Suspect This Post Has a Lot to Do With Why this Research Is Being Targetted. Goes with the Wikileaks/Julian Assange Narcissism Inquiry
Never Forgive, Never Forget: The effect of the valence of autobiographical memories on the vengeance tendency of individuals with vulnerable narcissistic traits: A pilot study https://www.proquest.com/docview/2827985517?fromopenview=true&pq-origsite=gscholar&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals
As you may or may not know, my nonprofit clearly states that Anonymous pretends to pursue justice but shows complete silence and turning a blind eye against injustice against women in many cases, including stonewalling, denying, discrediting and other features of clear instances of hate crime against women. This shows the hypocrisy of their movement as based in vulnerable narcissism only existing to serve their ego ends and secure political favors out of psychological abuse and terrorism.
This study shows how those in Anonymous view women, especially any female partners or any-gendered partners in non-tech they view as sufficiently "submissive" and receivers of their contempt due to the narcissistic contempt for whatever they define to be powerlessness (in this case, lack of interest/access to tech). It reveals the hypocrisy inherent and that the vulnerable narcissist is not pursuing justice, but is actually extremely abusive to partners, competitors, and those who refused to "sweeten the deal" (experienced by the vulnerable narcissist as "getting the short end of the stick" though they were never entitled to it to begin with).
Examples of kompromat, gaslighting, withholding and complete silence on the issues of hate crime against women (often willing participants in these hate crime based attacks if the vulnerable narcissism has extended into the sphere of inceldom, in fact) are given as especially hypocritical features of Anonymous.
Crossposting audience: This is a new subreddit at r/zeronarcissists, the first anti-narcissism subreddit based on scientific evidence as far as I can tell. Please give us a follow at the original sub! We are new and growing.
Vulnerable narcissists showed greater endorsement of vengeance-related assumptions
The current study aimed to explore the degree to which the nature of autobiographical interpersonal memories influences the intensity of the revenge tendency in a sample of 67 subjects with a higher level of vulnerable narcissistic traits, who were randomized in three conditions. The main hypothesis was that negative memories (represented by social situations in which the individual has been discredited) would lead to a greater endorsement of vengeance-related assumptions, while positive memories (represented by moments when praise was received) to a lower vengeance tendency (as measured with the same specific instrument in both cases).
The research aims to help the victims heal by understanding the issue.
Such results may also help shift the focus on what can be done for defending the victims of possibly inevitable vengeful behaviors manifested by narcissists.
Desire to eliminate a perceived (whether or not it is actual is to be determined; many narcissistic injuries result from undue entitlements being taken away) injustice can mean trying to cause the original perpetrator suffering or educating them through assigned punishment. āLearned their lessonā is a key signature of the vulnerable narcissist in narcissistic injury based narcissistic rage, and does not in any way reflect any lesson worth learning (abuse is never ok).
Vengeance broadly involves the desire to punish an individual who, in one way or another, has caused an offense to the person who may end up initiating this behavior (Brown, 2004; Ho et al., 2002). It represents a maladaptive way of reacting, at a behavioral level, when facing unfavorable interpersonal situations (Bachman & Guerrero, 2006). The activating event can lead, through cognitive processing, to feeling anger, an emotion that can stimulate a faster transition to the vengeful act (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006; Tripp & Bies, 2009). In addition to the subsequent momentary relief and quick gratification of the wronged individual, literature shows that several motivations can be listed which may prompt retaliatory acts. The most important would be the desire to eliminate a perceived injustice (Bies et al., 1997; Solomon, 1994), but also achieving a cost-benefit balance (Frijda, 1994), causing the initial perpetrator suffering, or educating them through the assigned punishment (Baumeister, 1997).
Revenge tendencies are more common in women.
Revenge tendencies are more common in women (Clemente & Espinosa, 2021)
Vulnerable narcissists can definitely appear empathetic, and if the wounds resonate with their own issues with broken self-enhancement may actually have genuine empathy for those in narcissistic injury that they understand. Similarly they may have more envy, shame, and anxiety which shows more conscience.
Those with vulnerable narcissistic traits are characterized by lower levels of positive emotions and energy (Akhtar & Thomson, 1982; Kohut, 1977). At times, they may even appear empathetic towards others (Besser & Priel, 2010). Anxiety, depressive states, envy, shame, the fact that they are more concerned with the way others view them all outline the picture of vulnerable narcissism (Czarna et al. 2018; Weiss & Miller, 2018; Zajenkowski & Szymaniak, 2021). The presence of an insecure attachment style has also been noted (Green & Charles, 2019). Experiencing such emotions predisposes individuals with these traits to difficulties in emotional self-regulation (Miller et al., 2011).
When things donāt go according to a vulnerable narcissistās expectations, whether or not they are reasonable expectations, hostility results often resulting in serious confusion for the victim.
Even if the noticeably higher hypersensitivity to criticism (Kohut, 1977; Wink, 1991), associated with increased distress in potentially self-threatening social situations (Besser & Priel, 2009), may occur at the same time with specific grandiose tendencies (Kernberg, 1986), it appears to be an effect of a low or a very fragile selfesteem (Weiss & Miller, 2018). Moreover, it also appears against the background of the very feeling of entitlement (Dickinson & Pincus, 2003); when these individuals believe that various events did not go according to their expectations, hostility can be observed in interpersonal situations (Weiss & Miller, 2018).
Important peopleās feedbacks and opinions are for the vulnerable narcissist a way to regulate self-esteem.
Compared to the grandiose facet, important people's feedback and opinions (as long as they are positive) are, for the vulnerable narcissistic individuals, the key to maintaining and regulating their self-esteem (Besser & Priel, 2010).
Narcissism and vengefulness are linked. Vulnerable narcissists in particular glorify revenge, in some cases to the point it takes on a religious feature. Non-narcissists alternatively view it as vain, destructive, and not able to solve any problems, but to simply worsen them.
The literature attests the link between narcissism and vengefulness (Brown, 2004). Considering the strength and the steadiness of personality disorders in general, there is cluster of early maladaptive schemas which guide the narcissistic personality, the "Entitlement" (ET) schema being not only present, but even specific to the narcissistic personality disorder (Young et al., 2003; Zeigler-Hill et al., 2011).
Grudges show that self-enhancement has been taken and the individual is trying to achieve self-enhancement again
This characteristic, fused with a superiority complex, leads to a need to get privileges and to do what they desire at any cost in order to obtain control and power (Brown, 2004). These individuals tend to hold grudges because of their need to repair the perceived damages to their self-esteem (Roark, 2012). The degree to which these people forgive and move on is usually relatively low (Exline et al., 2004), an aspect which could be relevant in connection with revenge.
Negative reciprocity is an eye for an eye and leads to a downward depressive spiral. Positive reciprocity is Iāll scratch your back if you scratch mine and leads to an upward positive spiral. They are not the same and negative reciprocity has dysfunctional and maladaptive features and usually follows a bout of intense anger or is a result of someone in intense, asymmetrical anger.
Moreover, such acts are more likely to be enacted when individuals subscribe to a negative norm of reciprocity, which implies the assumption that others have malicious intentions (Eisenberger et al., 2004). One could thus also presume a link with narcissism given the suspiciousness, characteristic of paranoid personality disorder, which is a feature also found in individuals with narcissistic traits (besides, based on this suspiciousness, paranoid personality disorder predisposes per se to vengeful acts; APA, 2013). This agreement with the negative norm of reciprocity can also lead to dysfunctional negative emotional consequences, such as intense anger (Eisenberger et al., 2004).
Excessive retaliatory behavior denied and continued is the sign of narcissistic abuse
The retaliatory ones may be varied and can all end up taking forms of what has come to be called "narcissistic abuse", a particular type of psychological abuse, with complex aspects (Howard, 2019; Ponti et al., 2019; Green & Charles, 2019). In the United States alone, it is estimated that approximately 158 million individuals suffer from narcissistic abuse (Bonchay, 2018). From spreading rumors, bullying (Elshout et al., 2017; Yoshimura & Boon, 2014), to emotional abuse (Howard, 2019), manipulation with highly unfavorable effects on the people they interact with (Hightower, 2017) or even physical abuse (Lambe et al., 2018), individuals with narcissistic traits may engage in a multitude of harmful behaviors.
Denying basic needs is a facet of torture. Narcissistic abuse is characterized by denial of needs.
The partner may no longer receive any credit or appreciation. In addition to trying to make the partner have doubts about their identity, such behavior gives the narcissistic individual power, control, but it also seems to facilitate the growth of their own self-esteem and, above all, of their entitlement (Howard, 2019). Furthermore, the same goals can lead the person with narcissistic traits to resort to the "silent treatment" or, in other words, periods in which the partner is deliberately ignored, thus ignoring and invalidating their needs.
Gaslighting is a way for the narcissist to deny any reality that threatens their entitlements in regards to their partner and victim (which should be differentiated from their needs; they deliberately withhold the needs of their partners, often as a facet of torture.)
A strategy specific to individuals with narcissistic traits, which may be observed throughout any relationship, is "gaslighting", a dangerous form of psychological abuse that consists in manipulating a person to the point where they begin to doubt their own reality, which becomes defined by the initiator of this behavior. More often than not, it involves denying the abuse, manipulating events to disorient the victim, using false information to make the victim question how their memory works etc. Victims become very confused, disoriented and dependent on the abuser on which they begin to rely (Hightower, 2017). Lines like "I never said that", "I think you're imagining things", or "You're overreacting" are typical of this type of communication (Norton, 2021).
Low self-control is clearly present in narcissistic rage if they feel their fragile self-esteem has been attacked
"Narcissistic rage" is also an aspect observed when dealing with individuals who possess the traits in question. This is an intense, explosive anger, out of proportion to the activating event, usually caused by attacks on these individuals' fragile self-esteem (even by minor remarks; Krizan & Johar, 2015). It is characterized by low self-control, emotional/psychological abuse directed at the partner, essentially being the manifestation of aggression in individuals with narcissistic traits (Howard, 2019), thus raising a risk in terms of the extent to which physical violence can be reached as well.
Revenge is used to stop an increasingly fluctuating self-esteem. In the campaign of revenge, the focus on the return of the object of narcissistic self-enhancement is observed. The taking away of undue/unlawful entitlements is seen as the taking away of needs and they attack due to the perceived injustice of undue/unlawful entitlements being taken (the conflation of sex with a particularly attractive women with human rights by the incel community is a good example of an undue/unlawful entitlement being treated like a need, and in a disturbing fashion helps us see inside the mind of a rapist.You may hear them say things like, āIāll never get to have sex with her again,ā or āNot being able to have sex with her is tortureā which are cognitions of a rapist when they act to remedy their āinjusticeā.)
Even more so in the case of vulnerable narcissism, there is a highlight on the fluctuating self-esteem that can predispose to an increased inclination towards revenge (Miller et al., 2011). This relationship between internalization and externalization could be explained by the mentally established desire to repair the perceived injustice.
Vulnerable narcissists are especially prone to suppression, which is essentially just stonewalling, censoring and denying their own emotions inside their own minds
Shame is another internalized emotion that can stimulate aggressive acts (Mennin et al., 2005). Suppression, as an emotional self-regulation strategy, is specific to individuals with covert narcissism (Baek & Hyun, 2008).
Vulnerable narcissists are extra possessive and jealous and may accuse their partner of things they are not doing out of a combination of unfact-checked paranoia and undue/unlawful entitlement to receive more of something they know they arenāt inherently due (the use of kompromat is good example, especially to extort political favors or sex)
The hostility shown to be present in vulnerable narcissism could also be explained by individual characteristics such as possessiveness (Rohmann et al., 2012) and jealousy (Ponti et al., 2019) in couple relationships, the latter being associated with revenge (Boon et al., 2009) and occurring due to certain insecurities in the social environment.
Narcissists tend to be ungrateful; they feel they deserve anything extra they are given and punish the absence of this extra, rather than be thankful for it when it is still there.
Firstly, narcissistic traits have been found to have an inhibitory effect on the feeling of gratitude (Solom et al., 2016).
Narcissistic injury clearly affected recall; before and after learning they were not potential partners, vulnerable narcissists changed their scores of the pleasantness of a telephone call. Before finding out they were not good potential partners, they viewed it as pleasant. After they viewed it as unpleasant. This shows unreliable witness by vulnerable narcissists if they donāt stand to get what they want from someone, especially in terms of undue deal sweeteners such as sex, undue access or corrupt political or career favors.
The study conducted by Rhodewalt and Eddings (2002), investigating the effect of feedback valence on the recall of a telephone conversation with a potential partner in a sample of subjects with narcissistic traits, showed that the said conversation was later described as significantly more unpleasant after the participants learned that they had been rejected as potential future partners. Thus, the influence of the information from the environment which is threatening to the self in the case of narcissism is once again emphasized.
Vulnerable narcissists tended to feel a sense of injustice when an undue/unlawful entitlement was revoked
Exline and colleagues' (2004) study showed a link between narcissistic participants' sense of entitlement and a greater tendency to attempt to redress a perceived injustice when they recalled a negative social situation.
Depressive rumination was the expression of shame if it was not the injustice aggression response.
Ghim and colleagues' (2015) study observed a specific mechanism consisting of an internalized shame, leading to rumination accompanied by anger and, ultimately, to relational aggression. The valence of memories brings a variability in the impact they can have on well-being (Houle & Philippe, 2017; Milyavskaya et al., 2013; Philippe et al., 2012).
Vulnerable narcissists did not grow vengeful when they were reminded of memories of social acceptance, but they did again stoke feelings of vengeance when they were reminded of memories of social rejection.
social rejection predisposes to aggressive tendencies, but not the memories of social acceptance. However, the degree to which there is a connection between positive memories (in general) and revenge tendency may still be unclear.
Vulnerable narcissists upheld revenge as a worthy and useful thing, as opposed to those without, who found it morally repulsive, destructive, pointless or vain and in general a way to avoid solving the problem and in fact making it worse.
individuals high in vulnerable narcissism more prone to seek revenge or, more specifically, to have rather positive beliefs about revenge. In other words, it aimed to explore the degree to which their potential tendency to retaliate through, for example, abusive behaviors could be activated even just by recalling such interpersonal events, without them necessarily taking place in vivo.
Population; Romanians
The current study included 67 Romanian subjects (49 women) whose ages ranged between 20 and 54 years old (M = 27.12; SD = 8.37). They were selected from 150 respondents previously assessed for eligibility. They were given Google forms.
Test of narcissism; specifically of maladaptive sort
The vulnerable narcissism trait was measured using a translated version of The Maladaptive Covert Narcissism Scale (MCNS; Cheek et al., 2013).
Problems with the experiment; abusive and even illegal verbiage was minimized as ādispleasingā interpersonal communication, when in fact undue and deliberate discrediting is itself a form of vulnerable narcissistic revenge and is a documented and studied facet of hate crime (discrediting as revenge in hate crime). Therefore, injustice reactions to these words are arguably warranted in some situations where they are undergoing narcissistic abuse via undue discrediting as revenge.
In the first condition, an operationalized version of a past event involving a displeasing interpersonal behavior, using words such as "insulted" or "discredited" that were chosen based on the hypersensitivity to criticism characteristic of individuals with narcissistic traits and especially vulnerable narcissism (Baumeister et al., 1996; Besser & Priel, 2010; Rasmussen, 2016).
Words like "annoyed" or "angered" were avoided so that the participants would not feel very strong negative emotions.
These words may have been more useful to detect undue and excessive response.
Test of vengeance
As a measure for the dependent variable of this research, a translated version, from English to Romanian, of the Vengeance Scale (Stuckless & Goranson, 1992)
Example of a vengeance cognition (Code of Hammurabi, BC text)
Some relevant items include "I believe in the motto Ā«An eye for and a tooth for a toothĀ»". After performing a reliability analysis, the alpha Cronbach value in the case of the current sample was .95.
Pursuit of due entitlements, such as human rights, is not the same as pursuit of undue entitlements such as sex with an attractive woman who is viewed as a shared resource like water and food, but a similar view is not given to women the entitled individual does not find attractive, showing its absurdity and rapist features of cognition. Therefore, a tendency to seek actual justice is not the same as a tendency to seek revenge due to perceived injustice and should not be conflated.
Revisiting positive memories can be a way to āquenchā vengeful thoughts
These findings add important points to the literature and have the potential to denote that positive memories can "quench" some narcissistic tendencies, making this type of narcissism even more covert especially, of course, with regard to the revenge proneness.
Even when not aggravated, vulnerable narcissists can be expected to think of revenge in a positive and sometimes even near religious light as opposed to in a destructive, pointless, vain and unconstructive light.
However, we suggest that individuals with vulnerable narcissism may nevertheless be inclined to relate positively to revenge, regardless of whether they are in a neutral context, in which they have not invoked an unsatisfactory past event.
Gaslighting can be a form of revenge, and gaslighting can also be seen as a way to discredit, showing the irony of how vulnerable narcissists perceive the very acts they met out to victims as real injustice when they themselves receive them
Next, vengeance can take many forms, from psychological abuse to physical abuse. In either case, the negative repercussions on the victims are undeniable. Taking an example, gaslighting is very characteristic of narcissistic people (Howard, 2019) and represents a major source of distress for those who become victims to this type of psychological abuse.
Need to control, dominance, isolation and threats are a link between vulnerable narcissistic abuse and particularly oppressive and controlling partners
As previously stated, these can be part of a longer series of persistent abusive interpersonal acts, which include inclinations towards control, dominance, criticism, threats, isolation, all of which affect the mental and physical health, as well as the social functioning of the victims (Bonechi & Tani, 2011; Follingstad & DeHart, 2000; Ro & Lawrence, 2007).
Vulnerable narcissists may mock their victims and may try to minimize and gaslight about real physiological disorders that result from this abuse such as cPTSD, showing their remorselessness in terms of they feel they have a right to horrifically abuse their partners.
In addition to these feelings, anger, guilt or shock can be added as consequences of the potentially abusive behaviors in question, which are seen as components of what is called "narcissistic victim syndrome". On a more scientific level, very similar symptoms are found in Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), which can occur due to persistent abuse, making sufferers exhibit hypervigilance, dissociative symptoms, flashbacks (much like what can be seen in the classical PTSD), suicidal thoughts and somatic issues, to only name a few (Louis de Cannonville, 2019; Resick et al., 2012).
The paper recommends couples therapy to get to the root of abusive vulnerable narcissistic behaviors. This is not an appropriate ask if the individuals are not voluntarily associated and in a relationship, in the case of an incel and their victim for example, however.
Couple therapy could address abusive behaviors and search for the source and the mechanisms lying behind them, also exploring the degree to which autobiographical memory plays a role.
Those with vulnerable narcissism are most likely to dread a flawed appearance in front of others and may punish others who have conquered these neuroses, trying to install their sense of norms on another who has resolved them.
those with vulnerable narcissism may be more likely to avoid a flawed display in front of others. given the orientations towards a high neuroticism and sense of shame (Besser & Priel, 2010; Hendin & Cheek, 1997; Miller et al., 2010).
Caution in expectations and manner of communicating with vulnerable narcissists is required. Excessive responses to undue issues often is the result of encountering a vulnerable narcissist without being aware of that fact until one has been subjected to the unbelievable over nothing. Ideas such as ādonāt piss people offā do not hold with vulnerable narcissists and demonstrate victim blaming, as vulnerable narcissists can become angered by something as simple as a statement that shows an unbearable indifference.
The results offer both a shadow and a light, signaling the need for caution both in expectations about communication with individuals who possess these traits, and in a therapeutic setting which would include them.
Help to victims who suffer due to their toxic behaviors is the main solution. Justice is not vengeance, and justice should not be conflated with vengeance. Enabling and victim blaming should not be conflated with justice either. Justice is justice, vengeance is vengeance, and enabling and victim blaming is enabling and victim blaming.
Moreover, they could also underline the need for help offered to the people from the close social environment of those with vulnerable narcissism in overcoming the negative mental health effects of the latter's toxic behaviors, which could have as foundation a desire to restore justice.
Cultural factors
Religious choice may play in. Vengeance is a feature of many religions other than Christianity and people from more Christianized countries may be more attracted to vengeance-based religions despite their upbringing due to vulnerable narcissism.
Cultural vengeance, such as ostracizing an individual for resolving neuroses about appearances (i.e., being willing to give an imperfect appearance to remain relatable and vulnerable to others in a healthy vulnerability), can be observed in many cultures and societies, incentivizing vulnerable narcissism and making the resolution of vulnerable narcissistic tendencies feel unsafe or wrong sometimes resulting in extremely abusive pushback when attempted.
Russian women in particular report a āStay hot or be murderedā culture when they try to reconcile themselves with feminist self-love therapeutic society, which is horrifying to say the least. However, many vulnerable narcissists, especially those in the incel community, valor their suffering in this regard as a merit of Russian women over other women, despite the fact it shows ongoing victimization of narcissistic abuse.
Essentially, it may signal victims already used to vulnerable narcissists, and therefore prime partners for vulnerable narcissists.
Other countries that have given similar reports include Mexico, Spain, France, etc.