Thank you for a well-written piece. I find the topic of narcissisms very complex! And also the topic of abuser/perpetrator versus victims.

I wrote a text for my second book about good intentions (will post it here on Medium) - how the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. The one having good intentions, seeing themselves as good - can do a great deal of harm. There does not even need to be malicious intent.

It is also interesting how we all internalize parts of people in our surrounding, growing up, being unaware of it, and then project them out onto others - we do that - being perpetrators and/or victims.

We all manipulate, some of us put our manipulative skills frequently to work.

I see these dynamics also between clients and therapists/coaches, students and teachers, employees and bosses... everywhere where there is power involved.

Lack of empathy is yet another complex topic. Is it about "the other" experiencing the empathy? Or the one having it - feeling it? In many cases I think it is about lack of communication. We live in a society where we don't talk about "the horrible things" or about the darker sides of ourselves - as we are all so scared of being cast aside and excluded - fearing what others will think of us...

I am not critical to your text - I do agree with most of it - I just came to think about other layers in here...