The unaware child experiences their narcissistic family like any other. If you ask them about their childhood, they will tell you that it was great. Faultless. Ideal. They love their parents dearly, and they were lucky to have such a wonderful childhood.
After a brief moment, however, they stare off into the distance. A crease appears between their eyebrows. They open their mouth to speak, then hesitate.
“I mean,” they finally begin. “It wasn’t exactly amazing all the time. But it could have been worse. I’m lucky.”
And with that, the creased eyebrows fade, and the person who grew up in a narcissistic family returns from their far-off state of dissociation. Balance has been restored in their cognitively-dissonant mind.
So what just happened? Did this person have a good childhood, or not?
Herein lies the surface-level experience of wha...
