Covert Narcissists: 7 Quotes to Empower Their Victims

Helping you make sense out of an experience that makes no sense at all

Paul Ryburn, M.Sc.
7 min readFeb 15, 2022
haunting red face of a covert narcissist
Image from Pixy — CC0 Public Domain

“How could they do this to me? How could they do this to me???

It’s the distressed call of a victim of a covert narcissist in the wild. I know it well. It’s a call I’ve made many times.

The complete and utter confusion and frustration. The feeling that your life has been turned upside down.

Had it been the most common type of narcissist — an overt, malignant one — you would’ve seen this coming. They give off an “it’s all about me” vibe and will tear you to pieces the minute you say anything that contradicts their greatness.

Your person, however, just kind of blended in with the crowd. They were sweet and funny; they didn’t really draw attention to themselves. Yet they turned out to be just as capable of damage as their malignant cousins.

I’ve written about narcissism (especially its covert variety) extensively on here in the past. In this post, I want to do something different. If you’ve been a victim of one of these people’s abuse, I have 7 quotes that will uplift you, empower you, and help you understand who they are.

Understanding the facade

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Paul Ryburn, M.Sc.

I write about writing, ideas, creativity, homelessness, intuition, spirituality, life lessons. Ex-college teacher Twitter: @paulryburn