Is a Narcissist Created?
There are many clinical views and theories regarding how a narcissist is ‘created’. Some theorize that a narcissist experienced chronic parental criticism, abuse, trauma, or neglect in early childhood. Alternatively, the child may have been excessively praised and objectified by a parent, depriving them of healthy attachment, bonding, and connection.
Viewed through this lens, narcissistic personalities form around a core emotional injury in response to toxic shame, loss, and attachment deficiencies. Narcissists may therefore suffer from intra-psychic ‘splitting’ and a sense of core emptiness, meaninglessness, and alienation from self and others. In the Greek myth of Narcissus, he dies of sorrow due to loneliness and alienation.
In the field of Cognitive Neuroscience, research on narcissism suggests that those who clinically qualify as having Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) or who are malignant narcissists exhibit “consistencies pointing to abnormalities in certain brain areas, especially the insular cortex, that are associated with features of NPD, especially lack of empathy. The origins of NPD remain unknown; however biological, psychological and social factors all play important roles in the etiology of this disorder (sourced from https://www.imedpub.com/articles/the-cognitive-neuroscience-of-narcissism.php?aid=22149#).
Regardless of how a narcissistic personality is formed, it has been my clinical observation that children who grow up in a narcissistic family system are not cherished individuals to be nurtured and loved; they are instead a source of ‘narcissistic supply’ whose only purpose is to serve the infantile, primitive needs emanating from the ‘split’ psyche of the narcissist. This same ‘splitting’ dynamic can also result in the creation of a ‘golden child’ and a ‘scapegoat child’. In such families, the scapegoating of a child can be particularly severe.
Below is a video discussing my clinical experience with narcissistic family systems and how the ‘scapegoat’ is created. Video chapters are included beneath the video for easy reference.
- 00:00 – Intro
- 01:46 – Scapegoating in a Narcissistic family system – About NPD
- 02:25 – Intra-psychic splitting and childhood trauma / narcissism
- 03:52 – Narcissistic abuse and family scapegoating abuse (FSA)
- 05:29 – Understanding the Narcissistic family system
- 06:08 – The ‘Golden Child’ / ‘Scapegoat Child’ split
- 08:22 – Client case study of the ‘Golden Child’ / ‘Scapegoat Child’ split
- 08:46 – When a scapegoating parent is a Malignant Narcissist
- 09:36 – Family members as ‘Narcissistic Supply’
- 10:48 – The twisted, primitive needs of the Narcissistic parent
- 11:18 – Trauma Bonding and Narcissistic Family Abuse
- 12:57 – The fall-out of being raised in energetic ‘war zone’ (clinical assessment process)
Rebecca C. Mandeville, MA
Rebecca C. Mandeville coined the research-supported terms ‘family scapegoating abuse’ (FSA) and ‘family scapegoat trauma’ (FST) and is a recognized thought leader in understanding the consequences of being in the family ‘identified patient’ or ‘scapegoat’ role. She also created the FSA Recovery Coaching℠ process. Her best-selling book, ‘Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed’, is the first book ever written on FSA. Rebecca serves as a YouTube Health Partner via her channel ‘Beyond Family Scapegoating Abuse’ and is also active on Instagram and Facebook.
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