Defining Narcissistic Abuse: The Case for Deception as Abuse

Narcissistic abuse is a serious form of abuse that is estimated to affect somewhere between 60 and 158 million people in the U.S. alone (Bonchay, 2017). Just recently, June was recognized as Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Month. Despite its prevalence and the efforts to promote awareness, however, there is almost no public knowledge of this type of abuse. Most types of abuse, such as physical abuse and psychological abuse, have generally agreed-upon definitions. Yet often the definitions supplied for narcissistic abuse in mental health literature as well as books and articles written for survivors are vague, imprecise, and inconsistent. Although the definitions offer a lot of helpful details, they usually do not provide enough context to indicate exactly what narcissistic abuse is. This lack of a clear and consistent definition is possibly one of the reasons for the general lack of mainstream awareness of this type of abuse. In this article, I will propose a working definition and discuss why it is so important to be able to precisely and consistently define it. The Problems in the Current Definitions of Narcissistic Abuse To define narcissistic abuse, sources typically use descriptions of certain aspects of it. For example, some sources define it as a combination of tactics that are used by the perpetrator to abuse a partner (i.e., Lancer, 2017, et al.). Other sources define narcissistic abuse by describing the signs it has occurred through how it has affected the survivor (...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Abuse Codependence Domestic Violence Narcissism PTSD Relationships & Love Self-Esteem Source Type: news