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Additionally, the narcissist is simply unable to behave in certain ways, even if he wanted to. He cannot get attached, be intimate, persevere, be stable, predictable, or reliable because such conduct contradicts the Emotional Involvement Prevention Measures (EIPM). This is a group of destabilising behaviours intended to forestall future emotional pain inflicted on the narcissist when he is abandoned or when he fails.
If the narcissist does not get attached - he cannot be hurt. If not intimate - he cannot be emotionally (or otherwise) blackmailed. If he does not persevere - he has nothing to lose. If he does not stay put - he cannot be expelled. If he rejects or abandons - he cannot be rejected or abandoned.
The narcissist anticipates the inevitable schisms and emotional abysses in a life fraught with gross dishonesty. He shoots first. Indeed, it is only when he is physically mobile and besieged by problems that the narcissist has a respite from his maddeningly nagging addiction to Narcissistic Supply.
This is the basic conflict of the narcissist. The two mechanisms underlying his distorted personality are incompatible. One calls for the establishment of a PNS and for the continuous gratification. The other urges the narcissist not to embark on any long-term project, to move, to disconnect, to dissociate.
Only others can provide the narcissist with his badly needed doses of Narcissistic Supply. But he is loath to communicate and to associate with them in an emotionally meaningful way. The narcissist lacks the basic skills required in order to obtain his drug. The very people who are supposed to sustain his grandiose fantasies through their adoration and attention - mostly find him too repulsive, eccentric (weird) or dangerous to interact with. This predicament can be aptly called The Narcissistic Condition
next: The Double Reflection Narcissistic Couples and Narcissistic Types
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