In this week’s episode of Off the Cuff with Danny LoPriore, my guest is psychologist, relationship coach, and nationally known expert on narcissism, Dr. Jaime Zuckerman, also known as Dr. Z. She works with people nationwide, helping them understand the complexities of narcissistic relationships, providing tools and customized behavior plans to help people make healthy choices. As you may have guessed from the bio, today’s topic is narcissism.

“Because of how a narcissist operates, it is very rare they are going to go into therapy. It’s just not going to happen. Unless it's court mandated or it’s a custody dispute, or substance abuse. They are rarely going to go into therapy. And if they do go into therapy, it's usually with somebody else like their partner, and they manipulate the sessions. It's very rare that you find a narcissist who stays in therapy and does the work. It is a personality disorder.” Dr. Zuckerman (03:33)

Dr. Z and I have a thorough conversation about this mental condition, how narcissistic people think, react, and behave and why many people self-diagnose or misdiagnose themselves or another as being a narcissist. The topic is a sensitive one yet to add levity, the conversation at times, takes on a humorous tone, but the topic of discussion remains unchanged as we delve further into how narcissistic people view the world and perceive their surroundings.

“You are an object to them. You don’t have a separate mind, values, opinions. You’re an object and you’re in the way. Narcissists look at people as objects and they have a distinct purpose and once that purpose is done, you’re done.” Dr. Zuckerman – (30:55)

A big part of our discussion talks about relationships. So many people find themselves in narcissistic relationships and they are uncertain as to how to move forward especially with kids involved. They even start to doubt their own judgements and decisions, something that Dr. Z talks about at length in today’s episode.

“A deliberate attempt to make the other person crazy. It’s an attempt to make the other person not only doubt their own thinking, but they start to not trust their own judgment, they start to not trust other people’s judgment. They only trust the narcissistic partner's judgment. So, their reality is shaped and formed literally by the narcissistic telling them what is true and what isn’t true.” Dr. Zuckerman – (33:41)