Stop the Misuse: Understand the True Meaning Behind Calling Someone a ‘Narcissist’

Nisha Arya Ahmed
5 min readFeb 24, 2024

The dangers of casually calling someone a ‘narcissist’, without truly knowing the meaning.

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Is it only me who’s seen a rise in using the term ‘narcissist’ in day-to-day conversations? It seems like when I have conversations with people on matters whether it’s relationships or work matters, there seems to be a trend of loosely using the term ‘narcissist’.

And in these conversations, I start to think ‘Do people know what they are saying?’.

What Does Narcissism Really Mean?

Before you freely use the word ‘narcissist’ in your conversations, especially when referring to people — it is crucial to distinguish between narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

Narcissism: A Trait We All Share

It may be a shock to you but we’re all narcissists. Narcissism refers to behaviours of wanting attention or admiration, being self-centred, and also lacking empathy. In mild form, these characteristics are present in many individuals. It’s not to say you are like this 24/7, but you sometimes contain this characteristic, for example, occasional self-importance or the need to seek validation from others.

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