My latest video 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.
In the narcissistic family system, the needs of the disordered parent take precedence over the needs of the dependent child, resulting in narcissistic abuse. Family members are not cherished individuals to be loved; they are instead ‘narcissistic supply’ whose only purpose is to serve the infantile, primitive psycho-emotional needs of the narcissistic parent.
Few things are more heart-wrenching to me as a Mental Health practitioner than when I see a client being scapegoated, betrayed, and abandoned by their family-of-origin – and even some friends – when divorcing a spouse that engages in covert abuse…
This article was originally published on Psych Central as an advance preview of my book on family scapegoating abuse (FSA), Rejected, Shamed, and Blamed. To comply with current publishing requirements, I am no longer able to offer portions of this book for free online and the article has therefore been deleted (it is available as…
