Latest / The Mental Healness Podcast / The conversational narcissist: why they always shift the focus back to themselves 🗣️🔄
Transcript
- 0:00How to deal with a conversational narcissist One of
- 0:03those narcissist that you that you come across that just always
- 0:07seems to want to talk about themselves like nothing else
- 0:10matters in this conversation or damn near in the world other
- 0:14than what they think about themselves.
- 0:16So the guardian posted this article right here.
- 0:18Y'all about he said. What's your favorite thing about
- 0:21me? So we all know a person who sees
- 0:24every chat as an opportunity to go on and on about themselves.
- 0:29And sometimes that person is us. You might be the narcissist,
- 0:33right? You might be the conversational
- 0:36narcissist in this state, in this situation right here.
- 0:38So appearance, it says name conversational narcissism.
- 0:43Kristen in 1979, a man conversing with himself or a
- 0:48woman 'cause women had we good, we good, we good, we're good
- 0:52here, y'all, we're good. A paradox then?
- 0:55Not really. It's just people going on and on
- 0:57about themselves under the cloak of a two way exchange.
- 1:01So I know a lot of people have dealt with people like this
- 1:04where you feel like it's a, it's a two party conversation.
- 1:07Y'all are having a general talk, y'all are having a chat.
- 1:11But everything in the conversation centers around
- 1:15them, how they feel, how they act, how they think.
- 1:19It's very little to do with you. They don't very soon as you say
- 1:24something about yourself, they're always doing that
- 1:27compare and contrast thing right where you'll just say, oh damn,
- 1:31man, I'm, I'm, I don't feel good today.
- 1:33I'm, I'm a little under the weather today.
- 1:36And they'll be like, well, I've been under the weather all week.
- 1:39I can't believe I made it to work today.
- 1:41I I can't believe I had to fight through all the sickness and all
- 1:45the illnesses to feel how I feel right now.
- 1:49I can't believe this rabble rabble rabble, blah, blah, blah,
- 1:52Boo Boo, Boo BBD. There's so many different things
- 1:55that go on in this situation and how it goes.
- 1:58Like conversational narcissist absolutely exists.
- 2:00Have you ever encountered 1 drop in the comment section say, Hey,
- 2:05Lee, I've dealt with one right here, say and somebody says
- 2:08right here, somebody asked the question.
- 2:10And if I do that, I'm a narcissist.
- 2:12So does mean, so does what does it mean when the you are the one
- 2:17that's centering the conversation around yourself is
- 2:20what this article is asking right here, right?
- 2:22What this, I guess somebody else is asking like if you consider
- 2:25yourself an empath, but you make the conversation about yourself,
- 2:29does that mean you're a narcissist?
- 2:31And the Guardian says not necessarily.
- 2:33Like when the sociologist Charles Deborah coined the term
- 2:36nearly half a century ago, he was using it to refer to
- 2:40defining characteristics of the attention seeking culture of the
- 2:42late 70s America. It's late 70s, late 70s America.
- 2:50What the hell? What about the, the, the, the
- 2:54late twenty 20s America 'cause this is my, this is 2026.
- 2:58I feel like conversational narcissists are huge right now.
- 3:01I feel like especially streamers and bloggers, right, Boo,
- 3:06especially I feel like especially like streamers and
- 3:09bloggers or whatever vloggers, they are conversational
- 3:12narcissists because everything centers around their lives and
- 3:16they get paid well, very well for it, right?
- 3:20Very well. Everything centers around
- 3:23literally their entire life. They had to film their entire
- 3:25life from get up from sun up down there to sundown.
- 3:28I guess, right? I don't watch, I don't watch
- 3:29streamers. I don't know, but from what I've
- 3:31seen, they have to stream all day.
- 3:34They're streaming all day pretty much for what I seen you.
- 3:36I just don't. It's I'm under the pressure that
- 3:38they stream a lot of their lives.
- 3:40So every conversation is about them.
- 3:42Their whole vlog, the whole thing, the whole channel is
- 3:44about them. So I feel like, I know the term
- 3:46was coined in the late 70s, but I feel like conversational
- 3:49narcissism, especially right now, it's rewarded.
- 3:52You get rewarded for centering the conversation around
- 3:55yourself. You get rewarded for it in
- 3:57today's society, right? People want to know people,
- 3:59especially if you have it. If people consider you a train
- 4:02wreck or you're entertaining, hell yeah.
- 4:04You want to see your life, especially if they think people
- 4:07are rooted. There are so many people that
- 4:08are out there rooting for your downfall that they will watch
- 4:11your channel every day until until the downfall happens
- 4:14there. Yeah, there are some.
- 4:15Yeah, there are literally some haters out here and they will
- 4:19like they going to keep hating until the end of the until they
- 4:22get the opportunity, until they get what they want.
- 4:24I'll say it like that. So back to the article.
- 4:28Suffice it to say he hadn't seen nothing yet.
- 4:31If I'm a narcissist, if I'm not a narcissist, then what am I?
- 4:35Does this have to be about you? Oh, so this is somebody going
- 4:37back and forth, right? But you're not necessarily a
- 4:41narcissist because you centered the conversation around
- 4:42yourself. There are a lot of survivors
- 4:45that I speak to that have centered the conversation around
- 4:47themselves because your, it's your journey, it's your survival
- 4:50journey. You're telling about your
- 4:51survival journey. And the truth be told, if a
- 4:54narcissist or a a toxic narcissist was to get a hold to
- 4:58this article, they could use it against you, right?
- 5:00Or you they could use the, they could use cut the term
- 5:03conversational narcissism to turn it on your head, to flip it
- 5:06on your head, right? They can say, well, you tell you
- 5:11when you telling your healing journey, when you're telling
- 5:14your story about your healing journey, you're really just how
- 5:17you centering everything around yourself and how you feel.
- 5:19So you call me a narcissist, but you're actually the narcissist
- 5:22here, right? It's actually you that as a
- 5:24narcissist, not me, not I, not I said the cat, not I said the
- 5:28cat. Back to the article right here.
- 5:34It would, it would be much OK. It'd be much easier, thanks.
- 5:38Often, listen right here. Often conversational narcissists
- 5:42are acting out of insecurity, yes, or because they lack basic
- 5:45social skills they had. They just have a hard time
- 5:48letting the spotlight off of them.
- 5:50Doctor Sue Varma, A clinical assistant professor of
- 5:53psychiatry at New York University, recently told
- 5:55HuffPost it's not necessarily a sign that they are self
- 5:57absorbed, though it may seem like.
- 5:59Yeah. So sometimes they might just be
- 6:01insecure. They might just lack basic
- 6:03conversational skills to let the let the other person get the
- 6:06word get a word in. They might again, but if they're
- 6:09a conversational narcissist, they might not care.
- 6:13Why would they want you to get a word in?
- 6:15Why would they want you to get a word in if they don't care about
- 6:18what's going on right here? And then it says conversational
- 6:22narcissism may be pervasive even when even commonplace, but it's
- 6:26not fine. Your your interlocutor.
- 6:30Oh, your interlocutor will find you draining, exhausting, self
- 6:34obsessed and very and very hard work.
- 6:36Does that make sense? That's another sign, a glazed
- 6:41look that signals you're not interested in what the other
- 6:43person is saying and simply waiting your turn to speak.
- 6:46So if you're not paying attention, if you're a
- 6:47conversational narcissist, it means you really don't care
- 6:50about what the other person is saying.
- 6:52You just you're look, you're it's kind of like you're
- 6:54counting down the seconds until they stop talking so you can get
- 6:57another word in. Like the you're looking at them
- 7:02with a glaze overlook because you're more worried about
- 7:05yourself and getting back to talking about you than you are
- 7:08about the conversation as a whole.
- 7:10Right, Because that can absolutely be true as well.
- 7:12Right there, the glaze look. So I need to cultivate an
- 7:17interesting look. No, not necessarily about the
- 7:19looks. Are there any strategies for
- 7:22focusing, for keeping the focus on yours truly?
- 7:25They're not strategies. They're defects.
- 7:27There. There is an established tactic
- 7:29of Boomer, Boomer asking, asking your interlocutor a question
- 7:33only to turn the tables and answer the question as if you
- 7:37answered it for yourself. Oh, that's very interesting.
- 7:39That's a conversational narcissistic tactic to answer a
- 7:41question, to ask a question, and then you answer it.
- 7:44I've never heard of Boomer asking.
- 7:45That's correct. That's an interesting term right
- 7:46there. That is a very interesting term.
- 7:49I don't think I've ever heard of that right there.
- 7:51Conversational narcissism is is the default mode of discourse of
- 7:55our times. And I'm winning at it.
- 7:57Yes, I'm just telling y'all conversational narcissism.
- 8:00I told you that's what I'm saying.
- 8:02I haven't read the the full article.
- 8:03I was literally just on here and I was just like, I'm
- 8:05conversational narcissism is very unique right here.
- 8:09You can't just walk in here and start talking about yourself.
- 8:11A conversation is not a monologue.
- 8:13And I think that might be the end of the article right there.
- 8:16It's unsettling time thought they talked about Trump called
- 8:19journalist, the journalist, the enemy.
- 8:21A year into a second term, it's clear this time around he
- 8:23treated us like one. Oh, so the Guardian is going
- 8:25against Trump. OK, but it's the Guardian.
- 8:28This Guardian article right here.
- 8:29It's called What's your favorite thing about me?
- 8:31How to deal with conversational narcissist.
- 8:33So how to deal with one just for me, if I were to tell you how to
- 8:38deal with a conversational narcissist or somebody who keeps
- 8:40making a conversation about themselves, stop talking to
- 8:42them. I know that this is there's a
- 8:46super. Yeah, that's a super simple way,
- 8:48right? It's just to stop talking to
- 8:49them. Or if they keep making this
- 8:52conversation about themselves, you just talk to them less.
- 8:55If you have to communicate with people who talk about
- 8:57themselves, just talk to them only when necessary or right
- 9:01there or conversational narcissists are extremely.
- 9:04I feel like conversational narcissists are extremely easy
- 9:07to manipulate as well. So if you have one of your
- 9:10living with one. OK, Well, Lee just said Lee, you
- 9:13just said narcissists are easy to manipulate.
- 9:14How? Because all you have to do if
- 9:16they're all look, a conversation with a narcissist really is
- 9:20about self flattering. They're they're flattering
- 9:23themselves. They're trying to flatter,
- 9:25they're trying to make themselves sound flattering to
- 9:26you and in in the same, in the same breath, do all this kind of
- 9:30craziness. But how you destruct their ego,
- 9:33agree with them. If they keep talking about how
- 9:35great they are, all you have to do is agree with them, give them
- 9:38a compliment and then give, then tell, ask them, ask what what
- 9:42you want from them. Like they're open for
- 9:45manipulation. Then if you can talk to a
- 9:47narcissist or conversation narcissist, whoever, they're
- 9:49open to be manipulated. Once you stroke their ego, once
- 9:53you give them a compliment or something like that, they're
- 9:55easy to manipulate. Conversation on Narcissists are
- 9:57just because they're extremely vain.
- 10:00They're just focused on themselves.
- 10:01So if they're hyper focused on themselves and the only thing
- 10:04that they care about is themselves, you see what I'm
- 10:06getting? You see, I'm going with this
- 10:07right here. That's all that matters to them
- 10:10in this situation is caring about themselves in this
- 10:12situation, right? And doing this So a conversation
- 10:15of narcissists is an extremely easy narcissist to manipulate.
- 10:19Yeah. Anyway, y'all check out the the
- 10:21article from the Guardian. If y'all like me doing this like
- 10:23a little breakdown, I turn on Google alerts about narcissism
- 10:25and toxic relationships. So I'm getting I'm doing a
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- 10:48Y'all. I've been going on for six
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