Russ Federman

Article

Narcissistic individuals have developed the capacity to inflate, expand upon and intensify their strengths. They learn to lead with them in such manner that their experience of feeling small or vulnerable is masked by the presentation of just the opposite. The implication here is not that the narcissist's strengths are a sham; but more, that the narcissist is strongly invested in his or her strengths because they are employed in the service of protecting or buttressing the self against the experience of insufficiency. Temporarily, all are fooled by this compensatory counterbalance, including the individual behind the narcissistic mask.