My book, named "Pathological Narcissism and Emotional Vampirism: how to recognize it and protect yourself", has been written on the basis of my personal experiences following psychological abuse and traumatic events caused by relationships with partners suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
The essay, other than providing a historical background on the myth of Narcissus and explaining the ambivalence of the word Narcissism, describes the figure of the so called “emotional vampire”, or better said, the pathological narcissist, which I will refer to as NPD subject, suffering from a major personality disorder; I will list the diagnostic criteria aimed at identifying NPDs; at a later stage, I will examine the characteristics of those individuals who tend to become their victims as well as the emotional manipulation techniques used by NPDs.
In my work I will refer to personal experiences and facts, providing suggestions, strategies and useful tools to protect yourself against such individuals who may be, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation, men or women, heterosexuals or homosexuals, although NPDs are largely more common among men and not ubiquously.
I will address in more detail the issue of the so called Narcissistic Trauma (NT), which consists in a real post-traumatic stress syndrome characterized by specific symptoms. Last but not least, I will try to provide suggestions to deal with and hopefully overcome the trauma in order for the victims to be able to find the light again.