Let’s contemplate the idea of seeing narcissistic abuse as a magic trick, a hypnotic sleight of hand. Here are a couple of movie examples for you to consider:
In Aladdin, Jafar the nark is sooo tall, looming over the sultan, who is sooo small in comparison. Jafar uses his snakey staff to hypnotize the sultan into submission so that he can rule the kingdom by marrying the princess.
In Back to the Future, Biff the nark is physically big; he uses his strength to bully George McFly into weakness and submission.
Both villians have issues with rage (as all narks do).
In both movies, the one who is being bullied is a co-narcissist… trained through coersion/abuse/manipulation into the toxic dance. They have issues with suppressing their rage.
The youthful Prince Ali (who falls in love with the sultan’s daughter) and Marty (George’s son) become the heroes who break the spells.
They set the sultan and the father free from the villains. The kingdom and family are also set free.
Maybe narcissists are spellbinders. Maybe our youthful spirits are spell-breakers. Bubble poppers. Heroes.
Heroic bubble poppers! I kind of like the lightheartedness of that idea!
Spell-breakers are truth tellers. Mindful. Confident. Willing. Courageous. Not always popular, by any means. But amazing beings who are resilient, gritty and powerful in their own right.
After writing the above, I searched for the scene where the spell is broken in Aladdin because I had forgotten the details… and what do you know?! It’s a classic “beat the nark” power move that negates Jafar’s power! Ha!
Here’s the scene on youtube (spoiler alert!)
Enjoy!
Happy D!
#breakthespellatJBL #exitthetrance #endthetoxicdance
After just watching the YouTube video of Aladdin’s heroic (and clever) “transformation”/defeat of Jafar, it’s clear that part of the “way out” of narcissistic abuse sometimes amounts to courageous & consistent application of (as your insightful blog-post pointed out): mindfulness, confidence and telling the truth. Thank you for another inspiring post, Debbie!
Over and over and over and over… most importantly retraining the mind afterwards!