This expression lingers for a heartbeat—not too long. It hangs on their face as if their skin itself is unsure what shape to take. That extra second is the glitch—it’s a moment where the narcissist’s brain scrambles between fight, flight, freeze, and facade. Their face cycles through all four at once, which is why the fish mouth looks so distorted: it is their emotional system misfiring. This expression reflects the primitive reflex of a person who feels cornered at a level deeper than thought. When their lips push forward and harden, it is the body trying to create distance without moving.
Animals do this when they sense a threat they cannot escape; they pull their mouths forward as a barrier—a physical shield—a way to signal, “stay back,” while remaining completely still. You may have noticed this. Look closely at a narcissist’s fish mouth moment. The lips bulge slightly, indicating pressure building behind them. It’s as if the pressure is pushing them forward. This is the same reflex the body produces right before a scream, but that scream never comes out. It creates a neuromuscular stutter. Their mouth is preparing for an emotional outburst that their intellect is trying to suppress.
The downward corners of the mouth add another layer: it reflects the beginning of a cry that their body aborts halfway. Adults rarely make that shape unless they are overwhelmed; children make it when they are seconds away from breaking down. The narcissist’s face returns to that same instinctive preverbal shape because exposure reduces them to their most primitive emotional state, which they do not want to acknowledge.
And the jaw is the key. When the jaw clenches, look at the neck and you will see a slight tightening in the tendons. This is the sympathetic nervous system firing: it is a fight-or-freeze activation. The body is preparing for conflict, but the mind is paralyzed. Thus, the tension gets trapped in the jaw, the lips, and the chin. It is a lot of stuck energy that has nowhere to go.
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