Introduction — Fragile People: A Secret Door to the World of Narcissists.

(Fragments from the forthcoming book)

When I began actively studying psychology, I had no idea that the main area of my interest would be narcissists. Of course, I knew who they were! Like everyone else, I thought they were egoists who only dreamed of exploiting good people everywhere. I think I also became interested in this topic because at some point in my personal therapy I came to the conclusion that I had a lot of narcissistic traits.

I read a lot of books that had the idea, “Be afraid of narcissists, they are everywhere and only dreaming of taking advantage of you. So arm yourself with knowledge against their vile character. And may power be with you!”

Reminds me of the anecdote about the good people banding together and beating up the bad people. But then I was still “psychologically young” and almost fell for the popular science prejudices about narcissism that could lead me to its demonization. But no! The deeper I studied the phenomenon, the more the characteristics of people with narcissistic disorders were revealed to me. And the more I felt interest, curiosity, and even sympathy for those whose narcissism was so wounded that they needed grandiose protections for their fragile selves. Moreover, I became increasingly convinced that narcissism is now ubiquitous, but it is not at all what we used to think of it.