How A Narcissist Can Fake Empathy

Trauma & Narcissism Redefined

Caroline Strawson

Narcissisticabuse, Health & Fitness, Narcissist, Self-improvement, Education, Recovery, Mental Health, Trauma

4.8 • 701 Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s common to think that your relationship is getting better when your partner starts showing empathy, but with a narcissist, they’re faking empathy to get what they want. So in this episode I’m going to show you how narcissists use empathy to manipulate the people around them and how you can ensure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking things are getting better.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

The 3 layers of empathy
How narcissists use fake empathy to get what they want
The medical diagnosis of narcissism and why an official diagnosis can be an issue
How to avoid falling into the trap of fake empathy

To understand how narcissists use fake empathy, I explore the different types of empathy and how narcissists can manipulate you by taking advantage of the behavior they see in actual empaths. I hope this episode will help you identify some of the warning signs when dealing with narcissists. I’d love to hear your stories and situations in dealing with “empathic” narcissists, so please share your experiences with me by emailing [email protected]

Resources:

Join my Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thriveafternarcissisticabuse
Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinestrawson/
My website: https://www.carolinestrawson.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the narcissistic trauma recovery podcast. I'm Caroline Strawson and I'll be sharing with you
0:09.6	awareness, understanding and education about the devastating effects of narcissistic abuse to help you thrive.
0:16.5	I want you to know that I've been exactly where you are and I believe you.
0:21.4	And this show is all about taking you from trauma to transformation.
0:27.2	So in today's episode, I want to talk to you and share with you something that narcissists do
0:33.2	that can leave many of you wondering if they are actually a narcissist.
0:40.0	And this is around empathy.
0:42.5	When we actually look in the DSM,
0:45.3	which is the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders,
0:49.6	narcissistic personality is listed with nine traits.
0:53.2	And for mental professionals to diagnose this disorder,
0:58.9	an individual has to have five or more traits to be diagnosed. Now, I personally do not like
1:05.8	this medicalization of narcissism, because in some ways that leads to people believing that maybe they're not in
1:14.4	a relationship with a narcissist because they don't have a diagnosis.
1:18.6	But remember, to get a diagnosis, that means someone has to actually acknowledge there's something
1:23.2	wrong and go and get a diagnosis.
1:25.5	And I'm sure many of you listening will know that's very
1:27.9	rarely the case when we start to talk about a narcissist. So really for me, you know,
1:35.0	narcissism isn't necessarily about the diagnosis, the medicalization. However, there is something
1:42.5	interesting that we can take and use from the DSM of one of the traits that they say, and that is empathy, that a narcissist will exhibit, no empathy.
1:54.6	But the issue arises is what if you're in a relationship with somebody, and that could be a parent, it could be your partner,
2:01.4	or even your ex-partner, and they look like they are sharing empathy, because that can leave
	...

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