When The Mirage Shatters: Understanding The Triggers Of Narcissistic Breakdown

The Psychology of Narcissistic Collapse: Unmasking the Inner Turmoil

Afshara
3 min readAug 27

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

When a person with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) experiences what they consider to be a devastating blow to their reputation, they are unable to maintain their grandiose and self-assured image. This is known as narcissistic collapse. This causes an emotional crisis that is characterized by irrational or defensive behaviour, violent outbursts, and verbal or physical aggressiveness.

On an internal level, a person with NPD experiences an empty sense of identity as well as feelings of rejection and abandonment. It may cause harm to both the NPD sufferer and the people around them.

Some of the Signs and Symptoms of Narcissistic Collapse

The symptoms of narcissistic breakdown might vary from person to person, however, they frequently consist of either one or more of the symptoms listed below:

  • Furious outbursts
  • Irritability
  • Escalated aggressive behaviour, whether physical or verbal
  • An increase in rejection perception
  • Defensive Mechanisms
  • Depressive Disorder
  • Revengeful demeanours
  • Isolation from others

When a narcissistic collapse happens, the affected individual often feels lonely and rejected and may become aggressive against others who are close to them. This is why, it would be more helpful if individuals with NPD and their loved ones gained more knowledge of narcissistic breakdown’s warning signs and symptoms.

Typical Causes of Narcissistic Collapse

Since narcissistic collapse is not an officially recognized condition, thus, there is very little research on this diagnosis. However, some mental health professionals believe that the collapse indicates the breakdown of the self.

According to Cromer, the events that initiated the collapse could be major or minor; it’s just they only need to be significant enough to indicate a loss of ego…

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Afshara

Ph.D. Candidate (Mgmt)| Educator |Content Writer | Writing about things that intrigue my curious mind | https://beacons.ai/afshara17