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6 Quirky Little Pieces to Blow a Narcissist’s Cover

The devil’s in the details

Alison Acheson
3 min readSep 28, 2022
Photo by Marija Zaric for Unsplash

Wondering if someone in your life is a narcissist? I am not a medical expert, but after some experience, here are…

A few off-beat clues that may add up

Professional/work life

This one might be obvious, really. But it’s a good place to start…

This person has chosen a career or major pastime that involves being seen and heard and most likely admired or listened to… so being a teacher, a preacher, a musician — someone in the public eye. What came first: the career choice or the narcissism? Like politicians, the person might enter the arena filled with good intentions, and then be corrupted. But somewhere in the soul is the Narc urge…the typically unloved childhood, that led this individual to believe they are not lovable. Sad. But you can’t spend your life trying to fix this person. Just know that when you meet a person who is “public” — under scrutiny, and often up in front — be aware; keep your eyes wide open and don’t attach until you know them better than well. While they are actively bringing you on board (and much of their action is — alas — subconscious, so they are not aware, even though we might like to imagine they are!) they will be busy being “nice guy” — and nice…

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Alison Acheson
Alison Acheson

Written by Alison Acheson

Dance Me to the End: Ten Months and Ten Days With ALS--caregiving memoir. My pubs here: LIVES WELL LIVED, UNSCHOOL FOR WRITERS, and editor for WRITE & REVIEW.

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