Are there people in your life who dominate every social situation or work meeting? In their presence, do you feel ignored, insignificant and even humiliated? If so, you may be dealing with a narcissist. Extreme narcissists make up 5 per cent of the population. Chances are, you have a friend, partner, mother, or boss who is a narcissist. Narcissists do not empathise, there is no give and take and they never admit mistakes. Narcissists deplete the confidence of those around them in order to stay on top.
If you have one in your life, you need help.
With more than thirty years of experience studying personality disorders and treating extreme narcissists, Dr Joseph Burgo has developed a useful guidebook to help you defuse hostile situations and survive assaults on your self-esteem should you ever find yourself in a narcissist's orbit.
Dr Burgo also examines our selfie-obsessed culture, and suggests that excessive social media activity may be breeding narcissism.
He asks us to look at our own behaviour to identify the instances where our own occasional bouts of narcissism may be fuelling discord with friends, colleagues and family.