Table of contents:
- What is a covert narcissist
- How to Recognize a Covert Narcissist First
- How to spot an undercover narcissist
- How is a narcissist in disguise in love
- Characteristics of a covert narcissist
- General characteristics of a covert narcissist
- Characteristics of a narcissist undercover at work
- Characteristics of a narcissist undercover with friends
- Characteristics of a narcissist undercover with the family
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Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by a sense of grandiosity and excessive admiration for oneself, as well as the need to be admired by others. These people tend to believe they are superior to others and, as a result, they think that they should be treated in a special way.
They are also people who have a lack of empathy with others and do not consider that they can make any mistakes, so they do not accept criticism and failures in any way. They deal with the rest of society in an arrogant way and tend to use others for their own benefit.
From Psychology-Online we want to let you know a little more about the characteristics of the disguised narcissist so that, throughout your life, you can learn to identify and recognize these people.
You may also be interested: Perverse narcissist: characteristics and how to treat it Index- What is a covert narcissist
- How to Recognize a Covert Narcissist First
- How to spot an undercover narcissist
- How is a narcissist in disguise in love
- Characteristics of a covert narcissist
What is a covert narcissist
Usually covert narcissism is considered a trait that occurs within the clinical picture of borderline personality disorders, narcissistic personality disorder and passive-aggressive personality disorder.
While a narcissistic person as such demonstrates himself first, without trying to hide his personality, a disguised narcissist is like a wolf in sheep's clothing. These people want others to believe that they are their friends, that they care about them while, in reality, they just want to take advantage of them and take advantage of their friendship.
How to Recognize a Covert Narcissist First
You have to bear in mind that, while a classic narcissist can be seen coming leagues, as they would say in literature. An undercover narcissist is a master of deception and lies.
That is why it will not be easy to recognize it almost immediately since, before trying to take advantage of us, it will spend some time making us believe that we are real friends.
How to spot an undercover narcissist
While open narcissists act more obviously and demonstrate the lack of remorse they have when it comes to taking advantage of others, the covert narcissist is able to modify his behavior by trying to bring it to a socially accepted one, thus ensuring that people do not realize your intentions.
While it is true that they lack empathy and remorse, the undercover are capable of apologizing if this can make them take advantage of you later. They are people who present themselves to the rest as great people, supportive and who care about those around them, however, all these actions have the end of obtaining something for their own benefit.
Even if they act like humble people, you will notice the fact that they want people to admire their feats and elevate their ego.
How is a narcissist in disguise in love
Narcissistic people are initially going to be charming people, pretending that they are honest and altruistic people when, in reality, they just want to get something from the other person.
In all relationships, they are based on a perfect and ideal movie love, where the other person must be at their level. Narcissists seek to share their love relationships with people who have high status in society, but who, at the same time, are easy to take advantage of.
They are extremely distrustful and suspicious people, so it is not surprising that they never fully trust their partner and that they show a continuous desire to control them. In addition, since in their mind they are completely perfect, at the moment in which a disagreement occurs between both members of the couple, they will never accept part of the blame. They will always blame the other.
On the other hand, it should also be noted that, due to their personality, they can humiliate the other person in front of the rest of society to, in this way, show that they have control over the relationship.
Here you will find How a narcissist in love acts.
Characteristics of a covert narcissist
Here we will see how a covert narcissist acts in different areas of his life:
General characteristics of a covert narcissist
- They have a false humility: they pretend to be the victims in order to get the maximum possible attention from everyone around them. Their theatrical humility is nothing more than a way of showing that they only care about themselves.
- Lack of empathy: while they need other individuals to care about them, in their case they are not capable of acting with compassion and they act ignoring the concerns of others.
- Immature responses: a narcissist will never accept criticism of his person, so he will respond to it as if it were an offense. Although they will try to hide their anger to show that the opinion of the other does not matter, the narcissist can respond in a passive-aggressive way.
- They simplify the needs of others. The only one who has real problems, or who has to satisfy their needs immediately are themselves. So they will try to minimize the needs and problems of the people around them as much as possible.
- Inability to listen. Do not try to tell your problems to a disguised narcissist because at the least he can, he will turn the conversation back to him, because he will never consider the interlocutor important enough to have to listen and pay attention to him.
Characteristics of a narcissist undercover at work
- They seek to be the center of attention of their peers. You will always see the narcissist talking to a partner, even knowing that this can affect the work and performance of the other person.
- They long to take all the credit. It can already be a teamwork that, the narcissist will make other people believe that the achievement of said objective has been achieved only thanks to their work and effort.
- They constantly make use of lies. You will be able to devise the greatest stratagems and tricks in order to achieve what they propose, whether from a sale to a promotion. Here you can see what mythomania is in psychology.
- They have no problem humiliating and ridiculing others if this is going to act to their advantage.
- They use sabotage as a key method of preventing others from being better off than they are.
- It is not surprising that, on certain occasions, a narcissist can push other colleagues to carry out unethical behaviors in order to obtain the benefits and objectives sought.
Characteristics of a narcissist undercover with friends
- They are extremely controlling. They cannot conceive that their "friends" want to be and meet other people than themselves. Therefore, they will try to prevent this from happening in all possible ways, reaching for it to infer between said relationships.
- They have a high concern for their image. They will want to be the person who stands out from other friends, so they will take exaggerated care of their image and appearance. It is not surprising that the narcissist spends a large sum of money, even when he does not have it, to carry things superior to the rest.
- Their behavior is unpredictable. They move away and approach others at will, without apparent cause and without explanation.
- As we have mentioned before, they show indifference to the needs and desires of others. For this reason, the relationships with their "friends" are one-person, where for their part there is no reciprocity towards others.
- They are excellent actors and, to gain the trust of others, they tend to imitate their traits and behaviors so that an idea of affinity with them is created in the other person, so that it is easier for them to establish a relationship.
Characteristics of a narcissist undercover with the family
- Usually people with a covert narcissistic personality seek perfection, so they want to show the rest of society how ideal their family is.
- If we talk about narcissistic parents, they are characterized by having a behavior where their needs have to be satisfied by the minors since, for them, their children have two functions:
- Maintain the image of a good family, where the sons or daughters pay attention to their parents as a result of the good education they have given them.
- Satisfy their needs, assuming responsibilities and behaviors that are not typical of their age since parents are very concerned with themselves.
- Narcissistic parents do not have in mind to help their children solve their problems, but consider that the infant himself is the problem. For this reason, they often present themselves as the victims in parent-child relationships.
- They also tend to overload their sons or daughters to achieve everything that they propose since, they use their descendants as a mode of self-progress, where if the child achieves something, it is only because they have allowed it to do so.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Characteristics of a disguised narcissist, we recommend that you enter our Personality category.
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