Narcissists see things in black and white with no room for gray. So if you’ve had moments where you felt like they’ve hated you, you were probably right, at least for that moment. They see you as either all good or all bad, and their perception can change very quickly. This is called “splitting,” and it’s a defense mechanism. Nonetheless, the hatred feels very real.
We’re about to dig deeper into where this hatred comes from, and spoiler alert: it has to do with the narcissist’s shadow. My name is Christina, and I help people overcome the effects of narcissistic abuse and start living their best lives. Today, we’ll explore this through the lens of Carl Jung’s model of the mind, specifically the Shadow Self.
So, what is the Shadow Self we’re talking about? According to the Jungian model, the shadow is the part of the mind that holds everything about ourselves that we see as negative. There’s a lot more to it, but for today, we can think of it as a box where you tuck away all the parts of your personality that you think are undesirable—so undesirable that you repress them, hoping they’ll just go away.
continue reading on the next page
Sharing is caring!