Stage Number Three: The Empathy Shutdown. You may wonder how there can be an empathy shutdown when narcissists have no empathy from day one. You need to know that before this point, they used to fake love and do things that made them appear human, just like the rest of us. But now they stop doing even that. They show their full dark side without any fear. This is where the mask dies—the little human imitation they used to perform. The fake affection, concern, warmth—all of it disappears. They no longer pretend to be a person. Their face goes cold, their eyes flatten, and the performance ends. What remains is the real creature underneath: emotionless, evil, and frighteningly empty.
This is the phase where they stop needing to be liked. Narcissists usually rely on admiration, validation, and being seen as good. But after accountability and rage break them down, they lose interest in appearing human at all. The social mask becomes useless to them. They stop caring about how they look, how they sound, or how they come across. This is the psychological death of their humanity—the point where their emotional world goes dark and hollow, like a light switch flicked off forever.
Phase 4: Revenge-Focused Mindset
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