For a narcissist to thrive, they need two simple elements: willing sacrifice and weak boundaries. However, how a narcissist interacts with the world depends heavily on the environment they choose to live in.

Narcissistic gratification can take many forms: sex, money, attention, flattery, appreciation, compliments, service, and submission. As the narcissist navigates their community and the wider world, they learn to exploit what is available while feigning compliance with the rules and norms of their environment.

This can take the following forms:

The Narcissist at School

Narcissists begin by flaunting their grandeur in groups of friends. They start by noticing someone at school or work whose body language reveals low self-esteem. The narcissist then showers this person with attention and begins their charm offensive. Anyone who suffers from low self-esteem and lacks meaningful relationships will feel euphoric and flattered by this “lucky break.”

The narcissist keeps this person in their life as a “reference point” for their sense of grandeur, exploiting their new friend’s lack of self-confidence to feel superior. The narcissist also ridicules, doubts, judges, and attacks their friend to further diminish them, thus reinforcing their own sense of grandeur.

In a school setting, the narcissist can attract many like-minded individuals and form a friendship group. The person with the highest status in the group becomes the narcissist’s second-in-command, while the others follow them as a source of narcissistic gratification, content simply to belong to the group.

The narcissist is in his own world

Whether it is a narcissistic family, an extremist group, or even a yoga retreat, the narcissist who “controls” his own world derives most of his narcissistic energy from his immediate surroundings.

In this private world, the narcissist sets the rules and gradually drains the energy of the rest of him. The narcissist remains the center of attention, while others revolve around him.

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In a narcissistic family, the husband/wife is “number 2,” and children fill other roles. The same applies to any other private world. The narcissist maintains control by imposing “rules,” berating, attacking, and doubting other family members.

The narcissist’s private world legitimizes his addiction to narcissistic energy, as the position of parenting or leadership is an important one. However, the role of a leader is to support his or her circle members in their growth. The leader must put the interests of others first and take responsibility for ensuring the group’s cohesion and continued prosperity. In the case of a narcissist, his only interest is satisfying his ego.

Staying in the narcissist’s circle for a long time is harmful to health. The narcissus is stubborn, domineering, and thirsty to satisfy his ego, and offers little criticism, ridicule, humiliation, and other forms of abuse in return. If anyone stays in the narcissist’s private circle for a long time, including children and the spouse in the narcissist’s family, he or she will eventually develop psychological and physical illnesses.

The solitary narcissist

A solitary narcissist is a person who has been freed from his dependency on institutions and social groups, and therefore needs to search for sources of satisfaction for his narcissism individually.

With the lack of accountability from his group members, and the lack of group standards to which he adheres, the negative psychological aspects inherent in the personality of the solitary narcissist soon emerge.

So, the world of the solitary narcissist is the wider world and cyberspace. He usually browses dating sites, makes matches and flings, using sex and personal “experiences” to satisfy his narcissism.

Because the narcissist does not depend on a small group of people to satisfy his narcissism, he devalues ​​people and always has multiple sources of gratification at the same time.

The isolated narcissist moves between social gatherings, cities, and groups, and cycles in a cycle of exaltation, belittlement, and abandonment with greater speed. He moves from one relationship to another, from one group to another, and from one place to another, quick to communicate and exploit, and quickest to disappear.