How is the narcissist different from other toxic people?

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]What is narcissism? I get this question a lot. What is narcissism? How is it different from other issues? I'm Jennifer with Resilient Life Therapy.

[00:00:10]I've been a therapist for 30 years and I help people learn to navigate the crazy and the destructive dynamics with the narcissist.

[00:00:18]So, narcissism can look like a lot of other issues and a lot of other issues can look like narcissism. So, it can be incredibly confusing and I do get this question a lot. What is the difference?

[00:00:29]What is narcissism? How is it different from other things?

[00:00:33]At its core, the difference with narcissism is the lack of empathy.

[00:00:40]That is the core and that bleeds into everything else. It is the lack of the ability to have true emotional reciprocity, the back and forth, the give and take, the emotional language in a way that truly matters. Narcissists do understand what other people feel.

[00:01:01]They they they can tell what the other person is feeling. However, they don't use it for connection. There's not the empathic connection piece. They use it for information.

[00:01:12]There is that lack of shame. There is the lack of accountability. There is the lack of that resonance with what the other person is experiencing. It is never about us. It is always about me.

[00:01:27]And at its core, that does have to do with the broken empathy. In my book, I talk more in depth about this. I talk about brain anomalies with the narcissist that actually are different in those narcissist brains. There is something very different going on with how they process emotions, emotional dialogue, um emotional information, all of this stuff having to do with empathy.

[00:01:53]So, I hope that this is helpful. I would love to hear from you in the comments section. If you do have a narcissist in your life, make sure you check out my book Surviving the Narcissist. It is now also in audio version. It has a tremendous amount of helpful information in there that is going to help you navigate these dynamics in a much saner and calmer way. And if you have not yet already, make sure you follow or subscribe for a lot of great content on narcissism.