 you're, you're in a corporate environment, right? And you, you suspect that the people you're working for, the authority figures are your boss, your immediate boss, your team leader. This is pathological narcissism. We've already established this is a perfectly possible chance that he or she is. What steps do you take? Are you talking about removing yourself from that situation from that environment? Or how would you deal with that narcissist? How would you deal with that person? Because narcissists impose a shared fantasy in all types of relationships. Not only intimate, not only intimate, but in friendships, in the workplace, in church, the army, you name it. Whenever the narcissist comes across someone who can serve as a source of supply, or someone who can serve as an intimate partner of some kind, the narcissist imposes a shared fantasy. And in the shared fantasy, he is God, and you're the worshipper. In the shared fantasy, he's in control, and you are coerced in the shared fantasy. So the principles are identical in all the... So the advice is the same. No contact. No contact is a set of 27 strategies that I've designed in 1995. And it's still the best advice there is. The second best advice, if you cannot go no contact, you have children with a narcissist, you can't lose your job for some reason, you can't move away from. So if the second best advice, which is not something I came up with, I regret to say, but it's a great advice, is gray rock. To gray rock means to render yourself uninteresting to the narcissist. A bad source of narcissistic supply because you're stupid. Or you are incapable of curiosity. You're not a wordy adversary. Not a wordy object to be owned. Narcissists don't have adversaries, they're gods. What do you mean? What adversaries? They're not adversaries, they're gods. Some contemptible, inferior people may consider themselves to be the narcissist, adversary, or enemy. But that's because they are deluded. They realize the omnipotence, omniscience, and perfection of the narcissist, they would have never considered themselves as enemies, because to be an enemy, you need to be equal. So not no, not as an enemy, but as an object to be owned. So if you are a rock, so you have to minimize your problem here, Sam, is if you're in a corporate environment, and I have worked in a few. Don't attract attention to yourself. Minimize yourself. I mean, Robert Greene talks about this in the 48 Laws of Power as well about never upstaging the master. That's essentially the is what you're talking about. If you're compelled to say, if you're forced to say, no, my first advice is to disconnect, resign, literally. Because it can end really badly. It can end really badly and can affect your future career. Narcissists, if they are mortified, narcissists can be narcissistically injured. It's when you challenge, undermine the grandiosity in some way, a self-perception or self-image. You cause them discomfort by doing this. But they can also be mortified. Modification. Narcissism. Modification is if you shame the narcissist inadvertently even in public. The narcissist is giving a presentation, and you raise your hand and say, I'm sorry, but this slide is wrong. You've shamed him in public. That's modification. You have become his mortal enemy. Well, he doesn't have enemies, but you become something to be quashed and crushed and destroyed forever and ever. Amen. Confined to the outer oblivion of deep space. He's going to pursue you. He's going to pursue you for years. He's going to pursue you in all future careers. Narcissists are exceedingly vindictive when they're exposed to modification. And this is known as the external solution of modification. It was first described by Libby. Not by me, by Libby. So when a narcissist is ashamed or humiliated in public, in front of an audience that matters to him, he's going to ruin your life period. He's going to be, he's going to focus on this. This is going to be his laser force. So it couldn't extremely badly. The danger is in any environment, whether it's an academic environment or in a work environment, if you want to engage and you want to ask questions and you're curious, you're always, you could put your foot on a grenade metaphorically with a narcissist very easily. Yes. And unfortunately, the incidence and prevalence of narcissists, pathological narcissists, is increasing. These are studies, studies by Twenge and Campbell, the newer generations, people under the age of 25, under the age of 30 by now. They're much more narcissistic, they're five times more narcissistic. Do you think social media is fueling narcissism? Do you think? No, I think it's the opposite. Social media caters to narcissists. Okay. I think social media is a reaction to narcissistic needs. Yeah. But I think the restructuring of society enhances or rewards narcissists. For example, people are now self-sufficient. Technology rendered them self-sufficient. Technology is also some kind of womb matrix, if you wish, because technology is all encompassing, all engulfing, all pervasive, the Internet of everything. And technology provides instant solutions and in this sense, technology is omnipotent. It's omniscient. It's what God is, it's Godlike. So, if you own technology, if you control technology, remember core idealization. If you own technology, then you're as good as technology. And if technology is Godlike, then you're Godlike. That's why everyone in this dog nowadays is an expert about everything. People argue with medical doctors and with professors and with, why? Because they have access to Wikipedia. So, that is an excellent thing, right? Sorry? A little knowledge is the dangerous thing, the classic phrase in English language, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, because it gives the purveyor of that knowledge a feeling of power. Yes, I think there is a phenomenon that I call malignant egalitarianism. Malignant egalitarians, we're all equal. We're all equal by virtue to having, possessing access to the same resources. So, you can surf the Wikipedia, I can surf Wikipedia, we're equal. And so, people would not hesitate to argue with me about diagnosis that I invented. And they would tell me that I don't understand the diagnosis. And I better watch, listen this, he knows better or she knows better. And there's a diagnosis that I invented. And so, technology empowers people in the wrong sense and renders them more narcissistic, that's for sure. But I think technology was a reaction to the rising tide of narcissism. And we're going to see more and more and more and more narcissistic technologies, because narcissism is a vicious, vicious cycle, vicious circle. It is self generating, self assembling and self empowering. In short, the more narcissists there are, the more they structure society, so as to reward narcissism. And the more narcissism is rewarding, the more narcissists there are. It's a feedback loop. So, reinforcing feedback. Do you know in July 2016, New Scientist, which is a science magazine. New Scientist came up with a cover story, July 2016. And the cover story said, parents, teach your children to be narcissists. Yeah. Hello everyone. That's a short clip from an episode with Professor Soundback Neen, where we talk about everything to do with narcissism. If you want to watch the full episode, it should be right about here. And the subscribe button should be right about somewhere down here. A big shout out and a big thanks to everybody that has subscribed so far. I really appreciate each and every one of you. Have a great Christmas. Happy New Year and I'll see you all in January. Thank you so much.