Question
How prevalent is narcissistic abuse?
Answer
Narcissistic abuse is not necessarily something that is measured, because a lot of people do not report this type of abuse and a lot of narcissists are not diagnosed. Therefore, I am not sure in terms of numbers, how to quantify narcissistic abuse.
Although, I would say it is relatively common especially because of the ways that cis hetero relationships are historically structured. Therefore this behavior tends to be normalized. Also, that is why I think that this is diagnosed more commonly in men because what is considered to be masculine behavior often does align with a lot of the signs and symptoms of NPD.
All in all, I would say this type of abuse is fairly common, although I do not know if having NPD is fairly common.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Understand and Treating Trauma Caused by Narcissistic Abuse, presented by Tiffany Hall, MS, LMFT
