Originally Posted by
trailmix 
Interesting perspective but sometimes I think that some views on narcissism and narcissists gives them too much credit.
I don't believe that narcissists (those with true NPD or just high up on the scale) are born having talent to be some kind of brilliant evil mastermind manipulators.
Sure, they get a lot of practice as they go, but some people are just better at manipulation than others. Some relationships take more manipulation than others.
I'm going to say there can't be a relationship with a narcissist that doesn't have unresolved problems in it, that's a given.
Yeah I agree about them not really being brilliant evil masterminds. It seems like most of it isn't quite intentional.
To me, narcissism seems to be a combination of different (toxic) defense mechanisms and the ability to see the type of people they work against (codependents)