Is Every Bad Relationship “Narcissistic Abuse”?

Anupama Parameswaran recently opened up about what she describes as Narcissistic Abuse in a past relationship. From love bombing and gaslighting to control, trauma bonding and losing one's identity, her interview has started a larger conversation about toxic relationships and emotional abuse. But when does a difficult relationship become Narcissistic Abuse? When does influence become control? When does compromise become manipulation? And are we increasingly using psychological and clinical labels to describe what may sometimes simply be the ordinary, painful problems of living? I look at Anupama Parameswaran's account of Narcissistic Abuse, William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer, Thomas Szasz's The Myth of Mental Illness and his idea of “problems in living,” and the fascinating failed marriage of Salman Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi. This isn't an argument that emotional abuse, coercive control or genuinely destructive relationships don't exist. It is a question about our growing tendency to diagnose every selfish partner, every controlling behaviour, every failed relationship and every unpleasant ex using the vocabulary of pop psychology. Was it Narcissistic Abuse? Or are some things better understood simply as human beings behaving badly in relationships? | Anupama Parameswaran | Narcissistic Abuse | Narcissism | Toxic Relationships | The Kevin Paul Show | Kevin Paul | Write to me: thekevinpaulshow@gmail.com My official social media accounts: https://linktr.ee/thekevinpaulshow Credits: Outro track by Tom Fox: @tomfoxcatalog