{"id":2583,"date":"2016-08-18T13:41:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T13:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=2583"},"modified":"2016-08-18T13:41:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T13:41:57","slug":"5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html","title":{"rendered":"5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most troubling aspects of being involved with a narcissist is their lack of traditional or so-called normal reactions to life.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, those who have been in a relationship a with a narcissist often describe a sense of non-reality or feeling crazy when interacting with them. This stems from the fact narcissists tend to live in their own perception of reality since they lack empathy. Therefore, their partner&#8217;s version of reality (true reality) does not exist to them.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"sky-man-person-night\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2599\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nNarcissists live in an amped up version of a world of simply &#8216;one.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>It is their world and no one else matters.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, their reactions or lack of reaction to typical emotional and societal norms can appear bizarre. It is even more confusing to an individual involved with a narcissist because at other times the narcissist can appear to actually &#8216;care.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Do not mistake that for true &#8216;caring.&#8217; The moments when a narcissist seemingly &#8216;cares&#8217; is because they are relating to their own life in some way, shape or manner. Or you are simply fitting into their life and the contentment they have will somehow imply they are capable of true emotion for others.<\/p>\n<p><em>5 things that mean nothing to a narcissist:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Tears:<\/strong> A narcissist can watch someone they love cry as if they are watching a comedy. Though crying can be considered a submissive act of a person in pain, a narcissist can watch without blinking an eye. It will not move them, they will not feel bad, and it will not make them back down. Tears mean nothing to a narcissist because they only understand their own tears and their own pain. Instead of being frustrated by the apparent lack of human condition, accept the fact that you may as well be speaking another language. Tears are not a language the narcissist understands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Your feelings: A narcissist is incapable of understanding another individual&#8217;s emotions. In fact, they have zero desire of understanding another person&#8217;s feelings. They want to maneuver a relationship with only their own feelings in mind. Therefore, their partner&#8217;s feelings are a nuisance. The common theme of narcissism is that they lack empathy and live in their own world. Why would anyone else&#8217;s emotions be worthy of listening to? They are the wrong emotions to the narcissist because the narcissist does not understand them.   <\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/pexels-photo-30042.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/374\/2016\/08\/pexels-photo-30042-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"pexels-photo-30042\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2600\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>3. What others think: A narcissist cares little to nothing of what others think. Therefore, the typical boundaries that exist in other relationships do not exist with a narcissist. An average person may not care if they upset their spouse, but they do care if their in-laws and family members are privy to their behavior and will resolve it so that it does not live outside of the household. The narcissist does not care. They will mistreat their spouse and show up at a family get together as if it is normal behavior and they have done nothing wrong. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Normal societal boundaries: A narcissist does not live within normal societal boundaries. They make their own rules. The types of family, societal, legal, ethical boundaries that keep most individuals from bad behavior are non-existent in their world. Or, they exist until the narcissist feels unhappy, angry, etc. and decides their own pain means they no longer have to follow any rules. This makes it even more challenging to deal with a narcissist. It&#8217;s difficult to manage a relationship with a person who does not care about anything or anyone except their ends justifying their means. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>5. The ones they love: A narcissist only loves a person as much as they are capable of loving anyone. It is not true love nor is it a healthy love. A narcissist may appear to love someone at the start of a relationship. In addition, when a narcissist is happy, they can often fool the person they are with into making it appear to be real love. However, make no mistake about it. Their lack of empathy makes it impossible for a narcissist to form a deep attachment of healthy love. Instead, what appears to be love is simply the narcissist happy with the individuals he or she has collected to make their world work. A narcissist does not need people. A narcissist needs only themselves.<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most troubling aspects of being involved with a narcissist is their lack of traditional or so-called normal reactions to life. Thus, those who have been in a relationship a with a narcissist often describe a sense of non-reality or feeling crazy when interacting with them. This stems from the fact narcissists tend&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,213],"class_list":["post-2583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-2","tag-divorce","tag-narcissism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist - How Great Thou Part<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist - How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most troubling aspects of being involved with a narcissist is their lack of traditional or so-called normal reactions to life. Thus, those who have been in a relationship a with a narcissist often describe a sense of non-reality or feeling crazy when interacting with them. This stems from the fact narcissists tend&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-18T13:41:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen Sheehy Orme\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist - How Great Thou Part","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist - How Great Thou Part","og_description":"One of the most troubling aspects of being involved with a narcissist is their lack of traditional or so-called normal reactions to life. Thus, those who have been in a relationship a with a narcissist often describe a sense of non-reality or feeling crazy when interacting with them. This stems from the fact narcissists tend&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html","og_site_name":"How Great Thou Part","article_published_time":"2016-08-18T13:41:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html","name":"5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist - How Great Thou Part","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-18T13:41:57+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-18T13:41:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2016\/08\/sky-man-person-night-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2016\/08\/5-things-mean-nothing-narcissist.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Things That Mean Nothing to a Narcissist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/","name":"How Great Thou Part","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Colleen Orme","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15","name":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","description":"Born and raised in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., I often call myself a southern New Yorker, much to the dismay of my true New Yorker buddies. Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2583"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2601,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions\/2601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}