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Trauma & Narcissism Redefined

Are Narcissists Born This Way?

Trauma & Narcissism Redefined

Caroline Strawson

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

4.8701 Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today's episode, we will talk about something I get asked a lot - are narcissists born that way? We will discuss the impact of intergenerational trauma on a narcissist's development, the role of their protective parts, and the root causes of their behaviour.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

- Why we say that narcissists are formed and not born

- The connection between a narcissist's intergenerational trauma and how their protective parts show up

- How worthiness wounds are formed 

- Why as a society, we must start looking more at the root causes than symptoms of narcissistic behaviour

When we talk about compassion, and understanding narcissistic behaviour, we are not talking about justifying their abuse. We talk about using empathy to understand the origin of their conduct, to know what triggers it, and to understand what it triggers in us, so we can build boundaries around it. 

Resources:

- Join my Narcissistic Trauma Recovery Programme™ https://go.carolinestrawson.com/heal-the-trauma-of-narcissistic-abuse

- 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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the narcissistic trauma recovery podcast. I'm Caroline Strawson and I'll be sharing with you

0:09.5

awareness, understanding and education about the devastating effects of narcissistic abuse to help you thrive.

0:16.4

I want you to know that I've been exactly where you are and I believe you.

0:21.3

And this show is all about taking you from trauma to transformation.

0:30.4

Hey there.

0:31.6

So in this episode, I want to talk about, again, something that I get lots of questions asked about, and that is,

0:40.0

our narcissist is actually born that way. When they come into this world, are they born?

0:44.3

And I suppose I'm going to talk about it from the research that I have seen and found from

0:48.9

my own experiences. And this is really about my opinion. But again, I'm always open to different opinions and different

0:55.9

points of view with all of this. But this is kind of the sort of stance that I am coming from with

1:00.5

the research that I have had. So in my opinion, no, narcissists are not born. There isn't a

1:07.1

gene that we have found that specifies, hey, this is the gene, you are going to be a narcissist.

1:13.1

You know, narcissists are formed and they are formed in childhood because of certain family dynamics,

1:20.3

because of their perception and interpretation of certain behaviour from those around them,

1:26.2

their mother, their father, extended family,

1:28.9

teacher, grandparents, whoever that is. Now, when we talk about intergenerational trauma,

1:35.0

because we know that for up to seven generations deep, we can actually pass down that level

1:41.0

of trauma. So although we know there isn't a narcissist gene, if you think about,

1:47.7

and again, I'll use an example of, let's say you look at the narcissist in your life and they have a

1:52.9

narcissistic parent, for instance, it can almost look like there's a gene that is being

1:58.6

passed down then from generation to generation. But actually

2:01.5

what is being passed down is maladaptive behaviour, an abusive behaviour, because of protection.

...

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