Number 9: Threatening to leave, threatening to pursue support in Family Court in order to destroy the husband financially.
Threatening to leave—threatening to pursue financial support and family court to destroy the husband financially: to take the house, to take the cars, to take the kids, to take the dog—whatever it is, to take everything. Right? So it’s kind of a scary threat because, of course, the prospect of divorce and dividing material assets is scary, right? It makes sense that people would be afraid of that.
Now, she might also threaten to tell all his friends and family that he’s a loser—tell the kids he’s a loser, so a lot of dissemination about his ostensible loser status, right? So this is actually a fairly effective method of manipulation because this threat of hurting him financially and damaging his reputation is, again, very strong. It’s a powerful threat, and it’s used to eliminate scrutiny. It’s really a distraction technique. Usually, we see this threat issued when the husband has some sort of criticism of the wife, and, of course, that criticism is shut down right away after this manipulation tactic is deployed.
A Book: Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men.
Number 10: Thoughtless, no gifts on special days, or gifts that show little thought
There are many examples of thoughtlessness in these types of relationships. We see, like, not getting gifts on special days like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or the husband’s birthday, or buying gifts that show little thought. If the husband expresses any type of negative sentiment about these gifts—like if he dislikes the gifts—he gets a strong reaction.
So really, he’s discouraged from doing that. We also see here that in terms of being thoughtless, the wife inserts herself into every purchase that the husband makes. Say, for instance, the husband wants to buy a new smartphone; the wife might say, “What are you getting for me? If you’re getting that for yourself, I’m not gonna carry around this old phone.” If you’re getting a new one, also, the wife can leave the husband out of important plans—like vacation plans or dinner plans or something like that. “Oh, I didn’t know you wanted to go there; you never expressed an interest in that before.”
So really, just kind of self-centered. Now, the paradox about this lack of thoughtfulness is that the husband can see the thoughtfulness that he would want. It’s the thoughtfulness that the wife directs at herself, so the husband sees it all the time; it’s on display clearly in this relationship, but no part of that is for him. So, in a sense, the wife looks capable; she knows how to be thoughtful, but she’s choosing not to invest any effort or caring in the marital relationship.
So those are the ten characteristics of a wife with narcissistic traits. I know whenever I talk about topics like narcissism, there will be a variety of opinions. Please put those opinions and thoughts in the comments section; they always generate interesting dialogue. As always, I hope you found this description of narcissistic behaviors to be interesting.
Read More: 10 Signs of a Husband with Narcissistic Traits.
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