Editor’s Note: Not everything Peterson says is worth listening to, but this talk is 100% on the mark. From my own experience in recognizing narcissists and dealing with them, I can confirm that his advice here is the most effective solution. And it has to be this way, because Narcisists are predators upon the emotions of others and are psychopaths, that is, they do not think there is a moral law that will judge them; even if many of them appear only to be sociopathic. They are also psychotic, since they do not perceive reality as it is and lack all ability for moral self reflection. And yes, alas, there is no possibility of salvation for them because they have no God but themselves.
+ + + + + + +
The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
+ + +
+ + +
Excellent, accurate explanation and advice; I learned these lessons the hard, long way but I learned them and found liberation and victory. Everything he says here is pure truth.
Sartre almost expressed it perfectly: Hell is other narcissists.
So is a narcissist truly not redeemable? In other words, not even God can ever bring about a change in them? Is a narcissist forever unable to receive God’s grace?
These are questions from a spiritual point of view that cause some Christians to keep on hoping for the narcissist’s conversion.
Also, most of these presentations focus only on the narcissist partner. It’s not always a partner who is the wrecking ball in a family.
God can always work even a psychological miracle. But barring that normal grace cannot save these individuals, not because grace is powerless in its normal form, but because grace by nature works with good will, and narcissists have no good will. To put it another way, grace is the light in the Eastern horizon, but narcissist are always looking West, because they deny apriori that there is an East, and because when they look West, they see themselves as they imagine themselves to be.
Are narcissists the tarres (wheat and tarres) or goats(sheep and goats) spoken of in the bible?
You do not have to be a narcissist to go to Hell. But narcissists are inveterate sinners because they do not even recognize that they are subject to the moral law in their desire to control others.
My only question, which I have never been able to reconcile, is whether narcissists are demonically possessed. Or simply evil.
Your thoughts most welcome, Brother.
I think men who refuse God’s grace are sufficiently capable in themselves to be evil, without having to attribute their state to demonic possession. However, the Saints say that if a man goes beyond a certain limit of evil, he is likely to become possessed and then go mad. However, if a man arrive at such a state, it is still possible to realize his plight and turn to Christ, Our Lady and the great Saints to save him. Anyone who confidently calls upon Christ Jesus or Our Lady will not be lost, if he follows through and keeps pleading and change his life.
And how do those of us, praying on the sidelines, know if the narcissist is genuinely pleading and changing his life? There is often observable “progress” but the narcissist is notoriously in for the “long con”.
Appreciate your input.
I cannot say, because I am not a psychologist.
Wow the timing! I quite literally had an epiphany (praise God) less than 2 weeks ago about a narcissist in my life. I have lived through so much pain and torture my whole life. Then suddenly in the midst of a very difficult time, the Lord revealed to me that I am dealing with a narcissist. I had never put the two together. It quite literally lifted a huge weight from me. Finally realizing that it wasn’t me at all, but them. Thank you for sharing this!