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5 Signs of Covert Pathological Narcissistic Abuse

Manya Wakefield
5 min readAug 21, 2019

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Covert Pathological Narcissistic Abuse is a hidden campaign of invisible, psychological violence.

Covert Narcissism or Vulnerable Narcissism is one of the two sub-groups of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Unlike the Overt Narcissist, a Covert Narcissist skillfully conceals their grandiosity. For this reason, they are sometimes called Closet Narcissists.

A Covert Pathological Narcissist is the proverbial “street angel/house devil”. They use a false persona to cloak their malevolent nature. In public they are the picture of a likable, principled individual but private they subject their target(s) to orchestrated campaigns of psychological, emotional and even physical abuse.

Covert Pathological Narcissists are cunning and calculated in how they inflict harm on their targets. They are often considered to be the most dangerous kind of Narcissist because they operate in stealth. They are intentional and make sure that their target(s) will not be believed if they tell their story.

“Anxiety is a messenger and it comes to alert you to a clear and present danger in your life.”

Covert Pathological Narcissistic Abuse intersects with the Dark Tetrad: sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Because Covert Narcissists are so Machiavellian, sometimes targets of the abuse don’t realize that they are being manipulated until there…

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Manya Wakefield
Manya Wakefield

Written by Manya Wakefield

Internationally recognized coercive control expert. Founder of Narcissistic Abuse Rehab (2019) and the Coercive Control Legislation Global Database (2020).

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